An inconvenient tax

By Drake Dunaway



In such a cataclysmic year, Michael Moore has released a new documentary, where he cavorts around with a megaphone and police tape to reign in the robber barons of Wall St. Aptly-titled "Capitalism: A Love Story," Moore takes aim once again at the foundational bedrock of our society while profiting immensely from its trappings.

That said, we (you and I) have a pro-American reply of our own. And unlike Moore's "fine art," ours is factual, unplagarized, and we feel no shame in declaring that one of our prime motivations is to make a ton of money. Let me give you the contextual rundown.

Since the beginning of time, taxes have been an integral part of civil society, and while I believe that taxes are needed for education, research, strong defense, and other constitutional functions of state, the current system we possess is in dire need of reform.

We seceded from Great Britain over taxation (and the powers it implied), and we established the IRS in the year 1862 under Abraham Lincoln in order to draw revenue to fund the Union side of the Civil War. At the time, a 7% surtax was placed on the wealthiest Americans, and people felt that this would be the "end of the world" as we know it. In these times, the IRS (as well as the Federal Reserve Bank) was created under clouds of suspicion and bolstered in the Progressive Era.

Since that past age, endless thousands of provisos, amendments, and clauses have been clumped into what we simply know as "The Tax Code," a document so illegible and unfathomable to even the most brilliant financial experts that our nation employs a tax army of 1+ million each and every year to perform a civic duty that should otherwise be comprehensible. Voting is easy, registration for the draft is basic, getting a driver's license or gun license is straightforward, and every state puts signs in big, bold letters with no fancy punctuation, and even still you get detoured in Metro Atlanta. My point to you is that most civic duties tend to be uncomplicated to even the simplest of men and women.

Thus it stands to reason that the Tax Code is complex for two reasons:

1. The elected benefit from its complexity. The less insight the public has regarding its gearwork, the more revenue people will pay to avoid hassle. Ancient tax collectors preyed on the illiteracy of the public to read a scroll containing their stated liabilities. According to historians, the Greek alphabet replaced hieroglyphics on account of its simplicity, yet in one regard we have not clued in to that advent. How much more do some benefit on the basis of what you don't know?
   
   
2. A gradual accrual of yesterday's additions. The tax code was probably much simpler once upon a time, but the more that the federal government saw fit to regulate and warp the private sector in progressive projects like the War Industries Board, the more the private sector saw to return the favor. Consequently, thousands of lobbyists have begged for credits, exclusions, and deductions for their esoteric fields of practice. Neal Boortz once complained about special provisions in the tax code for the manufacture of a certain kind of ceiling fan! Competing interests flood into DC every generation, and when new politicians enter, newfangled contraptions pour into the code, and the old ones are simply kept, thereby leaving what amounts to a Gordian Knot for each American to solve every year.
   
   

Visualize the moral hazard of the following:

• The 16th Amendment allows the federal government to tax income.
  
  
• The 17th Amendment puts the election of senators to a popular vote.
  
  

But here's the prisoner's dilemma: Although Steve Forbes wants the Flat Tax, and Mike Huckabee endorses the Fair Tax, there has been no single piece of mainstream art to convey the public's outrage over our brutally unfair tax system, and every successful movement truly needs some solid agitprop if it hopes to tilt the powers that be. So here comes a personal pitch:

About a year ago, a high school buddy of mine, Vincent Vittorio, came to me with a proposition. He knew that I had an edgy eye for creativity and humor, and over coffee at Caffeine in Buford, GA, enlisted me into the production of a documentary about the history, complexity, and unfairness of the IRS tax code, and its pressing need for fundamental reform.

Despite the support of big names, this landmark thinkpiece of samizdat cinema is struggling madly to make it into as many theaters as possible, and so I hope and pray that you will give it your attention as we begin our marketing blitz. This documentary will be a conversation starter, conceived to ignite flames that can melt the golden calf of last century's best intentions.

Connect to their web presence here and join their mailing list:

http://www.aninconvenienttax.com/

Their facebook group:

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26233383865&ref=ts

Join the Revolution, get involved, and spread the word! This can either burn into the stratosphere of debate, or remain panting at the starting line to stay mediocre, or worse yet...burn out like a cast member of The Real World. Concerned patriots complain that there is a general lack of creativity and art to express our ideals to the public, so do not turn a blind eye when a gem is handed to you. If this world casts its lots by your own dollar vote, then be obliged to root for the first documentary that actually defends and reveres it.

Invisible hand, y'all.





© Drake Dunaway