Illinois State Hypocrisy
Two days ago, I received a request for back taxes from the Illinois Department of Revenue. The state claims that since I make a lot of money, (currently more than $40,000 per year), I owe a lot of money.
My tax payments to Illinois government have not been consistent over all of my working years--though I can say that over the last 6 years they have adhered to Illinois tax code nearly flawlessly.
I am guilty of not paying all of the requested taxes to this state; however, consider what Illinois government has put me through:
It began around 1996 when I was forced into Elgin State Mental Hospital. In the hospitalizations, there, I was injected with mind-altering drugs that had terrible side effects because I was ruled "gravely disabled". In all the mental hospitalizations I endured, the reason for forcing me in was never "a harm to others", nor was it ever explicitly "a harm to oneself". I have never actively attempted suicide--the only thoughts of that being a result of being unsatisfied that mental hospitalizations and/or nasty, mind-altering drugs are forever my "lot in life".
To give you an example of the level of physical and chemical force that was typically inflicted against me, the first time I was locked up by the State of Illinois, I was injected with a mind-altering drug twice a day for about 30 days. I wouldn't swallow the pills on Principle because I believed my Mind was competent to think and belonged to me to decide how to self-regulate my Life.
I could go on for ten pages about the: tortures, persecutions, and vices that were forced upon me by Illinois government. But, to conclude this blog, I want to integrate a few outstanding issues:
My grandfather and parents passed on to me enough money to pay for college. Due to the repetitive, involuntary, mental health excursions, I was never able to get a degree and ended up saving a lot as a result. In 1993, I began to study Objectivism on my own. To this day, picking books solely from the official Ayn Rand bookstores, I have read 139 Objectivist endorsed books. (That pretty much equates to a Ph.D. in Objectivism). I didn't work for a long time, but eventually got into a Domino's delivery job.
So, tell me, how is someone who passively kicks back and reads books all the time "gravely disabled"? Was I "gravely disabled" because I didn't have a job (and lived off of an educational inheritance)?
If I told you about my inheritance when your goons came to get me, would you have taken my inheritance like the Illinois Department of Revenue is trying to do to my tips and wages?
I was locked up because you said I can't provide for my basic needs. If I am separated from my inheritance, how am I able to go to a store to buy food? And even if you didn't know about my inheritance, how can someone who is in a locked "unit" get a job?
So now, when I have started working in a lucrative, tip-paying job, Illinois government goes back to all those years with incomplete tax returns that were often inaccurate because government was busy torturing me.
I fought the American Mental Health System for 11 years. The hallmark and foundation of every ward is mind-altering drugs. I think I am accurate in saying that I was not going to be left alone by that system unless I put my mind on one or more of those drugs. It just so happened that I found a combination of two drugs, late in my persecution, the side-effects of which I could live with. Both of those drugs were expensive--Zyprexa was extraordinarily so (they are now open to generic competition). Back then, I paid full price for Zyprexa out of my Domino's income for 5 years. I can remember the price starting at about $600 / month, and later reaching about $1,000 / month before the generics stepped in.
Since I would not have wasted $600 - $1,000 / month if Illinois State had not implicitly forced me to, it is unfair that the Illinois Department of Revenue go back and take my unreported tips.
I mentioned towards the beginning of this blog that I made the last 6 tax filings "nearly flawlessly". Almost no one in the pizza delivery industry reports all their tips. In all the years I have been in that line of work, I have heard of only one person other than me who did it. When I started, I did my taxes according to the W-2 numbers that reported some tips, but not nearly the full amount. About 7 years ago the Domino's owner came up to me and asked if I wanted to start keeping track of my own tips, or if I wanted him to keep doing it--as he did with almost all of the other employees. I thought I would enjoy the self-control more so volunteered to assume responsibility. Other than the logistical problem with change accountability because it is too hard to keep track of, I started reporting all of my cash tips after the first full year of my personal record keeping.
After all the injustice forced upon me, mostly by the State of Illinois, an argument could be made that I deserve reparations from the Illinois government. However, I am not going to go there. The only reparations I want are: to be left alone by the Illinois Mental Health System and the Illinois Department of Revenue.
I am protesting the "back tax claim" letter I received two days ago. It is not fair that the State of Illinois targets: the one guy they have tortured the most, the one honest guy who has decided to fund them the most tips in his line of work, and the one guy with something to loot.
Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter
