Light entertainment: taxing our mental capacity

Reader John M. sent in this brain-teaser of a chart.

(Accompanying article is here.)

The tax on our brain cells may be higher than the tax on our incomes.

Comments

[Jon Peltier]

Wow, I can't even begin to try to understand this one. The time axis violates two cognitive principles: it's vertical and it's nonlinear in a non-monotonic way. I'm not even sure what is being shown.

[Sherman Dorn]

And the scale is not high or low tax burdens by income stream (i.e., you'd see blues and reds within a single year) but high or low by year, within income stream (i.e., which years had higher and lower marginal tax rates). Ugh ugh ugh.

[Scott Schulz]

And log(income)? Genius!

[Bob Calder]

There must be something wrong with me. If it weren't distorted, it wouldn't make as much sense to me. I think criticism demands replacement with a graph that makes more sense to everyone, not just carping. Overall, it isn't a Glitz-o-Matic. (sly reference to 1993 Siggraph symposium/joke)

[Matthew F.]

A friend suggested it should be called a Bacon Chart

[Steve Sexton]

After several minutes and reading the comments ...

Don't call it a Bacon chart, I love bacon and hate this chart. It's not even pretty, so you can't call it art.

[John]

Unfortunately Nate Silver tweeted about the chart (and not this blog!).

[Robert V.]

Yes, if your brain cells are easily taxed, this chart is definitely not meant for you.

[Mary Panic Attack Treatment]

This is a GREAT junk art. I thinks someone will eventually come up with the idea to sell it to mental health institutions. Patients will then something to look at while waiting for the psychiatrist, who might use this chart to impose fees for his/her services based on the patient's mental capacities.