'You shouldn't need a private company to fill out paperwork for you'

'Is paying to file your taxes a scam?'

Alex Falcone at Time

Paying for the "privilege of paying taxes is bonkers," says Alex Falcone. Americans "shouldn't have to pay a private company to complete legally mandated paperwork," and "shouldn't have to fill out paperwork at all. The government has most of the same information you have." The "stalwartly frugal among you might be among the small percentage of Americans who file for free." The "fact that the toll collectors allow some people to pass their gate for free is part of the scam."

Read more

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'A tariff meltdown for American chocolate makers'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

President Donald Trump "seems to think border taxes are a Willy Wonka golden ticket for the U.S. economy," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. But "what does it do to America's artisan chocolate businesses when huge duties raise the cost of cacao?" Whatever Trump "thinks he's doing with his global tariffs, this is the bitter reality for American chocolate businesses." He is "messing with prices and supply chains on a whim, and it isn't as if the U.S. can repatriate the raw material."

Read more

'Magical thinking about a miracle mineral'

Zeynep Tufekci at The New York Times

If anti-fluoride "bills pass, what will occur is no mystery," says Zeynep Tufekci. More "children's teeth will rot, which will cause pain, social stigma, impaired development and lifelong health problems, and raise the costs of their medical care." The "worst effects will fall on disadvantaged children, the kids who don't have access to frequent dentist visits." The "effects of all this will emerge slowly but surely, over many years, and persist long after this administration."

Read more

'Is the Supreme Court about to make police violence much worse?'

Robyn Nicole Sanders at Slate

The "Constitution does not arrive at the scene of the crime in time to stop the killing," says Robyn Nicole Sanders. But an "underexamined Supreme Court case, Barnes v. Felix," could "close the door on the postmortem reckoning, leaving the Constitution as a distant echo." It will "determine how the law defines accountability in the exercise of state power — whether the Constitution arrives at the scene of police violence to cradle the dying or wraps itself around the one who pulled the trigger."

Read more