Although the notion of collecting funds to underwrite the welfare and protection of socialized constituencies is a noble one, in practice, it took feudal lords and rampaging conquerors and their modern-day counterparts, elected or otherwise representative governments, about fifteen minutes to completely fuck it up.  The lords, etc. asked too much from their protectees, who had virtually nothing to begin with, and tax laws in the modern era have simply, (a ridiculous adverb in this instance), become so complex, they cannot be understood by, well…anyone.  As a result, taxation has always been an historically hot button issue inciting variations on the Tea Party theme, ending in civil disobedience and/or full-blown revolution.

The tax code of the United States of America is a document somewhere in the vicinity of 70,000 pages in length.  It is redundant, contradictory and exists only to addle and confuse the minds of those of us most burdened by its intimidating threats of penalty.  It should be replaced by a more insightful, well-intentioned, fair and responsible double-spaced page, containing five or six easy to read brackets, in very large type.

With the presidential campaign if full flurry for the next thirteen long months, the one thing that all candidates, from both major parties, agree on, is that the tax code needs a complete overhaul.  Most Republicans propose to keep incentives skewed toward the richest earners, while Democrats, to show their brave diversity, think it should be only slightly less so, (except, of course for Bernie Sanders who thinks everything should be fair and simple, but god knows he won’t be around for the final count).  It’s no mystery, that in a government that can now be legally bought by deep-pocketed corporations and private interests, (according to a five to four decision by the Supreme Court), that a fairer distribution of taxation is not likely to meander its way through Congress.

What’s so perplexing is that a more acceptable allocation of the tax burden would provide increased revenue for our crumbling roads and bridges, our outdated power and water systems, nationwide high speed internet, (and rail), as well as amply fund all necessary government programs, while having minimal impact on those individuals and corporations whose tax would rise.  To drive home my point, I was half way through crafting a beautiful, full-color diagram illustrating my thesis, but it just seemed frivolous and too…taxing.