Death and Taxes

I just read the suicide note of the guy who crashed his plane into the Austin IRS office. Like a lot of terrible things, it's complicated, written by an intelligent person with legitimate grievances who was in need of some serious help. Putting aside the grandeur of going out like a kamikaze pilot, this man's suicide looks like too many others. From what I can tell, there's a basic structure of a posthumous justification for self-destruction. It's something like:

1. Introduction: This is who I am, a regular person.
2. Presentation of Evidence: I've had some bad things happen to me.
3. Argument: It's too much for me to bare. I'm too sad or angry.
4. Conciliation (optional): Sorry.
5. Conclusion: Goodbye.

The morbid side of me thinks you could have some fun with a Mad Libs version of a suicide note, but then I remember how destructive such an act is; how much collateral damage is inflicted on family and friends, how deeply disturbing and almost contrary to nature are the motivations needed to end one's own life.

A suicide note looks like anyone making a personal grievance for the first two points. Sometimes they almost make light of a tough situation the way most of us might. The difference comes at the third point. It's in their argument where the suicidal person reveals just how different, how darkly shaded their perceptions are from everyone else.

A lot of people get screwed by the IRS. The laws are complicated. They have a lot of power and can make arbitrary decisions that can affect many parts of a person's life. Some people misunderstand what they can deduct or claim, some people justify a tax dodge in the name of freedom, and some people get just plain hosed by the powerful. I have a neighbor who once had to spend $12,000 dollars to pay an accountant to sort out an IRS mess. Without knowing any other details of that neighbor's predicament, I can understand their frustration. The difference is in the reaction. My neighbor is no fan of the IRS, so they complain where appropriate, and go to anti-IRS meetings. They don't kill themselves by crashing into an IRS building.

This is not unrelated to the guys in tricornered hats going on about how unfair and all-powerful the government is. There is an impish delusion at work, skewing people's perceptions of what's just and what's unfair. The fact that a tax collecting agency can provide a justification for suicide shows some sort of cultural pathology at work. Deserved or not, there's something terribly wrong with people's perceptions of the IRS. To place a tax collecting agency in the same emotional category as self-hate, jilted lovers, devastating rejection, or utter personal failure is a whole new level of crazy.

I'd love to see tax codes be simpler. I'd love to see it be harder for rich people to dodge the taxman with expensive lawyers and accountants. I'd love to have my federal filing take 5 minutes instead of a Saturday afternoon.

But I don't think I pay too much in taxes. I know that almost everyone is paying significantly less than back in the 90s, when the economy was going strong. Taxes don't make me fear for mine or my children's freedom. Reasonable people can disagree on those perceptions, but I'd wager that it's not my side of the argument that's getting carried away.