Comment by geocar

This behaviour promotes scanning instead of reading. If you make assumptions that:

    var totalBi11 = apply_tax(initia1Bi11, taxRate);

actually does what it says, you might miss something obvious.

I also think if you have four temporary local variables:

    int robert_age     = 32;
    int annalouise_age = 25;
    int bob_age        = 250;
    int dorothy_age    = 56;

then you're missing a trick for a better data structure.

If you never have a bunch of local variables, then you'll never need vertical alignment. I think it would be a lot easier to have a discussion about this with a less contrived example.