I got really really screwed by taxation, to a degree that is hard to fathom. This is not just your run of the mill complaining about taxes though I do that (and complain about work, and complain about the weather, and complain about traffic, and complain about the line at the store and .... ).
But no in all seriousness, THIS IS REAL. A real true crime pretty much. Some other financial figuring related to taxes brought it up today and it's like a kick in the gut and a sinking feeling in the stomach all over again, and a feeling of loss (the loss was purely financial but nonetheless). And I realized then I had repressed thoughts about this issue (since last April). Because I had to repress it, I was also unemployed and HAD to deal with THAT, I couldn't spend time thinking of how badly I got screwed all the time. I had to move on with life. But it still hurts, and causes paranoid feelings of distrust of everything if I think about it. The tax code is not fair (and it's not progressiveness I'm taking issue with or even capital gains or anything like that), it's not just.
None of this is to deny that I have been financially pretty fortunate in life overall. I know that, I know it well, counting one's blessings and so on. That's how I've dealt with it. It was some small tiny bit of fortunateness that led me into this snare in the first place, but the snare itself was entirely unjust. It could be worse, I do remind myself that the actual dollar amounts weren't astronomical (nor were they amounts I can save up quickly of course! they were significant just not astronomical)
Easy come, easy go, such is money .... sigh .............