My Favorite Reading: Today

All from the NYT:

Roger Cohen: France in the End of Days. France at the center of Europe's mid-life crisis.

Ana Fels: The Point of Hate. Hate and altruistic punishment as a key social glue.

T. R. Reid: Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not Here?

In Japan, you get a postcard in early spring from Kokuzeicho (Japan’s I.R.S.) that says how much you earned last year, how much tax you owed and how much was withheld. If you disagree, you go into the tax office to work it out. For nearly everybody, though, the numbers are correct, so you never have to file a return.

When I told my friend Togo Shigehiko in Tokyo that Americans spend hours or days each spring gathering records and filling out tax forms, he was incredulous. “Why would anybody want to do that?” he asked.

Farhad Manjoo: Uber Wants to Rule the World. First It Must Conquer India.

BANGALORE, India — Nandini Balasubramanya’s office here on the southern edge of India’s technology capital does not look as if it would play a key role in the world’s most valuable start-up’s plans for global conquest.

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