Now that I've satisfied my urge to rant about my taxes (which I can assure you are too high, and which I am naturally ready to blame on someone else for their being so unfair), perhaps now is the time to be philosophical about all this.

What can I do about my taxes? The short answer is absolutely nothing. I have no control whatsoever over the tax law. Oh yeah, I can vote for, or work and contribute to, candidates and parties who promise to follow policies favorable to my interests. I can write to my representatives and urge them to work for my interests. I can demonstrate and publicize my views in the hope I can influence others to come to my point of view so they will do the same. Those are rights I have in a democracy I am grateful for, and which I exercise. But they are abstract, indirect rights. I have no direct control over my taxes any more than I can control anything else.

At the end of the day, I know the decision of my government, even if it works exactly the way I want and expect it to, is going to be some compromise which will fully please no one, least of all myself. So in the long run, my taxes are a consensus, a middle ground, that will be imposed on me, no matter what I think. I am just going to have to deal with them by adjusting MY life to their demands, and all the other demands the universe puts on me over which I have some control, but no final say, over. It's just part of the cost of doing business.