Yes. Hooray!
Why the hell am I so happy about tax day? Well, to be honest, I’m not. I hate taxes… but, when practicing perspective, I can see their value and benefit.
How many services are available to society, myself included, that are funded by taxes? Dozens? More? What about the fact that for thousands of years people have complained about their taxes, and to no avail? Now, they’re dead, and still had to pay in one way or another. I’m not special. Finally, if we’re paying taxes, we’re making enough to warrant paying taxes. If we weren’t, we’d be living in a primal anarchy where every basic service and necessity of life would take Herculean effort to acquire.
Nothing will ever befall me that I will receive with gloom or a bad disposition. I will pay my taxes gladly. Now, all the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life - things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape.”
(Seneca, Moral Letters, 96.2)
Like their financial counterparts, we go through trouble and time trying to avoid them, or reduce their impact. We expend so much energy and intentionality to resist paying.
(See y’all tomorrow)