If Karl Marx (or Bernie Sanders) looked at my tax returns, he would call me "middle-class."  But that term makes me very upset.  Ever since I got my first job, I've always identified, however much I made, with poor people.  Even in years when I've made a solid five-figure income, I have felt like a person who makes about $5,000 a year, below the taxable level. That's why I get very upset when I am asked to pay taxes every year.  It seems to go against my self-declared income identity.  I feel as though the government is forcing me to be something I'm not.  I pay  five or ten times the taxes of many other taxpayers, but I feel like the poor person who gets the same highways and national security benefits but pays nothing for them. I suspect that there are a lot of people like this out there.  I call us the TransIncomed.  We are people who make five- or six-figure incomes but identify more with people making...(Read Full Post)