On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:02:42 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> The funny thing is that many of these people are very good at doing
>> math.
> 
> Math /= arithmetic. ;-)

I know.  And what I see my mom do isn't simple arithmetic.  If it were, I 
could handle it (because I'm fairly good at arithmetic).

> (Seriously - why the hell does anybody in the modern era need to be
> fluent at long division? Sure, you should know how it works. But being
> able to finish 50 problems in an hour? That just seems pointless. Get a
> computer!)

I often wondered that as well when I was in college; similarly, I never 
understood the need to understand physics formulae as a computer 
programmer.  If I was writing a simulation for an airplane, I was going 
to have reference materials available for the things that *weren't* in a 
standard function library to make sure I got them right - because it 
sucks to design an airplane that doesn't actually fly because you figured 
the wing cross sections wrong in the simulation or got the airflow 
dynamics equation wrong.

>> and then she sits down
>> to do the taxes, and just gets completely frustrated at all the
>> numbers.
>> 
>> I think it is some sort of a block.
> 
> No no - *everybody* gets confused as hell by taxes. ;-)

What confuses me more is figuring out the right number of deductions for 
withholding.  I'm not keen to give the US government an interest-free 
loan with money I could be *doing* something with (like earning 
interest), but having to pay in requires more discipline than I have to 
save some money to pay what's owed.

> [Why do they make them so complicated? Is it a conspiracy to ensure you
> get them wrong and hand over more money than you're supposed to??]

You might be onto something there.  Here in the US, maybe it's to ensure 
the future employment for all the employees of the IRS.

Jim

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