Tax Incentives Blog

My father vowed that he and his sister would never subject my grandmother to the confines of a senior facility. We would care for her at home till her last day. But sometimes circumstances break the promises we intend to keep.

As my grandmother’s health declined, we were no longer able to provide for her properly. And in-home care equipment and staff for the round-the-clock support she required were well beyond anyone’s financial capability. With broken hearts full of worry and sorrow, we decided to relinquish her to a senior healthcare facility.

I have a friend who is quite enchanted by technology. Her home and life are loaded with Smart Things. She conducts all her banking on her cell phone and adores wiling away an afternoon in a café as she shops online – with an unsecured network.

There’s a well-known idiom that says, “…in this world nothing can be certain except death and taxes.” Taxes we must pay along the way. If we’re lucky, we get the privilege of growing old before we ‘pay the ferryman.’ 

The crash of a Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air plane flew into the headlines in October 2018. Five months later, an Ethiopian airline 737 MAX crashed, sparking an immediate call for Boeing’s entire global fleet of the new aircraft to be grounded.

After World War II, the U.S. auto industry zoomed into dominance, setting the bar for the wages and skill levels of America’s industrial workers.

Without competition from foreign manufacturers, the accelerating demand for automobiles powered the success of The Big Three: Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. Jobs were plentiful, training was accessible, and earnings were exceptional on the blue-collar scale. Auto industry jobs were revered.

Have you made mistakes? Sure. Did something dishonest? Possibly. Maybe you intentionally hurt your mother’s feelings or told a friend you already had plans when you didn’t.

Let’s go bigger: Perhaps you “relocated” some extra office supplies to your home office or parked in the handicap spot to “run in quickly.”

Let’s go bigger still: Maybe you misrepresented your tax deductibles or dented someone’s car and drove away without a note.

Back in 1953 when Swanson added its then-avant-garde TV dinners to America’s collective menu, consumers were unaware – and most undoubtedly unconcerned – about the heart-stopping sodium levels concealed in its partitioned plate. Case in point: customers grabbed ten million of the trayed dinners in the product’s first full year of production in 1954.

What images come to mind when you think of Texas? Probably things such as tangy barbeque, bucking broncos, dusty cowboys, boot-scootin' cowgirls, longhorn cattle, slick oil tycoons, and Sam Elliot’s voice.

All of it Texas-big.

Approximately 97 percent of fish and shellfish consumed in the U.S. are sourced from other countries. Along with 50 percent of fresh fruit and 20 percent of vegetables, totaling 19 percent of all food eaten in this country.¹

We’re obtaining more and more food outside our country. One reason is that consumers have broadened their palettes and crave sustenance that cannot be grown in the U.S.

Our world turns on an axis of trends: music trends, technology trends, movies trends, trends in clothing, housing, automobiles…and food. Rotating, shifting, never stopping.

And food trends have graced our collective plate pretty much since our choices broadened beyond what berries grew along our migration path or which woolly mammoth was within spear range. New discoveries in science, technology, cultures, and newly available food and resources, have all influenced our turning tastes.