Sane thinking about income taxes

An especially well-reasoned post, definitely worth your time.

Have you ever wondered why it (our income tax code) is labyrinthine in its complexity? Don't you find it strange that payroll taxes, which are designed to tax the poor and middle classes, are starkly simple, while the income tax, designed to preferentially tax the rich, is stupefyingly complex? Do you get the impression that the loopholes were designed with your welfare in mind? How many middle class folks can hire an expert to structure their financial affairs to best take advantage of the complexity? Are you so naive as to believe the tax code was designed to insure fairness for all?

Enough of the rhetorical questions: you already know the answers. If you have half a brain, you know that you're being had. If the rich were being hurt by the complexity, you can bet that the income tax would be as simple as the payroll tax. They aren't, and it isn't.