A group of us were having breakfast together. My friend, who runs a small business, was telling a story.
“So I asked my tax attorney, ‘Can I do this?’
“He answered, ‘It depends on how aggressive you want me to be.’
“‘What do you mean, how aggressive I want you to be?’ I said. ‘I just want to know the rule.’
“‘You don’t understand,’ he told me. ‘There are so many rules that there is no rule. It’s all judgment.’”
Another friend broke in. “Where I come from, in Eastern Europe,” she said, “that’s how the Communists used to run things. There were so many rules that anyone they wanted to put away could be accused of something."
She added, "Usually two or three things.”