GovernmentExecutive.com

So, it's Tax Day, and there are a lot of protesters in town who for "Tea Parties" are, to say the least, not so happy about President Obama's tax and fiscal policy. But fortunately, it's also a day when people say useful things about the impact of taxes and provide interesting charts about where our taxes actually go. And it's a good time to reflect on the art that taxation's created.

President Obama kicked off the serious bit of that tax conversation by noting that Tax Day "is an important opportunity for those of us in Washington to consider our responsibilities to the people who sent us here and who pay the bills." It's not quite as pithy--or snarky--as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' statement that “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization,” but it'll do. And if you need a specific reminder of what kinds of civilization you're purchasing with your taxes, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a useful breakout chart (on a workforce note, benefits for federal retirees and vets makes up 6 percent of the budget).

Paying taxes isn't pleasant. You send off a chunk of money, and nothing comes back directly; you just keep living your life, and traffic lights keep working, and people keep getting their pensions, and aircraft carriers keep not sinking. Nothing really changes. Civilization doesn't come to you via UPS or direct deposit.

That mental struggle has inspired some fun art. In Tony Kushner's wonderful short play "East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis" explores the motivations behind the real-life spread of a tax evasion scheme among New York City public employees. The very funny movie "Stranger than Fiction" is set in motion when Will Ferrell's IRS auditor character shows up to go over the returns of a liberal baker played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who has only paid 73 percent of her taxes because she doesn't want to fund defense projects. "I didn't pay those taxes," she says. "I believe I sent a letter to this effect with my return." "Would that be the letter beginning with 'Dear Imperialist Swine'?" our hero asks her. David Foster Wallace's final novel, which will be published incomplete after his suicide, is about IRS agents and their struggle to stay mindful and attentive. It being a DFW novel, it will probably also involve a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with taxation, although apparently he got very into the tax code while writing it.

In other words, taxes make us a little crazy even as we (generally) appreciate the things that paying taxes brings us. The art's a side benefit. But civilization's not half bad.