Originally posted by STRATIOTES:
H. L. Mencken:
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.
+1 Probably what really happened. I have met a few people put through the wringer by the IRS, and it is an entirely different story when someone really considers themselves innocently persecuted vs someone who knew they were cheating something.
That whole set of codes and rules over "private contractors" is one which can really bite people if they don't play slick or get into the wrong situation. I am seeing people using that to skate minimum wage laws now, not to mention things like disability and unemployment insurance. I don't know what is the right answer to it though, except that people who have been persecuted by the IRS tend to carry bitterness over it forever, especially when they see others fairly openly getting away with what they were caught doing.
That said, I would not join in on any hatred or jealousy of the Catholic Church just because of their accumulated wealth. I mean, it is very few tax dodgers I ever met who were running a homeless shelter or soup kitchen with the money they saved from not paying taxes who got persecuted by the IRS.
