2026-03-28-posts.md 10 KB
title: Death & Taxes slug: death-taxes description: Today I learned where my tax dollars go down to the dime. <!--- authors:
- name: David Windham title: Something Else url: https://davidawindham.com image_url: https://davidawindham.com/til/img/ralph-loop.jpg --> tags: [politics, money, philosophy] image: https://davidawindham.com/til/img/ralph-loop.jpg hide_table_of_contents: true ---
Today I learned where my tax dollars go down to the dime. I should say last night because I was up late getting them wrapped up so I could get out to work in the yard this weekend while the weather is nice. I should also say death really has nothing to do with this essay other than a reference to the idiom oft attributed to Benjamin Franklin[^1]
An old friend in a text thread insisted that 'beamers' ( BMWs - I corrected him that bimmers are the cars ) aren't allowed at the NO Kings[^2] protests after I mentioned I was planning on doing yard work even though I'm also chasing some work deadlines. I'm not exactly someone to shame easily and I'm relatively civic minded. I vote and I pay taxes. And I'm certainly glad that people are out showing some opposition to the dumpster fire that is our current administration. Some folks just like a confrontation and I believe that kindness is the ultimate form of resistance to the brand of politics in play. I'm certainly not shy of sharing my opinion and if I really wanted to protest I would actually publicly refuse to pay my taxes. The real irony of the current administration is that their tax policies actually punish their owner voters[^3]. Wouldn't have had the same outcome if the voters were as educated on taxes as much as the social charades and crusades.
I think everyone should know exactly how their taxes work. We should also provide a public education service on tax literacy so folks can see who pays what and where the money goes. Politicians should publicly present and be held accountable for their positions on them. Talking about money shouldn't be taboo because it's actually the heart of culture, politics, and policy. Some of the cultural norms about it directly correlate to inequality as a way for those who have it to hide it. Just head on back to the workplace and start a poll amongst your colleagues and watch how your employer reacts as evidence of an effort to keep labor costs at bay. Or if you want some snarky stares amongst your social group, just start asking how much things cost at your next dinner.
Over the years I developed a kinda thesis on a philosophy of money that works for me. The first hurdle was associating wealth with worth and even though I had seemingly cleared that one before I left primary school, it actually took years of experience to settle in. I was lucky to work amongst some very wealthy folk because I was able to see directly that there was zero correlation between wealth and well being. The second rule I developed is that actually being rich is a state of mind - it's mostly about not having to worry about money. Much easier said than done in that it works from both sides and not worrying also means not wanting which is the much tougher part in our stuff obsessed cultures. I like to say that having money won't necessarily make you happy, but having none will likely make you unhappy. I'm lucky to have lived on both sides of the coin.
At one point in college I was a mathematics major because I had planned to become an actuary after discovering the starting salaries. Can't say how that would have turned out, but I'm still decent with numbers even though I have fine arts degrees. I go for simplicity. I don't have accounts everywhere. I have one bank that houses both my business and personal accounts and one brokerage for retirement and investments. I don't play any complex tax deferment strategies. I rarely ever gamble with investments because that usually involves breaking my second rule thinking about it. Every year I just pull down my annual statements of my accounts and trim em down to the categories I need to file using formulas to compute the totals.
Some years ago my father, who has owned an assortment of businesses over the years, pointed out that anytime you get enjoyment out of your work, it's not really work. I worked for a number of years where I just poured and tasted wine all day, but even that got tiring. I've had various ideas for businesses that involved reviewing golf courses, traveling to food expos, and so on. You really want your business to offset your largest personal expenses like housing, transportation, and healthcare. I've now got a retirement idea that involves a very small scale farm. Every year while reviewing the statements and seeing personal expenses, I think to myself isn't my well-being actually a business expense - how could I possibly be productive if I'm not happy and healthy?
