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Because you didnt earn it in a vacuum. You used the roads, the educated populace, the borders, the civil society that is largely free of crime, etc. to "make" t
by kennywinker 9y ago
Because you didnt earn it in a vacuum. You used the roads, the educated populace, the borders, the civil society that is largely free of crime, etc. to "make" the money you made. Because of that we say you owe some of it back.
If it helps you could think of taxes as society user-fees. Your Society as a Service bill.
- refurb 9y agoI love it when people use examples like education, road, the legal system to justify taxes. Most of the tax burden is entitlement payments. Educations, road, the legal system is a small fraction of the total tax burden.
- conanbatt 9y agoAnd military. Adam smith mentions that war should be a direct tax on people's incomes, as opposed to long term bonds. It would thus make people very much against any kind of war, realizing how expensive they are.
- kennywinker 9y agoI realize that a large portion of every US tax dollar goes it the military - that's why I mentioned the borders - without some military spending it's doubtful the borders of the US would be the same as they are today. I think we should all agree that too much money is spent on the military, but that's not an argument about "should we pay tax" - that's an argument about how we should spend taxes.
- kennywinker 9y ago"entitlement payments" is what, a euphemism for social security et al? There is no doubt in my mind that the quality of the social safety net plays into everyone's ability to make money and take risks. But you've already ceded the point that taxes make sense - we're just arguing about how much and how to spend them.