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According to the Occupy Wall Street crowd, they speak for me on account of how my income and wealth are insufficient to put me in the top one percent of Americans.

This is for them.

First, shut the fuck up.

Second, let’s have a reality check here. 47% of Americans pay no federal income tax at all: whatever withholdings get taken out they get refunded back each April 15. If you’re part of the 47% you have little incentive to have sane thoughts on income tax policy. Maybe you do have sane thoughts. Maybe you don’t. But until you have skin in the game I’m going to assume that you’re woefully ignorant on the subject of taxation. It’s nothing personal. I just don’t see any incentive for you to pay attention, and that means I think you’re probably not.

While we’re at it, stop trotting out that old hackneyed line from Justice Holmes about how with taxes he purchases civilization. When Holmes said that line he was giving four percent of his income to the government. This year I’m going to pay almost forty percent of my income to the government. In each eight-hour day of labor, the government takes three hours and twelve minutes of my productivity.

Every. Goddamned. Day.

Believe it or not I don’t complain too much about my taxes. We’ve got some very real budget problems and I understand there are no pain-free ways out of this ball of suck. The President is promising not to raise taxes for 98% of Americans, the Republicans are promising not to raise taxes for 100% of Americans, and I just stand here slack-jawed. These imbeciles have run our nation’s economy into the ground and now we’re looking to them to get us out of it? Screw that. If someone can make a credible claim to me that if I were to pay another five percent net in taxes — hiking my tax rate by 12%, more than anyone in Congress is currently lobbying for even on the high end — that we could get out of this financial quagmire, I would grind my teeth into powder and put my shoulder to the wheel.

We’re Americans. Hard work is in our blood. France is the nation of the 35-hour workweek. America is the nation of overtime.

So, yeah, I’m actually okay with higher taxes, if someone can present something even vaguely resembling an actual plan. Which, so far, not just hasn’t happened but is now approaching the realm of deluded fantasy. We’re talking about a Congress that hasn't passed a budget in over 900 days. 900 days. Why should I have any confidence in their financial predictions if they can’t even pass a budget?

What makes me prickly about the prospect of tax hikes, though — and especially from the OWS crowd — is that so far none of them have had the decency to say what’s clearly, obviously, true.

None of them have had the decency to look me in the eye and say, “You made good decisions. You’re above water financially. You’ve got a good job. You’ve got good future earnings prospects. And we know that our government is already forcing you to work for them for three hours and twelve minutes each day. And we want our government to force you to work for them for four hours a day. Forty-eight minutes longer each day, from here on out.”

Because that’s really what we’re talking about, folks. That’s really what it boils down to.

I’m willing to do this for my country. I’m willing to do this for my fellow citizen. I’m willing to do this for a patchouli-stinking graduate student in art history who thinks he’d be a lot better off if I were to be forced to work forty-eight minutes a day more so that he can be delivered from the consequences of his stupid financial decisions.

I just want someone to look me in the eye and be honest about it, and tell me that yes, this sucks, and they understand exactly what it is they’re demanding of me.

The fact that nobody has done this just makes me think nobody understands.

And I’m not willing to work an extra forty-eight minutes a day for people who don’t even understand what they’re demanding I do for them.