A Personal Anecdote

Back to Blog

I want to share a little bit of personal history that is relevant to how I came to write a novel so critical of government. In 2010 I closed down my middle market merger and acquisition advisory firm. It was a victim of the economic malaise that followed the 2009 financial crisis. I did some work for another firm on a fee split basis. The City of Los Angeles performed an audit of compliance with the local business license tax. The highlights of a long story include the City’s position that both I and an unrelated entity pay tax on the same revenue from the same transaction, an administrative hearing held by a bureaucrat who could not speak English and had no concept of the nature of a contract, and a private admission by the City’s legal counsel that “you’re right in your position, but that’s not the way we do it.” I cancelled my business license and embarked on a new venture, resolving never to generate a dime of revenue in California.

On August 1, 2010, I sent the following to my friends, colleagues and business acquaintances:

To:     The City of Los Angeles

          The County of Los Angeles

          The State of California

          The United States of America

Each of which, to the extent of its power, pursues economic, fiscal, monetary, tax and regulatory policies the principal effect of which is the suppression of economic activity. There is no fruit of labor when the field is plowed under, the orchard is burned and the larder is plundered.  Enough is enough.

                                                              *         *         *         *

I intend to spend more of my time building and maintaining a website as a repository of content and commentary on all manner of subjects ranging from the spiritual to its antithesis, the political.

                                                               In The Course

Copyright © 2023 chucktroe.com