The point here isn't so much that all taxes are unreasonable as that, in this scenario, there are no capital gains, but you're paying capital gains taxes anyway. You're paying a 10% tax (assuming capital gains tax rate of 15%) on an investment that is down 17%.
True enough. Though… the original example is in the bank. If I stick $2.99 in the bank, in 30 years, I'll have $3.08. (Or $0 when the bank decides to add some random fee, which is why my H"S"A is currently giving a negative return…)
