How Filing My Taxes Made Me Realize This Reality Needs To Be Trashed

Society needs a reset button

Image created by author using an AI tool.

I recently finished filing my income taxes, and was brutally reminded multibillionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and the rest of the one percenters receive more money in a nanosecond than I earn in a whole year.

And due to tax code loopholes and tax cuts, these pampered parasites will pay next to nothing in taxes — including on their staggering incomes and net worth.

How as a society did we collectively become okay with this?

Individuals who possess incomprehensible amounts of wealth (acquired mainly through inheritance and labor exploitation) are admired and worshiped. While on the opposite end of the spectrum, the poor are demonized and receive contempt.

We wave off the excesses of the filthy rich as their just rewards “under capitalism” — a flawed economic system dependent on the exploitation of labor to function. Labor that creates the wealth hoarded by 21st century robber barons, who have greater personal net worth than the GDP of many developing countries.

As I stared at the amount of the tax liability my tax preparation software informed me I owe on my modest income, I know I’m not alone in feeling deeply disgusted and…