4 ms·
The two main reasons we are still a barbaric society: 1. We still pay taxes. 2. We still die. One day, hopefully within my life time, we'll reach escape veloci
by ebaysucks 16y ago
The two main reasons we are still a barbaric society:
1. We still pay taxes.
2. We still die.
One day, hopefully within my life time, we'll reach escape velocity and move beyond a jungle mentality.
- sabat 16y agoIf the "solution" to paying taxes is privatizing everything, I'm all for living in the stone age.
- Florin_Andrei 16y agoYou could always go back to the jungle. No taxes there at all.
- pg 16y agoThat may not be true. The exactions imposed by shamans are effectively taxes imposed by a priestly class. Present customs about taxation seem to derive mostly from tributes extracted by conquering tribes. But even in those cases there may be a thin historical thread connecting them to shamans, since the royal families of conquering tribes often had a semi-divine status.
- sabat 16y agoPresent customs about taxation seem to derive mostly from tributes extracted by conquering tribes Tax money builds roads and other infrastructure in common. The origins of a system don't dictate its current reasons for existence -- it may have started as shamanic tribute, but now it's to provide for social needs. (And, perhaps, to pad the coffers of privileged corporations.)