“Taxaphobe” definition: Someone who irrationally fears and/or compulsively opposes taxes.
Details: Taxaphobes tend to irrationally fear and compulsively oppose taxes, even if they strengthen the economy, increase overall prosperity, constitute good fiscal policy, benefit the middle and working classes, are widely considered fair and reasonable, and redistribute dubiously or illegitimately obtained wealth from the ultra-rich to everyone else.
Adjective: taxaphobic
Comparative: more taxaphobic
Superlative: most taxaphobic
Alternative spelling: taxophobic
Etymology: tax + -a- + -phobic
Pathology: Though not yet recognized as a severe pathology by the Canadian Medical Association or Canadian Psychological Association, rational and well-adjusted people can easily recognize taxaphobes, as they display clearly self-destructive behaviour, arguing against their own well-being and long-term prosperity in favour of paying a few dollars less in taxes, in exchange for many dollars less in public services, less justice in society, and a weaker economy. Furthermore, taxaphobes generally suffer from various delusions, such as delusions of a brighter future when wealth magically “trickles down” from the uber-rich they oppose taxing, or the delusions of grandeur that characterize the willing accomplices of the wealth-defense industry (lawyers, accountants, anti-tax lobbyists and propagandists...), who sell their souls for a nice paycheque, and end up dying of loneliness, emptiness, alienation, family breakups and associated illnesses, while sometimes also getting robbed in old age by former colleagues who share their approval of swindling the vulnerable.
Remedies: The only known cure is to recognize the idiocy of opposing your own self-interest, while also undermining the best interests of almost everyone you know, care about, and love, then turn over a new leaf, and make the most of your remaining years on Earth. Unfortunately, in the case of wealth-industry accomplices, eventually the crushing guilt of having dedicated a career to hurting people becomes too much to bear, and they generally turn to cult leaders, long conversations with robots spouting conspiracy theories on social media, and getting rejected on dating apps.
- 1992, George F. Will, Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home 1986-1990, Free Press (1992), ISBN 9780029344361, page 173: Today Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, from Illinois, has the challenging task of selling a taxaphobic nation on the rationality of spending much more on infrastructure.
- 2009, A. Semed Atick, Oh America!: Through The Eyes of an Immigrant, Xlibris (2009), ISBN 9781436371537, unnumbered page: The complicated U.S. taxation systems, the bureaucratic madness of the April 15th deadline, drive honest taxpayers insane and most have become taxaphobic.
- 2011, Patrick J. Buchanan, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, Thomas Dunne Books (2011), ISBN 9780312579975, page 29: Taxes drove the American Revolution, for we were a taxaphobic people who believed in severely limited government.
Related article: The Triumph of Taxophobia, Spring 2011, Jonathan Chait, Democracy Journal
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