Ugh. The office chatter has already started. It’s the same every year. Right after college hoops ends. If baseball was even remotely exciting that would become the talk of the water cooler but instead it’s taxes.

 First young associates complain about their tax burden, then older associates and young partners concur, comforting them with the knowledge that deductions for houses, spouses and kids are in their future. Conservatives complain about taxes generally while liberals complain about funding wars and bailing out banks. Old geezers whine about having to pay six months wages in taxes for the year.

Please allow me to retort

All of this tax talk is a thinly veiled self congratulatory pissing exhibition among big law attorneys. Congratulations! You make alot of money! What’s funny is that you NEVER hear anyone bring up student debt in these conversations like people do when say, they get laid off . Why? Because rich people pay alot in taxes. Poor people have student loans. People are trying to identify with the winning team here.

And for all of you over 70 you are NOT paying six months wages in taxes. You are paying a percentage of your income in tax and it’s not even 50% if you only worked six months… Or in actuality closer to four months the government isn’t going to swoop in and take all of that. You will even probably get a refund if a high amount was deducted from your check.

The worst however is that taxes are a yearly reminder of what my income is, what my income was, and what my income could in theory be. I took a headstart in a car with an engine that’s not as powerful and every year I see the lights in my rearview mirror a little closer. Taxes and layoffs help level the playing field…but not much. I need a faster car. I need to make more money. And I need to do it now.