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