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The technology allows visitors to scan a QR code at the entrance upon arrival.

Tax Freedom Day Underestimates How Long You Work For The Government

Authored by Jonathan Newman via The Mises Institute,

Tax Freedom Day, calculated by the Tax Foundation, “represents how long Americans as a whole have to work in order to pay the nation’s tax burden.”

It appears that they stopped publishing this in 2019, but others have picked up where they left off.

The idea is that the income earned by taxpayers over a certain proportion of the year goes to Uncle Sam.

In 2025, that date was April 16th.

But the burden of government is much larger than the amount we pay in taxes.

The government spends much more than it collects in taxes, diverting valuable resources away from where they would be used in the private market economy, subject to the profit and loss test of the market.

The difference is made up by new government debt.

Much of that debt is purchased by the Federal Reserve with new money, resulting in price inflation, exacerbated income inequality, booms and busts, and financial fragility.

The cost of government is much more than what we pay in taxes.

Rothbard suggested a measure of “total government depredation on the economy” that involves starting with net national product (like GDP but takes capital depreciation into account) and deducting all government spending at all levels, including transfer payments, government officials’ salaries, and the salaries of those employed by government enterprises.

Rothbard considered all government activity as a depredation.

In 2025, this total fiscal burden was $11 trillion.

Net national product was $25.7 trillion, which gives us a ratio of 42.7%.

When we turn that ratio into a date on the calendar, we get June 5.

In short, while Tax Freedom Day is mid-April, Rothbard’s measure of the government’s fiscal burden reveals that Americans don’t truly start working for themselves until June 5, over seven weeks later.

Tyler Durden Wed, 04/15/2026 - 14:40

One of the hardest-hit areas is the visual development unit at Marvel Studios, the award-winning team responsible for shaping the signature look of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“The products have become more insidious and more extractive, exploitative,” said Dan Fox, 38, who hosted a phone-free house gathering.

Pakistani military officials traveled to Iran earlier Wednesday to try and nail down arrangements for additional talks in Islamabad as soon as this weekend.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex could earn $2 million from speaking engagements and appearances alone.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex could earn $2 million from speaking engagements and appearances alone.

The arrest came nearly 40 years after Jessica McClure fell 22 feet down an 8-inch-wide well as a baby, resulting in a harrowing, 58-hour rescue that riveted the nation.

Alexia Nepola and Adriana de Moura told Page Six they're standing by Hochstein amidst her serious legal troubles.

Alexia Nepola and Adriana de Moura told Page Six they're standing by Hochstein amidst her serious legal troubles.

The threat reportedly came after Apple had determined that both Grok and X were in violation of Apple’s App Review Guidelines, which prohibit overtly sexual material.

At least four candidates are jockeying to replace Eric Swalwell.

Iran War Leads To Fluoride Shortages For Some US Water Utilities

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Multiple water providers have lowered the amount of fluoride they add to water for millions of Americans, amid shortages stemming from the U.S.–Iran war.

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works said on April 13 that it is reducing the level of fluoride from 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L) to 0.4 mg/L.

The move, officials said, was driven by disruptions to the supply chain caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. A key Israeli supplier, specifically, has been struggling to meet demand.

“This is an adjustment driven solely by supply availability,” Matthew Garbark, director of the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, said in a statement.

“We remain committed to providing safe, high-quality drinking water.”

Some 1.8 million people in and around Baltimore, the most populous city in Maryland, are served water by the city of Baltimore utility.

Fluoride, a mineral, is put in water as a preventative for tooth decay and cavities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adding 0.7 mg/L.

WSSC Water, which serves 1.9 million people in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland, said earlier in April it would be adding only 0.4 mg/L because of “nationwide supply chain disruptions.”

Hydrofluorosilicic acid, an important compound for water fluoridation, has been hard to source amid the war, including from a supplier in Israel, the utility said. Israel is one of the world’s top exporters of fluorosilicic acid, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States is among the world’s top five importers of the product.

“This is a temporary adjustment driven solely by supply availability,” Ben Thompson, WSSC Water’s director of production, said in a statement.

“We remain committed to maintaining safe, high-quality drinking water and will restore optimal fluoride levels as soon as supply conditions stabilize.”

In Pennsylvania, the borough of Lititz told its water customers in March that it had to halt fluoridation for a couple of weeks because of supply issues.

As the conflict continues, “there will likely be additional stressors placed on the supply chain, leading to shortages in additional communities,” said Dan Hartnett, chief policy officer for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.

A few months’ drop in fluoride levels is probably not a cause for concern for most people, said Dr. Scott Tomar, an American Dental Association community water fluoridation expert. Lower levels can have an impact over the span of years, he said.

Tomar said younger children would be the first to experience tooth decay, because the fluoride strengthens enamel as their teeth are developing and once they have grown in.

Some states and municipalities have in recent months completely stopped water fluoridation, as officials have pointed to emerging data such as a 2024 report from the National Institutes of Health that concluded with moderate confidence that higher levels of fluoride exposure were linked to decreases in children’s IQ scores.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that fluoride from toothpaste is sufficient to keep teeth strong.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in January that it would assess the safety of adding fluoride to water.

Tyler Durden Wed, 04/15/2026 - 14:00

When someone who was there tells you that the '90s were better, believe them.

A rare life jacket worn by a Titanic survivor is set to be auctioned more than a century after the disaster.

“Clearly it was a mistake," the Georgia state rep. said. "I guess an election year is a good time to drop a racially sensitive photo of somebody."

The estate sits on South County Road along the Intracoastal Waterway, less than a mile from President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. 

Booking.com phishers could be invading your inbox.

A Brooklyn family was allegedly part of a ring of car insurance fraudsters that staged bogus crashes to bilk Uber and Liberty Mutual out of more than $300 million, a lawsuit claims.

As far as reports that surfaced Wednesday that contact talks have ended and the Giants are actively involved in trade discussions with other teams, that is not entirely accurate.