art imitates life

I'm currently reading The Sirens Sang of Murder (Sarah Caudwell, 1989), a light mystery set in Europe dealing with lawyers and taxes. I came across the following - amazing me completely.

In discussing clients who "are the sort of people who are anxious to hide their funds away... " "But surely, there is nothing necessarily criminal about keeping money in such places... the purpose may be perfecty legitimate tax avoidance... in some cases avoidance [maybe] downright evasion - why else the secrecy? Even if the money itself is honestly come by - and that is by no means always the case - ... that [is] not a crime to be treated lightly. In my view a man who enjoys the privileges of living in a country, and yet is not willing to make his just contribution to that country's [resources], is no more an upright or honorable man than one who spends a week at a ... hotel and leaves without paying the bill..."

These are quotes from a discussion between a professor and a judge.

You can imagine how surprised I was at the clarity of the statements and how art imitates life... or did life imitate art?