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> So it seems like a lot to me. I've no problem paying taxes, they buy me civilization. > why don't we simplify our Byzantine tax filing processes so that the

• jblow 8y ago
  > I've no problem paying taxes, they buy me civilization. They do, but this line of argumentation is kind of vacuous if you don't include the actual cost of taxes. If taxes could be 1/3 of what everyone is paying, thus buying the same civilization except much more prosperous since money is used a lot more productively and people have much more choice about where it goes, isn't that better? (This 1/3 isn't meant to be a real number; it's a thought experiment). Alternative way of looking at it -- if this argument works without cost, then why shouldn't everyone just pay 100% taxes?
  • sharemywin 8y ago
    But, the opposite it true too. If paying 10% more gets you 40% better outcomes wouldn't make sense to pay the 10%. The problem is a lot of times the desired outcomes aren't simple. Nor are the solutions. And experts and their opinions are generally for hire anymore.
• nybble41 8y ago
  > I've no problem paying taxes, they buy me civilization. This argument is vacuous because taxes aren't about what you pay, they're about what you can make others pay. You are always free to pay whatever you want out of your own funds for the things you think of as "civilization". That isn't a tax, because it's voluntary. The only reason to support a tax is that there are things that you want (your so-called "civilization") which you want other people to pay for, whether they want these things or not.