In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead.
We may not like our times or many aspects of the time we live in but that is not the fault of art as such.
It's not so much the amount of tax we pay - it's the sense that our pocket's being picked without our knowing what's going on.