Responsible economic journalism shock
This easy-to-mock story about the "tax" on being single is notable in a couple of ways. The first is that - for many - being single is a lifestyle willingly chosen. Perhaps there is a price tag on that choice, but that's different from a tax. £5,000 a year does seem like a lot, but for the luxury of choosing your own holiday destinations, spending all your free time in the way you want to, and designing your living environment entirely to your own tastes, it might be worth it. The second is that the article contains a detailed methodological critique of its own argument. But Stuart Adam, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), doubts whether the situation is as clearcut as the study presents. "The quarter of a million figure depends first on whether you believe their £5,000 a year finding and I'd need quite a lot of convincing that they'd got their methodology right"... It's even possible that the research is skewe...