4 ms·

You must live in: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon. (Or be oblivious) States where the sale of a cup of coffee doesn't involve a tax.

jshaqaw 9y ago
When you grow up and have kids (ie you aren’t 11 anymore) you may appreciate things like schools, safe roads, etc... that come with those sales tax dollars instead of viewing it as totalitarian expropriation.
- mehrdada 9y ago
  Interestingly not all places with high tax rates actually have good schools, safe roads, etc. Rather, there are countries to invade, bankers to bail out, old-school industries to sustain.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    Sales tax isn't going to any of those.
    - mehrdada 9y ago
      The point is much more abstract. The point is it’s not an obviously non-controversial point of view that being 12 magically solves, as the post pertains it to be. While we are at it, yes, disenfranchisement of young voters who are mostly single definitely makes tax dollars more favorable to married folks and people with children. It’s not like most societies need to subsidize overpopulation, yet they do. Some food for thought.
- pravinva 9y ago
  Ah, the muh roads, argument.
  - dang 9y ago
    Please don't post uncivil or unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- neilwilson 9y ago
  And when you get beyond 15 you'll realise none of those have anything to do with tax dollars. The state spends on goods for sale in its currency out of thin air. That then creates the taxation via the transaction sequence induced. The state currency is there to allow public provision.
- dang 9y ago
  Personal attacks are not allowed on HN. We ban accounts that do this, so please read the rules (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and don't do it again.
blibble 9y ago
must? there's more to the world than the United States I live in the UK, there's no sales tax and the sole trader selling coffee at my local railway station is almost certainly below the VAT registration threshold, so there's no tax on the purchase at all regardless, paying a tax embedded in the price of a good is not the same thing as consulting the government on the purchase
- lostmsu 9y ago
  I am impressed how you mentioned UK, and parent mentioned a cup of cofee, but both of you failed to recognize, that I was talking about billions of people, who actually live under totalitarian governments. Where illegal stuff mentioned in some other comments might be buying certain books under threat of death penalty in some extreme, but still dangerously common cases. First world people still can only see first world problems.
  - betterunix2 9y ago
    What stops a totalitarian government from blocking Bitcoin at the national level?
    - sdfgelgh43oito3 9y ago
      Nothing; but they wont. Do you think the VPN ban applies to banks? Selective network enforcement for social control, not economic damage to yourself.
  - jcranmer 9y ago
    The currency being used has no bearing on whether or not the government will find out if you're buying illegal goods. What matters is the ability of the government to discern the nature of the transaction, which has more to do with its ability to co-opt others (e.g., banks) into identifying and reporting such transactions, and (to a rather limited degree) the ability to prove existence of transactions via the payment method (which Bitcoin is actually bad at since it is basically a public ledger of who paid whom, if you can map names to keys).
eugeniub 9y ago
Weird how whenever I try to buy something with bitcoin on Overstock it still makes me pay sales tax. Bitcoin must be a big government conspiracy.
eridius 9y ago
Tax just tracks that the transaction occurred, it doesn't track who's doing the transaction. But if you don't like even that much, then replace "cup of coffee" with "lemonade from a neighborhood lemonade stand".
- kijin 9y ago
  Moreover, most cash transactions at small shops aren't even tracked individually. The merchant will just report the sum of sales for a given period if he's honest, or a completely unrelated value pulled from thin air if he's not.

jshaqaw 9y ago

When you grow up and have kids (ie you aren’t 11 anymore) you may appreciate things like schools, safe roads, etc... that come with those sales tax dollars instead of viewing it as totalitarian expropriation.

mehrdada 9y ago
Interestingly not all places with high tax rates actually have good schools, safe roads, etc. Rather, there are countries to invade, bankers to bail out, old-school industries to sustain.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  Sales tax isn't going to any of those.
  - mehrdada 9y ago
    The point is much more abstract. The point is it’s not an obviously non-controversial point of view that being 12 magically solves, as the post pertains it to be. While we are at it, yes, disenfranchisement of young voters who are mostly single definitely makes tax dollars more favorable to married folks and people with children. It’s not like most societies need to subsidize overpopulation, yet they do. Some food for thought.
pravinva 9y ago
Ah, the muh roads, argument.
- dang 9y ago
  Please don't post uncivil or unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
neilwilson 9y ago
And when you get beyond 15 you'll realise none of those have anything to do with tax dollars. The state spends on goods for sale in its currency out of thin air. That then creates the taxation via the transaction sequence induced. The state currency is there to allow public provision.
dang 9y ago
Personal attacks are not allowed on HN. We ban accounts that do this, so please read the rules (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and don't do it again.

blibble 9y ago

must? there's more to the world than the United States I live in the UK, there's no sales tax and the sole trader selling coffee at my local railway station is almost certainly below the VAT registration threshold, so there's no tax on the purchase at all regardless, paying a tax embedded in the price of a good is not the same thing as consulting the government on the purchase

lostmsu 9y ago
I am impressed how you mentioned UK, and parent mentioned a cup of cofee, but both of you failed to recognize, that I was talking about billions of people, who actually live under totalitarian governments. Where illegal stuff mentioned in some other comments might be buying certain books under threat of death penalty in some extreme, but still dangerously common cases. First world people still can only see first world problems.
- betterunix2 9y ago
  What stops a totalitarian government from blocking Bitcoin at the national level?
  - sdfgelgh43oito3 9y ago
    Nothing; but they wont. Do you think the VPN ban applies to banks? Selective network enforcement for social control, not economic damage to yourself.
- jcranmer 9y ago
  The currency being used has no bearing on whether or not the government will find out if you're buying illegal goods. What matters is the ability of the government to discern the nature of the transaction, which has more to do with its ability to co-opt others (e.g., banks) into identifying and reporting such transactions, and (to a rather limited degree) the ability to prove existence of transactions via the payment method (which Bitcoin is actually bad at since it is basically a public ledger of who paid whom, if you can map names to keys).

eugeniub 9y ago

Weird how whenever I try to buy something with bitcoin on Overstock it still makes me pay sales tax. Bitcoin must be a big government conspiracy.

eridius 9y ago

Tax just tracks that the transaction occurred, it doesn't track who's doing the transaction. But if you don't like even that much, then replace "cup of coffee" with "lemonade from a neighborhood lemonade stand".

kijin 9y ago
Moreover, most cash transactions at small shops aren't even tracked individually. The merchant will just report the sum of sales for a given period if he's honest, or a completely unrelated value pulled from thin air if he's not.