And so this is Christmas. This means that for the vast majority of people, they are looking forward to their calendars clicking over and then getting the new date of 2023. People like me who live in the land of accounting and taxation, have already been living in the year 2022/23 for the past five and a half months. This is just the half way point.
As this is Christmas, there is always a spike in the number of clients who want to put their affairs in order before they go on holidays. One client in particular, who earns enough in dividends, interest and rent, to earn more in just the interest on those dividends, interest and rent, than the median wage, came in for her now infamous annual complaint:
"Why do I have to pay all this tax? It's just not fair."
We calculated that the amount of tax that she would have to pay, was more than $50,000. That sounds like a lot until you consider what kind of income is needed to produce that kind of tax bill.
Admittedly, some of this comes from the fact that as she is old, she will remember a time when the prices of things were tenfold cheaper and then tenfold cheaper again. This however doesn't change the central reason why she thinks that having to pay tax at all is likely unfair. I suspect that she might very well complain at the apparent unfairness of having to pay $1 in tax. What is 'fairness' though? What is unfair? Why do we think we can decide?
Fairness, or rather our perception of fairness, like everything else in the world, is I think, warped by the central unavoidable fact that the centre of the universe is 19mm behind people's eyeballs. We are the heroes of our own story. We all pretend to be the heroes on the good side. As heroes of our own story, I think that our very concept of fairness, is itself warped and in very many cases, our idea of fairness is nothing more than rational (or irrational) self-interest masquerading behind the filter of our own perception.
Suppose I come at this from another angle. Fairness, that is the idea that consequences should logically follow from a set of rules which are applied and appropriate punishments metered out for transgressions of those rules, is backed by an appeal to some moral authority. The rules exist; therefore there should be some moral arbiter who gets to decide how those rules are applied. It must be said though, that that appeal to some moral authority, necessitates the invention of that moral authority. Things can not be judged as fair unless there is some judge to judge things as fair.
This is why we appoint referees in sports. The football World Cup, having just been played in Qatar and been won by Argentina, has a very small number of rules and a very small number of judges and referees who are on neither of the sides which are playing. This is also why we appoint judges in courtrooms, police officers in the streets, and politicians in parliaments. All of them are charged with the responsibility of judging, enforcing, and making the rules. Underlying all of this, is what looks like an innate sense of right and wrong. We think that we have a mens conscia recti, a mind aware of what is right, but do we really? Or is it yet again just our rational (or irrational) self-interest masquerading behind the filter of our own perception?
We expect the world, we expect the kosmos at large, to comply with our sense of fairness. Even from small children, our parents tell us that there are rules and enforce them. "Because I said so" is not only a statement that there are rules ("I said so") but a statement that there is an authority ("Because I"). The "Because I" in this case, is a parent. Our teachers teach also tell us that there are rules. Work hard and you will pass an exam. All kinds of teachers teach us that following the rules comes with rewards for doing so. Be good and you will receive some lollies (or possibly not). Press button; receive bacon. Be bad and you will get no lollies. Fail to press button; receive no bacon.
Reality though has other ideas. Even if you study really hard, you could still fail an exam. Even if you work really hard, you could still miss out on a promotion. Even if you are really polite and act nicely, that other person might not return your affection. Here's the problem. We expect the world, we expect the kosmos at large, to comply with our sense of fairness. The problem isn’t that life is unfair; it is that people have a broken idea of fairness, which stems from the fact that we all are the heroes of our own story.
As we are the heroes of our own story, we have a tendency to get frightfully disappointed when other people do things which don't validate our sense of our heroship. Think about that person who you took a fancy to but didn't return or validate your affection. That person is a complete and autonomous person in their own right. That person has an entirely different set of experiences, of desires, or wishes, and affections, that are different to you because they are not you. That person is someone with years of lived experience which are completely different to yours. Worse, they deal with hundreds and maybe thousands of people in a year, that also are not you. Exactly what are the odds that you are not the first pick for their affections? Just because you feel something for them, does not mean that they are obliged to return that affection. Your own sense of heroship might very well be offended their decision is not about you. If this is a judgement which is about you, then apply that same juddgement in the other direction. Equally think about the people whom may have expressed some kind of affection to you but you did not reciprocate.
Apply this same judgement to positions of authority. People will often say that they hate their bosses, or their parents, or politicians, or the police, or the judiciary. Why? Because they also do things which don't validate our sense of our heroship. We think that their judgements are unfair and stupid. Why? Because they don’t agree with us and validate our sense of our heroship. They jolly well should. It is an outrage! I am the hero of my own story and therefore I am unquestionably the greatest authority on everything ever in the whole world!
Granted, there are some horrible people in positions of authority. There are bosses who are unkind and uncaring. There are parents who are neglectful. There are politicians who are self-serving. There are police who are corrupt. There are members of the judiciary who are not just. This is not to say that they are all evil monsters, who are trying to feather their own nests, line their pockets with money, or deliberately trying to multiply your misery. The truth (and this is hideously unpopular) is that most people who have been placed in positions of authority have displayed some instance of character, of responsibility, and perhaps some degree of skill and initiative which put them there. People who have been placed in authority are generally aware of the power that they hold and I would say that most are trying to do their best job that they can, which might entail different outcomes to your wishes, and certainly under different circumstances to your own.
People who have been charged with the responsibility of judging, enforcing, and making the rules, likely know things that you do not know. Your boss is likely acutely aware of the climate of the economy and does not want to go bankrupt. Your parents likely have learned from experience and know that there are things which are dangerous. Politicians, the police, and the judiciary, are not only engaged in the process of making the rules and enforcing them but they are also shaped by the society which put them there and must respond to it. They will also have been required to learn the rules from an academic and vocational standpoint, so that they can make and enforce the rules.
All of these people will have different priorities to you. Likely, their actions have nothing to do with how you feel but rather, they are trying to do the job that has been charged to them. Their actions are not inherently unfair because quite often, our sense of fairness is actually not actually genuine but rather, a skillfully constructed masquerade, by ourselves and for ourselves, as the hero of our own story. Drop the mask, and quite often all we see is a desire for wish fulfilment and a cloak to hide our own bad behaviour. If we violate the rules, then as the heroes of our own story, we want to do massive rewrites of either the rules or the circumstances, or the story of those rules and circumstances because we even offend ourselves.
Can you actually imagine just how chaotic and insane the kosmos would be if it played to everyone's sense of 'fairness'? With eight billion of us on the planet, that is a lot of people for whom the kosmos would constantly have to change and adapt for. The truth is, the kosmos is playing by proper rules. Society is playing by proper rules, even if they are relative. They do make sense. They are knowable and searchable. Sometimes they are complicated. Sometimes they are not comfortable. Sometimes they offend our sense of our heroship. Breaking them has consequences. Fairness is not dependent on how you feel about it. The rules exist; therefore there should be some moral arbiter who gets to decide how those rules are applied. That arbiter is likely not you.
Aside:
An effective single-digit rate of income tax on many many thousands of dollarpounds of income, is likely fair. It is less than the effective rate of consumption tax on a Whizzo chocolate bar. The amount of tax on that is only pennycents in the dollarpound.
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