Today taxes are due. As we race to get our tax returns filed before the midnight deadline, I have often used this annual event to get my students to think about why people procrastinate to the last possible minute to file and then finally get their returns in just under the wire. After some attempt at avoidance of the issue presented by this problem -- much in the manner of those sitting in their cars in front of the Terminal Annex Post Office Downtown just before midnight in their pajamas -- the students finally come up with the answer: nobody wants to face the consequences of failing to timely file, which includes interest, penalties, and maybe a better chance of being audited added on to their already painful tax reality.
Consequences, for better or worse, are a necessity in human interactions where one seeks a reasonable percentage of compliance and success in accomplishing the necessary (and less pleasurable) tasks like tax collection. In the past at perdaily, whether we were talking about
student behavior,
parent's responsibility or
