4 ms·

People already go to prison for tax evasion, if they're doing it systematically and deliberately. I don't understand the (apparently popular) argument that ser

People already go to prison for tax evasion, if they're doing it systematically and deliberately. I don't understand the (apparently popular) argument that serious criminal penalties should only be handed out for direct physical violence. Look at all the horrible shit that happened during the housing collapse--taking someone's home away under false pretenses (and under threat of police violence!) is just as destructive as if you'd burned it down while they were away.

aminok 10y ago
Two wrongs don't make a right. No one should go to prison for refusing to hand over a share of the currency that they earned in a private trade. There is so much admiration for the covert mass surveillance that Edward Snowden uncovered and exposed to the world yet we seem to not blink an eye at the blatant and overt mass surveillance of private financial transactions - where we are legally required to totally surrender our financial privacy to the government - that has to be imposed on people so that there can even be an income tax. Refusing to hand over your private income is totally incomparable to fraud. I honestly have trouble understanding how people can make these kinds of arguments.
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  So we should completely abolish taxes, then? I assume this is one of those plans where we privatize all government services and the free market makes everything perfectly efficient and utopic, except for the people who can't afford to pay their police bill?
  - aminok 10y ago
    We should only allow the government to raise revenue from a split-rate property tax and user fees for government services used. Non-payment of the former should only be punishable by land expropriation, and not imprisonment.
    - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
      So it's the "police bill" thing, then?
      - aminok 10y ago
        User fees would be for things like use of roads. Services like policing would be paid out of revenue collected by a split rate property tax.

aminok 10y ago

Two wrongs don't make a right. No one should go to prison for refusing to hand over a share of the currency that they earned in a private trade. There is so much admiration for the covert mass surveillance that Edward Snowden uncovered and exposed to the world yet we seem to not blink an eye at the blatant and overt mass surveillance of private financial transactions - where we are legally required to totally surrender our financial privacy to the government - that has to be imposed on people so that there can even be an income tax. Refusing to hand over your private income is totally incomparable to fraud. I honestly have trouble understanding how people can make these kinds of arguments.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
So we should completely abolish taxes, then? I assume this is one of those plans where we privatize all government services and the free market makes everything perfectly efficient and utopic, except for the people who can't afford to pay their police bill?
- aminok 10y ago
  We should only allow the government to raise revenue from a split-rate property tax and user fees for government services used. Non-payment of the former should only be punishable by land expropriation, and not imprisonment.
  - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
    So it's the "police bill" thing, then?
    - aminok 10y ago
      User fees would be for things like use of roads. Services like policing would be paid out of revenue collected by a split rate property tax.