not very good it's not been a good day
 	
 	
 		
 
 		
 
 		i went
 		i turned mine in about twelve hours early at noon
 	
 	
 		i don't know i finished mine up about eleven and left it here with Carolyn so i hope she's turned it in
 	
 	
 		are you eating
 	
 	
 		i just  go ahead i'll stop eating i just barely got home from the university i just barely got home from the university
 	
 	
 		no it's okay
 		say what
 		
 
 		tell you what we can do is uh i can punch the uh one then we after five minutes when the uh uh voice comes on we can talk all night if we want
 	
 	
 		okay go ahead
 		fire away
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		uh i love the irony of uh
 		talking about this subject on April the fifteenth
 		but um i'm afraid i'm i'm i'm probably in the minority i i actually don't think that we uh pay too much in this country
 		um um particularly uh in this part of the country where um i guess
 	
 	
 		i agree with you
 	
 	
 		i do have a uh a bone to pick with um uh the way taxes are distributed
 		um i just finished fuming at the fact that we pay an eight and a half percent sales tax and no income tax when the income tax could have been deducted from a federal form
 		and the sales tax can't i think that's regressive and uh
 		um
 		it's kind of dumb
 	
 	
 		i hate the eight and a half percent sales tax but then on the other hand i don't mind that it's only on
 		you know things that aren't
 		like  groceries and that it's not on them
 	
 	
 		well i mean nobody taxes groceries do they where
 	
 	
 		oh yeah they do
 		in Arizona
 	
 	
 		is that right
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		we have a pretty low income tax i mean pretty low tax rate here oh i think that the sales tax they just got to do something about it
 	
 	
 		right it's
 	
 	
 		but that's the politicalness of trying to not create any new taxes
 	
 	
 		right
 		but i guess when i hear when when i see the comparison between the United States and uh any other western country
 		uh their their rates are like uh forty one forty two and ours are like thirty six thirty seven
 		you know if you compute it as a percentage of total income all taxes lumped together we actually do pretty well
 		there's there's there's no other country that's that is taxed as low as we are
 	
 	
 		well and i still think having lived in Europe for awhile you know  the difference in living conditions are certainly well worth uh what we pay for it
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		uh-huh
 		i'm i'm not sure i understand what you mean
 	
 	
 		well i mean i think i was in Germany you know for several years
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		and i'd a lot rather pay taxes here and have what we have than have to live there
 	
 	
 		oh you mean lowest end of living in spite of lower higher uh yeah i suppose that's true yeah um probably more less so now than it was ten years ago or whenever but
 	
 	
 		higher taxes yeah
 		still is that way to some extent
 	
 	
 		
 
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		i think the other problem is you know it's it's easy to complain about taxes because they're something you theoretically can do something about
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		but i look for example and you you're not in the quite in the same situation but like school taxes for me biggest bargain in the world i wish i didn't have to pay  any more for for to my physicians in a year than i had to pay for all of my school taxes
 	
 	
 		right
 		right
 		yeah
 		yeah since uh
 		i send my kids to parochial school that's uh
 	
 	
 		yeah that that's probably a little tougher on you
 	
 	
 		it's not it's not quite the bargain that a guy would think
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		but i mean i pay them gladly that's a decision i think it's a dumb decision on our part because
 		countries like Canada and England and Germany do perfectly well with a uh two tract system in which religious schools coexist with secular schools for the with the same tax money
 		but uh i mean that's uh that's the way the Americans want to interpret it i guess that's all right
 		but yeah i and if i were uh when i was single and again when i'm retired i will not mind paying uh what it takes to keep the schools good that's always been a high priority you know
 	
 	
 		no i think that's just you though
 	
 	
 		
 
 		i do think yeah that's true i think in places i think in places like California people are beginning to find that in in areas that are fairly well off
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		if you add the um uh people of various sexual persuasions and those who never intend to marry and those who are retired and those who are um just looking for fun they people with families turn out to be such a small minority that they can't get the tax bill passed no matter what happens
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and uh  there are big sections of the country where people with children of school age are such a small minority that they can't get anything done
 		that seems um
 		um like a cultural lapse i mean people were always used to be willing to ante up for the schools they
 	
 	
 		of course i think with the graying of America we're gonna see that problem in lots of places
 	
 	
 		right yeah people would rather um increase the fire department and cut down the schools  because it means more to them
 		but i think it's sad
 	
 	
 		or build roads
 	
 	
 		selfish and shortsighted yeah
 		well
 		uh