My only strategies are that I try to keep as much as I can in my company and put some of my income into tax deferred retirement accounts. I do alright... barely falling just below the top quartile, but I also just don't spend that much. The obvious food, transportation, housing, and utilities are my largest expenses. I don't try to cheat Uncle Sam and I'm lucky that I can write off some stuff that I also happen to use personally. I usually don't try to expense entertainment or millage unless I've done an expensive conference. Here's Uncle Sam's cut from me using basic estimates from previous years budgets[^4]:
| For What | How Much | |--|--| | Social Security | $1400 | | National Debt Interest | $1000 | | Defense | $1000 | | Medicare | $1000 | | Medicaid | $800 | | Income Security - unemployment/child credit/food stamps | $600 | | Veterans / Law Enforcement Benefits | $600 | | Other ( education/science/international/environment/transportation) | $500 |
I'm down with a couple grand for the old, poor, and veterans. I think education, science, and transportation infrastructure are important. The only ones I think I'm getting a slightly swindled on are healthcare and defense. I'm ok helping the sick, but I also know how much is profit going to insurers, providers, and drug companies. Eisenhower was right in 1961 about the military industrial complex[^5] and I'm not hip on bombing children while the manufacturers are charging umpteen million per killing machine. We're not exactly living in the age of empires anymore. And the evidence that our health is worse while we pay higher rates hints at a medical-industrial complex[^6] as well.
The interest on debt to treasuries is the stickiest of the bunch because gauging it's usefulness is abstract. Some of it is going back into our federal reserve, state/local governments, and mutual/pension funds but a third of it is foreign owned[^7]. I think it's actually the one causing the most political chaos because the core governing and economic philosophy disagreements tend to revolve around federal debt even though it's seemingly scapegoating minority populations. There's no doubt that we've got some monetary and metaphysical debts to pay. I'm not going to play armchair economist, but I will say that I believe it's actually a zero-sum game[^8].
Life itself is really a zero-sum game and I think that's why so many folks are on antidepressants. It's partially inspired by our lifestyles and beliefs. Some folks might want to blame peak capitalism or oil, but I think it's mostly a crisis of confidence coinciding with the advent of the information age. The reason why human development happiness indexes'[^9] type reports from around the globe are led by other countries[^10] has more to do with lifestyle and beliefs over political policy and what we're really discovering is that money really can't buy happiness especially when it's unequally distributed to a relatively small minority.
I don't think regular folk really take into account other less obvious subjective well-being issues like urban mobility, social connectivity, cultural collectivism, career satisfaction, or even things as subtle as noise pollution. I couldn't possibly calculate a value on spending a couple of hours a day in the car navigating aggressive traffic. Those things doesn't correlate directly to GDP or low taxes no matter how many folks are trying to convince you otherwise for whatever reason. It kinda mirrors my approach to money where it's mostly a state of mind that's more closely related to other measures of well-being. This is sometimes a literal 'can't see the forest from the trees' issue in our screen-addled attention economy because money is so immediate and tangible.
I think that changing our perceptions of what is actually valuable is the key. I don't associate my worth with income. When I wrote earlier in the essay that I'm lucky to have lived on 'both sides of the coin', I was emphasizing that the years I spent driving a ten year old Toyota Tercel working several menial jobs at the same time were just as happy as I am now. Time is the only real commodity and having the freedom to spend it as you choose is really up to you. Just be careful what you think you're working towards. Death is finite and it's much more certain than taxes. I'm sure my old friend thinks I'm going soft... and in a lot of ways, he's absolutely correct. I prefer to swim downstream to protect my energy for the things I value. The azaleas and magnolias I planted this weekend will easily outlive both our current administration and me.
[^1]: Death and taxes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_taxes_(idiom) [^2]: No Kings - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_No_Kings_protests [^3]: Blue-State Residents Are Reaping Big Refunds From Trump Tax Law’s SALT Cap - https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-salt-tax-deduction-democratic-states-c419b8a4 [^4]: Chart Pack: The U.S. Budget - https://www.pgpf.org/article/chart-pack-the-us-budget/ [^5]: Military-industrial complex - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military–industrial_complex [^6]: Medical-industrial complex - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical–industrial_complex [^7]: The Federal Government Has Borrowed Trillions. Who Owns All that Debt? - https://www.pgpf.org/article/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt/ [^8]: Zero-sum game - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game [^9]: World Happiness Report - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report [^10]: Satisfaction with Life Index - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index