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This is naive. Incentives matter. No matter how much you try to ethically spin it, actors generally perceive taxation as adversarial. Any country implementing a
by vezzy-fnord 11y ago
This is naive. Incentives matter. No matter how much you try to ethically spin it, actors generally perceive taxation as adversarial. Any country implementing a tax policy is fully aware of the risks they take from noncompliance and avoidance.
(Avoiding or resisting taxes is also not always a purely self-interested endeavor. It's a tried and true political protest technique.)
- the_cat_kittles 11y agoits naive to think that a bullet proof tax code can be written, at least based on history. at some point people need to be accountable for their actions, and not given a pass just because they can avoid breaking the law. its fine if you disagree about where that point is.
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoYou have the causal chain backwards. It is the initiator of an action who must plan their decisions to reach an optimal end. It is not the fault of a consumer for refusing to engage in a given exchange with a producer. It is the producer who must make their offers palatable. In the same way, the government, being the one levying the tax, is the entity which ultimately bears the burden of structuring its tax policy to achieve the highest return.
- the_cat_kittles 11y agothat sounds like ignoring practice in favor of theory. when your boss asks you to build them something, you dont ask finer and more detailed questions until you have gotten them to write the code. i think its bad to let the lowest common denominator dictate our legislative policy- the lowest common denominator is going to fuck you over regardless.