Economics

An amazing fact: "It was the night of April 15, 1987. Seven million American children suddenly

disappeared." (25) It turns out that the requirement to fill in the social security number of each reported

child when claiming a deduction on the parent's income tax form led to a reduction of seven million

children. The corresponding increase in income tax revenue is estimated at $3 billion a year (a huge

sum, enough to finance about ten days of fighting in Iraq...)!

It is not surprising that some people invented children in order to receive income tax credits, and that

these parents of fictitious children were deterred when they noticed that the tax authorities had stopped

ignoring this. But is it conceivable that "one of every ten children" in the U.S. is only conceived by the

pen of taxpayers? With some effort, I obtained the "exact" numbers. Two million children resurfaced

immediately, because they never disappeared. From the start, the number of children drops by five

million and not by seven million. To find some of the rest, you have to know that a child in the U.S.

does not receive a social security number unless his parents request one. One can imagine that on the

spring night when income tax forms were submitted, many parents realized that they had forgotten to

visit the social security offices. Supportive evidence: Another two million children returned to the lists

on April 15, 1988.