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You've made a mistake. You wrote: ..you're not actually willing to do yourself." That should be: ...you're not actually willing to do solely by yourself. A
by skh 8y ago
You've made a mistake. You wrote:
..you're not actually willing to do yourself."
That should be:
...you're not actually willing to do solely by yourself.
As I said, what does it matter if I'm a hypocrite? My belief that taxes should be higher for people like me is true or false independent of my hypocrisy. The question of taxation levels should not be determined or influenced by the level of my own personal hypocrisy.
I don't think you believe you should pay higher taxes, I think you believe other people in your income bracket should,..
You inserted other. This is wrong. I believe all people in my income bracket should pay more in taxes. This includes me. I do believe that government should tax me more. I'm also not going to donate more to the government if it isn't forced. Free rider problem and all that.
There's no special pleading in my position and I don't claim that my position on taxation levels is some sort of moral action on my part. All I've said is the following 2 things:
1. Taxes should higher for people in my income bracket.
2. I'm not going donate more to the government than what is required.
Make of this what you will. I'm a hypocrite. But I still think taxes should be higher for people in my income bracket and this obviously includes myself.
- davidivadavid 8y agoThe problem is not that you're a hypocrite, it's that you're an inconsistent hypocrite. If paying more taxes is a net good for society, any additional amount of taxes should be better for society. You're not living by the principles you claim to believe in.
- skh 8y agoSo what if I’m an inconsistent hypocrite? By the way, isn’t the essence of hypocrisy inconsistency? I still believe tax rates are too low for people in my income bracket. Also one should ponder that the marginal effect of donations to the government by me are neglible but when done on the scale of millions of people they end up not being negligible. I don’t think me paying an extra $x thousand will actually help anyone. I do think that millions of people paying $x thousands more will. In this case, size matters.
- antidesitter 8y ago> I don’t think me paying an extra $x thousand will actually help anyone. Then by the same logic, doing so when other people pay won’t actually help anyone either.
- skh 8y agoYour logic is bad or it’s your math. Suppose I pay an extra $1,000 in income taxes via a donation. This amount will not help anyone or improve the fiscal situation of the United States government. However, several million people paying another thousand dollars in taxes can/will. Replace the word other in your comment with everyong in the tax bracket I’m in and you’ll see that your conclusion is wrong. Consider this analogy. Me pooping in the local lake isn’t going to adversely affect the lake’s ecology. A million people doing so will.
- RhysU 8y ago> Suppose I pay an extra $1,000 in income taxes via a donation. This amount will not help anyone or improve the fiscal situation of the United States government. It sounds like you think government waste implies $1000 is meaningless. Certainly $1000 in some private folks' pockets will materially help them.
- antidesitter 8y ago> Suppose I pay an extra $1,000 in income taxes via a donation. This amount will not help anyone or improve the fiscal situation of the United States government. We're talking about marginal returns here, i.e. whether or not the author should donate that extra $1,000 to the government. Donating that extra $1,000 when other people don't will help just as much, if not more, as when other people do.
- skh 8y agoOne person donating a $1,000 when no one else does could be more beneficial than if everyone donated $1,000? Interesting idea.