Taxed to Death: A Reflection on Justice, Capital and the Cost of Compromise

In April, we mailed a very large check for 2024 federal taxes owed.
Neither my husband nor I are working right now.
The amount owed was based on 1099 income and capital gains from a real estate sale—income that was fleeting, but taxed like it was forever.

As we wrote that check, I couldn’t help but reflect:
This isn’t just about money.
It’s about the cost of a system that no longer serves the people.

What Is a Tax, Really?

Tax is a word we know well.
It means contribution. Obligation. A share owed to the system that governs us.
But as a verb, to tax means to place a heavy burden on something or someone.

And that’s exactly what’s happening—on every level.

Our mental health is taxed.
Our emotional energy is taxed.
Our patience is taxed by inflation, bureaucracy, and the game of politics pretending to be governance.

This isn’t just about federal returns or real estate levies.
It’s about a spiritual exhaustion that creeps in when systems become so complex, so inequitable, and so dehumanizing that they drain us of joy, clarity, and hope.

The Great Shell Game

We are told to pay our fair share.
But what is fair when billionaires pay nothing?
When working families and retirees fund the roads, schools, and services—while those who profit most restructure reality to avoid participation?

Capital gains taxes, estate loopholes, shell corporations, offshore accounts. The list is endless.
And yet, the average citizen trying to sell a single property or take a small contract is taxed like an empire.

The system is so convoluted, most people don’t even understand what they’re paying—or what they’re funding.

We’re taxed at the store.
We’re taxed on our land.
We’re taxed on our work, our gains, our losses.
And then we’re taxed again—mentally and emotionally—trying to comply with a system we didn’t design.

The Political Ping-Pong

Years ago, I had a vision:
Two parents locked in a furious ping-pong match.
The ball? A child—battered by every swing.
The parents? Two political parties so focused on winning that they forgot the child was a living soul.

The child, of course, is us.
The taxpayers.
The citizens.
The people who keep the lights on while the power players campaign, posture, and play games with our lives.

And while one administration favors one class, the next comes along and tilts the table in the opposite direction—never fixing the system, only manipulating it for short-term gain.

It’s exhausting. It’s humiliating. And it’s unsustainable.

The Middle Way: A Call for Justice, Not Just Revenue

We need a tax system that is simple, transparent, and just.
One that rewards contribution, not manipulation.
One that reflects the Middle Way—where liberty and justice are not opposing ideals but mutually reinforcing truths.

Taxes should fund care. Infrastructure. Peace.
Not conquest. Not corruption. Not cake.

Yes—there was once a story of a $12,000 cake ordered by a government agency to celebrate an internal event. I pray it isn’t true. But even if it is only symbolic, it reveals the rot.

Because the real cake being eaten?
It’s the wealth of this nation.
And the people baking it are rarely invited to take a slice.

The Bottom Line

We aren’t anti-tax. We are pro-accountability.
We believe in shared responsibility.
But we also believe that taxation without wisdom, compassion, or efficiency is not governance—it is theft.

This country was born from a rebellion against unjust taxation.
But now the rebellion must be internal:
A return to spiritual clarity.
A demand for simplicity.
A rejection of games.

We don’t need more shell games.
We need sacred balance.

“There is abundance in simplicity. Less is more, and more is definitely less.”
– Diana Vazquez-Douglas