Tag: 10.23.19

2017 Tax Law Cost Artists Because They Lost Expense Deductions. Now They Want It Changed

In the past, many actors would list these expenses as miscellaneous itemized deductions on their taxes. But the 2017 tax reform law eliminated that provision, affecting thousands of performing artists who had used those deductions for work-related expenses. Now unions representing Hollywood performers are pushing Congress to fix the problem. – Los Angeles Times

The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (7)

I can’t imagine how a record of concerted works by Berg and Bartók made its way into the classical bin at the musical instrument store in Smalltown, U.S.A. Granted, Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein, the album’s conductor, were as famous in 1969 as it was then possible for American classical musicians to be. But Berg and Bartók wrote modern music. – Terry Teachout.

Increases In Productivity Mean We Don’t Have To Work So Hard. And Yet We Do. Why?

“If today’s advanced economies have reached (or even exceeded) the point of productivity that Keynes predicted, why are 30- to 40-hour weeks still standard in the workplace? And why doesn’t it feel like much has changed? This is a question about both human nature – our ever-increasing expectations of a good life – as well as how work is structured across societies.” – Aeon