I posted this in a comments section over at Reason this morning and thought it probably described its own blog post. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Joe Stack story the past few days and I think the comments below very neatly encapsulate my thoughts on this sad story:
It’s too bad that he acted out because now people can just ignore his complaints dismissively as the “rantings of a crazy guy” and point to his criticism of the Catholic church and George Bush and all those other things as evidence that all of his other opinions were equally loony.
I got into a message board argument over the weekend with a horribly condescending person, who claimed to be an IRS agent, who honestly tried to make the case that W2 classification of employees is a good thing because it “protects workers”. How? Because it shifts parts of the employment tax burden onto evil greedy employers, who apparently only consider as “employment expense” what they pay as wages and would otherwise pocket the difference if not for the heroic actions of FICA.
When I pointed out that W2 classification also makes tax collections much easier, by restricting taxpayer’s consent and shifting the burden of proof from collector to payer, and enhances revenue by giving government an interest-free float, he called me “paranoid” and told me to go find a therapist.
Thing is, if enhanced collections weren’t the case, why would Obama come out last week and announce a “crackdown” on independent contractors as a revenue enhancement strategy?
Fact is, it’s fairly clear that this man – Joe Stack – was hounded by the IRS for most of his adult life, and whether or not he brought it on himself, the sheer amount of discretionary administrative and enforcement power that the IRS has is a legitimate concern. The income tax is fundamentally inconsistent with the founding principles of this country – 16th Amendment or not – and Congress, using the IRS as its very own special collection agency, has rigged the rules against the average American and built a regulatory system (through the despicable withholding tax, which is a specific topic Joe mentions in his note) that maximizes revenue whole cultivating as much apathy and ignorance as possible among taxpayers.
‘Ole Joe DID try and work peacefully through the system and he did try and work with the IRS to try and fix his problems… and was apparently given no quarter. He quite clearly was driven to such a hopeless place that he felt he had no other choice but to react violently. I’m not all saying that his actions were justified or that he made the right choice, but he does deserve at least a little more sympathy and consideration than many people are apparently willing to give him.
Just because a vast majority of Americans don’t go out and kill IRS agents doesn’t mean that the system is just or fairly structured. There are serious problems that need to be addressed and Joe Stack, through his actions, has ruined it for the time being for those of us who care deeply about tax reform.
That pretty much says it all. Someday when I feel like blogging in depth, I’ll get into John Locke’s natural law and his theory of property and labor and how that’s fundamentally at odds with the income tax. But today I need to work.
