Barbers, America's Biggest Group of Sandbaggers

I love barbers. There is no place of business that doesn't serve alcohol where you'll find more frank conversation. But boy do they hate taxes. Oh, some of them may love them for others, but almost to a man they hate them for themselves. Which is why this throwaway fact amuses me so:

In 2009, the median salary for barbers in the U.S. was $24,160, only about 30.4 percent more than 1999's $18,530 (in nominal dollars), according to BLS data.

That, my friends, is some funny math. The article states that the median hair cut price is $13.18. So, if you assume that barbers work 50 weeks a year (2 weeks for vacation) and take about 10 holiday days, that means your average barber works 240 days a year. For that math to work out, it would mean that your average barber only does 7.63 haircuts a day. The three men who have cut my hair the most in my life all averaged their 8th haircut by about 1o am.

So what does that mean? Well, it means that your barber is paying taxes on all of those cash haircuts before noon. After that, Uncle Sam ceases to exist. And most seem to get away with this. More power to 'em.