Mike's Friday Rant

I have a complaint. It's about people who complain about taxes. Call me a "tax and spend" liberal if you wish, but it has gone too far. Complaining about your FICA? I have no issues with that. I don't even know what FICA stands for. Bitching about social security? That's cool, I think we all know those mooching baby boomers are going to eat up all the money and we're going to have to rely on our future ungrateful kids to support us.
But the estate tax? C'mon!! Our federal government cannot figure out how to run a budget. They have decided to invest billions in a futile war, billions in a futile border fence, and have already cut the taxes of the richest 1 percent of Americans. Are they really asking for too much by taking away money from dead people? Have we become a society resembling the ancicent Egyptians, in which we feel it necessary to bury our wealthiest citizens with all their treasures and wordly possesions?
I would like to think not. I would like to think our government can collect money from dead people to pay for important public services and not have to hear so many complaints. It's not like they are taxing war orphans for donating their kidney to disease-ridden boy scouts. They are taking money from people who made a fortune in their lifetime, had access to the best healthcare, the trophiest of trophy wives, and the countriest of country clubs. Do they really need to have the biggest posthumous bank accounts, too? Yes, we can all see your Jaguar is more impressive than my 1996 Saturn, but I'd like for things to even out a bit in the afterlife.
I know what you're thinking: "Mike, you make some plausible and almost-witty points, but it's the principle that bothers me! We already pay income tax on that money, so it's like being taxed twice! I find that morally reprehensible." Walking up to an open casket and punching the deceased in the face when the funeral reception is over is morally reprehensible, too, but last I checked that was legal, and harms no one. When I die, the government can take all my money for all I care. I'll even give them my Star Wars figures. Because as much as I love the Fett, I can't play with him when I'm dead.
So please, Mr. economically conservative, tax-aversive Wall Street Journal subscriber, spare me the lecture on how disgraceful our federal government is for daring to take their little piece of the pie. Because wouldn't you rather have Grandpa Agnus pay for that future war in Iran?