One of the Obama campaign’s web-savvy contributions to political discourse is this tax calculator, a website (and a badge) that allows anyone interested in calculating their taxes under his (or his opponent’s) proposed plan to find out which makes the more sense. Web-based calculators are nothing new, and I’ve written before about environmental footprint calculators that generally do not afford a decent perspective on the issues. This tax calculator, on the other hand, points the way toward an trend of empowering web users to conduct research on the web and to make objective decisions by comparing mathematical data. It’s a win-win: assuming that the public is intelligent, providing tools for empowerment and confirming that reality does have a liberal bias.
UPDATE: the widget changed (above) so here’s a screenshot of the calculator as it still exists in some places:
