Plane Crashes into building in Austin, Texas

[Admiral Drason]

(CNN) -- A small airplane crashed Thursday morning into a building in Austin, Texas, said Lynn Lundsford of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Firefighters used a ladder truck and other equipment to hose down the blaze at the building, which police said was located in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard.

Are you there? Share your photos, video, stories with CNN

Traffic on a nearby interstate started to snarl as black smoke poured out of the building.

Details were still forthcoming, authorities said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas. ... tml?hpt=T1

[Isolder74]

You just know that this is going to end up in the next edition of Loose Change as proof that a plane can't bring down a building.

[Broomstick]

Yeah, cause a PA28-140 2-seat Cherokee is identical in all ways to a Boeing 757!



Edit: Now there are reports is a Cirrus SR-22, which, excuse me, is a four seat airplane. Same difference.

[Master of Ossus]

The CNN Ticker is saying that the pilot did it intentionally. I'm not sure how they know that, at this point.

[FSTargetDrone]

Update to the OP story:

(CNN) -- The latest news as it comes in to CNN from the scene of the crash of a small plane in Austin, Texas. (All times are ET, one hour ahead of local Austin time.)

12:42 p.m.: The pilot of the plane had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane and crashed it intentionally, a federal official told CNN.

Dammit, if this was intentional, why couldn't he have suicided into an empty field...

Brief video update.

This building houses a "federal tax agency".

Speculation: Maybe this is a grudge thing.

[Isolder74]

Yeah, cause a PA28-140 2-seat Cherokee is identical in all ways to a Boeing 757!



Edit: Now there are reports is a Cirrus SR-22, which, excuse me, is a four seat airplane. Same difference.

And a fire on a 4 story office complex that is reachable by every piece of Kit in the Fire Department is the same thing as a fire on the 110 story World Trade Center.

[Broomstick]

The CNN Ticker is saying that the pilot did it intentionally. I'm not sure how they know that, at this point.

There was at least one eyewitness who was a pilot who reported that the airplane was flying in a controlled manner and it sounded, to him, as if the throttle was firewalled. This would indicate intention, as opposed to sputtery engine noise, no engine noise, erratic flight, or other indications of an airplane in distress, which might even include a radio mayday.

As usual, the news agencies have to say "the pilot did not file a flight plan". Given the weather visible in the videos, and the type of airplane, the pilot wasn't in any way required to file a flight plan under US regulations. In other words, it's a meaningless fact under the circumstances.

[Masami von Weizegger]

This is supposedly the "manifesto" of the perpetrator/plane owner, Joseph Andrew Stack.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml# ... tteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· "another person" is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· "taxpayer" is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· "individual", "employee", or "worker" is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

[FSTargetDrone]

Apparently the aircraft was not stolen. The pilot evidently owned it.

[Broomstick]

Wonderful.

So he takes a small airplane - remember how he bitched about the post-9/11 restrictions? - and deliberately crashes it into a building. You know what that's going to do? Renew calls to abolish general aviation in this country, or at least so restrict it as to have the same effect.

He's pissed at the rich and powerful, and the IRS, so he crashes that airplane into a building that's probably full of government drones with no more power than he - because fucking up the lives of government peons will somehow... do what? It won't change a goddamned thing, really.

Although I've been wondering for some time when folks were going to get fed up enough to start attempting some real damage at their perceived oppressors... wonder if this is an outlier or the sign of a new trend?

[Honeyed Pomegranate]

He's pissed at the rich and powerful, and the IRS, so he crashes that airplane into a building that's probably full of government drones with no more power than he - because fucking up the lives of government peons will somehow... do what? It won't change a goddamned thing, really.

Neither suicide or terrorism are particularly rationale. A large portion of both are a resentment towards perceived impotence.

I am curious how the Tea-Baggers and their politicians will react to this though. Rick Perry was mighty big on suggesting decisive action being taken to show the federal government who is in charge during all of the separatist rallies of last year.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Wow.

Assuming that everything in his 'manifesto' is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (a vast assumption, but,) then this guy really, really got the short end of the stick; especially when his accountant stabbed him in the back and inexplicably threw him under the bus during an audit. At that point, one has to wonder if his accountant wasn't really on the IRS' payroll.


Still, attempting murder and commiting suicide via airplane and kamikaze is indefensible, yet despite that, I can understand the motives and frustrations behind it. A lone person up against the IRS, especially one who's already been scorched by them once for attempting to make full and legal use of the tax law and having been fried ebcause he wasn't wealthy enough is in pretty much one of the worst positions to be in in this country. Some time ago I recall seeing a web-site which was full of nothing but people posting their IRS woes, most of them desperate, quite a few suicidal.

He was clearly hoping that his act of violence might spur others in a similar situation to similar acts. If it is the start of a new trend, though, I'd be quite surprised. Americans as a general rule are easily pacified by cheap entertainment. In a way, it amplifies the situation; without the cheap entertainment being available, the abuses which Joe Stack claimed were heaped upon him would be more visible; with enough people being similarly abused, and (critically) enough people up in arms demanding something be done, something would be done. However, nobody gets up in arms since they can go and drown out the bad thoughts with American Idol or whatever's their poison of choice, thus leaving those desperates caught in such situations to get more and more frenzied until the inevitable happens. One usually expects people in such straits to take their own lives, but Joe Stack clearly decided to take some of his tormentors (real or percieved) down and out with him.

Worryingly, I wonder if this might be the beginning of a new trend. While I'll admit that the thought of soulless tax enforcerers who let the Mormons and $cientologists get away with blatent violations of their tax exempt statuses yet will drop the heavy end of the hammer down on John Q. Public - simply because J.Q. Public has less means to fight back with and they aren't inclined to go after big fish - getting their due is a thought which appeals to the primal part which craves vengeance, even if everyone unjustly targeted by the IRS took up a rifle and started shooting up beancounters, all that would result is a little anarchy and more and more draconian laws. There's not enough people pissed off to start a real revoloution which had a chance in hell of winning. It would be pointless to try, sad to see fail, and I highly doubt that even if such a guerilla war against the IRS were waged, it would remotely come close to achieving any change, to say nothing of being anything other than indefensible terrorism.

Yet, it might come to that. Some terrorists commit heinous acts because of ideology, but some simply participate because they feel as if they've nothing left to live for, only a list of people who have wronged them and driven their life to pointlessness. That would be tragic.

[Liberty]

I'm confused. How did the guy get screwed over? He starts quoting the tax code, and that's where I get lost.

[FSTargetDrone]

If it isn't small aircraft, it can be a nut in a car driving into crowds.

I'm less concerned about a few high-profile acts like this than I am about people making bad laws trying to deal with unusual events such as this. Making it harder to fly, etc.

By the way, this waste of skin evidently set his home on fire with his wife and daughter on the premises. Fuck him. No excuse, no sympathy.

[Lost Soal]

There are two arguments which will drown out everything else about this event.
1. Was it "Right Wing Terrorism"; Anti Tax, government, or "Left Wing Terrorism"; Anti Religion, Corporations, Bush
2. How much blame does Obama get.

[Rogue 9]

I'm confused. How did the guy get screwed over? He starts quoting the tax code, and that's where I get lost.

The section of the tax code in question exempts independent contractors from being considered employees for tax purposes, which has all sorts of implications, most of them bad for the employee.

[FSTargetDrone]

There are two arguments which will drown out everything else about this event.
1. Was it "Right Wing Terrorism"; Anti Tax, government, or "Left Wing Terrorism"; Anti Religion, Corporations, Bush
2. How much blame does Obama get.

He's kind of all over the place in his rant. Seems to hate everyone.

[Tanasinn]

Considering he apparently considered himself so cornered as to crash a plane into a building, that's not surprising. You'll often see the same thing with school shooters responding to peer abuse; everyone is a part of the problem and they act accordingly.

Most of the guy's hate seems to be centered around government corruption in the interest of the extremely rich, however. His lambasting of organized religion and the Bush administration (as well as his quoting of a line frequently associated with communists) leaves little doubt how this will be spun.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see copy-cats, though - see the reactions on the right and the left over the Supreme Court's behavior, for example.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I'm confused. How did the guy get screwed over? He starts quoting the tax code, and that's where I get lost.

@Rogue9: From what I read, some time in the '80s he and a bunch of his pals got together to pour over the tax code to find and implement (for themselves) every sort of ridiculous and preposterous applicable form of tax dodge, loop and barrel-roll being employed (at the time) by (among other organizations) the Roman Catholic Church. He stated that their intent in so doing was to raise awareness and (hopefully) cause change to be enacted in order to shaft the entities he disliked by closing up their tax holes.

Instead, what happened was more or less what happens to everyone who takes on the IRS without a budget of at least one million dollars: they straight rail-roaded him, intrepreting their tax codes as they saw fit. I presume (though he didn't specify) that he and his pals attemped to take the IRS to court in order to contest the way the IRS handled things, but as is typical when the budget that pays for the judge is the same that pays for the prosecution, the court ruled in favor of the IRS.

Yes, by the way - the IRS is, as I understand it, responsible for maintaining the tax courts. A bigger conflict of interest I can't imagine short of actually making the judge and prosector the same person.

Basically, this got him on their shit list - nobody holds a grudge like the IRS. He apparently had the misfortune between then and the modern day to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, economically and employment-wise, in several situations in which he could lay the blame on the federal government. Then he apparently found himself out of work in Austin, with a wife who (reading into it a bit) gives piano lessons, and hired a tax accountant to prepare his forms; except the accountant literally betrayed him to the IRS by failing to include his wife's piano lessons gig, then pointing it out to the IRS mid-audit.

This, apparently, wiped him out.

@Lost Soal: 1: Given the vitriol he felt nessessary to spew at the RCC, even 24 years later, it seems he's an athiest, which will automatically make it left-wing terrorism even though it seemed to me the guy was relatively moderate, pollitically speaking. He didn't rant against taxes, he ranted against the unjust and unequal way in which taxes were assessed and enforced.
2: 120% of it, of course. Naturally, 'barry' might as well have been sitting in the passenger's seat urging old Joe to set engines for ramming speed and bailed out just before impact.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I'm not going to lie and say I don't sympathize with the man, I don't condone how he acted upon them, but I do agree with the things he wrote. Regardless of whether they were personally true for him, they're most certainly true for quite a few people.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

If he really was an engineer, why the fuck didn't he move to Canada or Europe? For the small price of speaking French, you too can have free healthcare, guaranteed job security, and pull the lever for the Trotskyites in elections.

[Broomstick]

I'm confused. How did the guy get screwed over? He starts quoting the tax code, and that's where I get lost.

The section of the tax code in question exempts independent contractors from being considered employees for tax purposes, which has all sorts of implications, most of them bad for the employee.

Um... yes and no.

Look, I've been an independent contractor twice in my life so I know a little about this from experience. Let's see if I can distill this, without getting too bogged down in fine detail. With a broad brush:

During the 1980's some companies (Microsoft got hauled into court on this, along with smaller firms, for example, but it extended into things like commercial artwork which, at the time, I was doing as an independent contractor) conceived the bright idea of, instead of hiring employees, employing them as independent contractors. They even sweetened the deal by offering a higher hourly rate for the arrangement. They could do this because employers in the US do not have to provide benefits to IC's - they're treated as vendors. So... no need for insurance benefits of any sort, no need to track/withhold taxes - it cuts down on the overhead enormously. A lot of people took the offer, looking only at the hourly rate, and had no clue that they were on the hook for all the rest. Me, my college, although an art school, required us to take business courses where they covered this sort of thing so I walked into such arrangements knowing I was responsible for paying quarterly taxes, for providing my own insurance, my own retirement, and so forth. A lot of other people didn't know this. Either it was never covered in college, or they were payroll employees converted to IC's as part of company reorganizations. They just didn't know, and in many cases didn't even know their own ignorance, and sure as hell no one bothered to tell them. A fuck ton of people got heavily screwed by the IRS because ignorance of the law is no excuse, right? This is why, even to this day, as soon as I hear someone say "I'm thinking of starting a business" or "I'm thinking of free-lancing" I tell them hire an accountant, and possibly a lawyer, too. As little as I make in a year I still have my taxes down by a professional because of the minefields involved in being an IC

So, essentially, you had companies that converted their payroll employees to IC's to cut overhead, but had them doing the exact same work for the exact same hours in the exact same place. Clever, huh? Exploitation in some cases. Pretty blatant at times.

The 1986 law referred to really tightened up the rules regarding IC's and companies employing them. This was both good and bad. It ended the abuse of people who really should be payroll employees but were forced into an IC relationship. It more clearly defined IC vs. payroll employee. It prevent companies from keeping people as IC's for years rather than admitting they were de facto permanent employees.

As a result, many of those "contract employees" wound up as employees of "staffing agencies" such as Kelly Services or Manpower - but those agencies at least took care of the taxes and some benefits and acted as a watchdog (to some extent) to prevent some of the worst abuses/exploitation. Unfortunately, because those services cost money, the former IC's (formerly payroll) saw their wages go down 'cause nothing is free. In some instances, companies were either forced to put people on payroll (in some cases having to pay thousands in back wages, overtime, and compensation for benefits that weren't received) or actually give up a lot of power over IC's which were henceforth treated as actual IC's, that is, independent businesses (which is what an IC is supposed to be).

Is it better or worse? Well... IF you were an educated IC fully conversant with the reporting requirements of such there really wasn't that much difference. You might alter your record keeping slightly and be careful about certain actions. Unfortunately, few people are taught these requirements, most learn them the hard way although accountants and schools are getting slightly better at informing people.

I'm not sure if that clears anything up or not. As I read it, he entered into an IC arrangement under the old rules, misunderstood his status with the company who, legally, was NOT his employer but his client (although in the fucked situations the bigger company often treated the IC as the customer, or worse yet for the IC, as a legal employee) and got fucked at tax time. He then blames the new tax law for the problem. This makes me think that when the new regs came in the big company simply dumped the IC's (which a lot of them did), which means he lost his income. That is, in fact, why having only one customer runs afoul of the new laws - if the big company is the IC's only customer then arguably the IC isn't an IC, he's an employee. (Right now, I get most of my work from one person, but he strongly encourages me to get jobs from other sources because that protects both of us under the law)

One upside to all this - because of the paperwork requirements for my taxes as an IC I actually have a means to prove I am self-employed, which wasn't the case in the early 80's when I was first an IC. In those days you were commonly treated as UNemployed when self-employed. Now, I have paperwork to prove I really do run a tiny business. Would you believe that stack of paper was useful in getting me health insurance through the state, and food stamps? Sometimes you want to leave a paper trail in the modern world. Yes, it's royal pain in the ass but it is possible to adhere to the requirements, and it isn't all bad for either side of the equation.

[Aaron]

If he really was an engineer, why the fuck didn't he move to Canada or Europe? For the small price of speaking French, you too can have free healthcare, guaranteed job security, and pull the lever for the Trotskyites in elections.

Because you can't just show up and get in? Because you have to prove you can provide for your family and yourself when you get here (ie: a job)? Because we're in a recession and work is tough to find?

BTW, you don't have to speak French to immigrate, You have to at least be functional in English or French.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

If he really was an engineer, why the fuck didn't he move to Canada or Europe? For the small price of speaking French, you too can have free healthcare, guaranteed job security, and pull the lever for the Trotskyites in elections.

Because you can't just show up and get in? Because you have to prove you can provide for your family and yourself when you get here (ie: a job)? Because we're in a recession and work is tough to find?

BTW, you don't have to speak French to immigrate, You have to at least be functional in English or French.

The question was partially rhetorical, as was the statement afterwards (i.e., not entirely meant to apply to every single country on the list), you know, and this guy's problems have been developing for twenty-five years. The point was that if he did have a college degree and a decent, employable work history and he hated America, he had 25 years in which to leave.

[Broomstick]

If he really was an engineer, why the fuck didn't he move to Canada or Europe? For the small price of speaking French, you too can have free healthcare, guaranteed job security, and pull the lever for the Trotskyites in elections.

He wasn't an engineer in the same sense you intend to be, dear - I quote the relevant bit from his own manifesto, emphasis added:

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

First - he's a software engineer. We really need a separate name for those guys. They're important, but what they're doing isn't engineering in the sense of building roads, bridges, and buildings. Anyhow - "software engineer" was one of the major categories that screwed over in the '80's and led to the law he's bitching about. Second - that's outsourced to places like India these days. People in the US who went into that profession in the 1980's are now unemployed because it's sooooo much cheaper to hire someone in Bangalore to do the work over the internet. He doesn't need to learn French, he needs to learn Hindi and accept an enormously reduced standard of living. Yeah, I'd be pissed, too. What the hell, I AM pissed about the economic shift in this country but I'm trying to find a constructive solution, not kill people and destroy things.

Also note, from same manifesto:

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need.

Money in an IRA is tax-deferred, it's not tax-exempt. Holy fuck, EVERY bit of paper I've ever seen in connection with an IRA repeats over and over that when you withdraw the money it is subject to taxation!. He withdrew money from an IRA? He has to pay taxes on it. So sorry. Ditto on interest in savings accounts, if any. Look, he's an adult, he's been out in the world some time, he should know this shit by now. If he's too lazy to do his own research he needs to hire an accountant. Oh, wait - he did. Well, I don't know then. This is very elementary stuff. Hell, my savings accounts have always been required to mail me a statement at the beginning of the year telling me what they reported to the IRS in the way of interest income. You file a copy of that with your tax forms. If you fucking read the pieces of paper coming in the mail you are told this!

Do people make mistakes? Sure they do - but it sounds like this guy is making mistakes year after year after year and learns nothing.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income[/i], not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

Alright - this guys claims he's acted as an IC. He got burned once - do you think he would have learned? Apparently not. Why the FUCK is $12k undocumented? For those of you outside the US, as a general rule, anything over $700 has to be reported (there are complicated details involved, but $700 is a good rule of thumb). As an IC he should know this! What kind of a fucking moron is he or his wife that they earn that much and don't report it? If you're 18 and it's the first year you're in business you might get away with pleading ignorance but not these two, who are clearly adults and one of whom has already been through the IRS meat-grinder. (Trust me on this - at 19 I filed my taxes incorrectly - that IC thing again. I pointed out I was 19, said "I"m sorry", and promised to sin no more. The IRS sent me a sternly worded letter detailing my exact transgressions and told me not to fuck up again. End of problem.)

Anyhow - yes, I'm annoyed at this asshole, does it show? - this moron and his wife bought a piano for a business? (I'm assuming she's a music teacher of some sort). Fine - but they should fucking know you have to report a business asset. Actually, the REALLY fucking stupid thing here is that they can used the cost of the piano as a necessary business expense to lower their tax liability on the earned income - any fucking accountant can tell you that. Hell, you can go to a library and in a half an hour figure it out yourself and how to report it. I think he didn't tell the accountant about the income or the piano until the audit, at which point the accountant is pissed at him (as the accountant can get in trouble for misreporting and probably was in the IRS gun-sights) and more than willing to let the Stacks twist in the wind to save his own ass.

Does the IRS fuck innocent people up the ass? Yes, sometimes it does - but sometimes people are their own worst enemy. Of course, I don't know the exact truth of this matter but based on Stack's words alone I'm inclined to think this guy dug his own hole and jumped in with gusto. That doesn't mean he has no legitimate grievances, but that he's got a long history of dealing poorly with problems.