How taxes turned margarine pink, made ships sink, and more strange results

Link: https://nypost.com/2021/04/03/how-taxes-made-margarine-pink-ships-sink-and-more-odd-results/

Graphic:

Book listing: https://amzn.to/2PxVkFz

Excerpt:

Unmarried men in ancient Greece and Rome were taxed, as were British bachelors from 1695 to 1706. Some states in the US even had a similar policy into the 20th century. 

But what about those men who were unlucky in love? Were they to be “doubly cursed, embraced by the taxman but spurned by womankind?” the authors write. 

In some places, bachelors were made exempt from the tax if they could prove they had asked a woman to marry but were rejected. 

In Argentina around 1900, the tax gave rise to “professional lady rejectors” — women who, for a fee, would swear to authorities that a man had asked for their hand and that they had refused. 

Author(s): Reed Tucker

Publication Date: 3 April 2021

Publication Site: NY Post