[Rick Lee]

What gets me about gov't. representing this or that demographic more than the others is that so many people view it as a zero-sum game, which it is not. No poor person's life will change for the worse if rich people are taxed less. But pandering pols use class warfare and envy to whip up voter sentiment. However, raising taxes on what pols call rich people WILL affect those taxpayers. So many people think the estate tax is fine because it will never affect them. Just wait until the small business they work for has to lay people off or close down because the owner died and his heirs have to sell the place off to pay Uncle Sam. Class envy is going to make tax hikes easier to pass and politicians, since they only care about the immediate political benefit, will never bother telling people that we'd all be better off with lower/less taxes. The only option for me is to become well off enough that I either don't have to care or can hide my money elsewhere. It's a long-term goal and for now I only view taxes as protection money I have to pay to our mafia gov't. to stay out of jail.