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Good. High income people get almost nothing for the amount that they have to pay. Some day we’ll have flat fee city states for remote workers who will only have
by DC1350 6y ago
Good. High income people get almost nothing for the amount that they have to pay. Some day we’ll have flat fee city states for remote workers who will only have to pay for what they use. How can you justify taking so much when a person’s customers, education, employer, etc. are all located outside of the region that they live in? What is so special about the people living nearby that makes them deserving of another guy’s money even if their lives are entirely independent? It makes no sense...
- patmorgan23 6y agoBecause their lives aren't independent. They're all connected through the economy and social interactions. Would Jeff bezos be worth as much if millions of people didn't throw money at his company and he didn't squeeze as much productivity out of his employees whole paying most of them as little as possible? Probably not.
- neolog 6y ago> High income people get almost nothing ... They get high incomes.
- ageek123 6y agoI think they meant get from the government (unless you believe in an extreme collectivist view of the economy and think all wealth fundamentally belongs to the government, not the person who received it through voluntary transactions with other people).
- neolog 6y ago> think all wealth fundamentally belongs to the government Not the government, no.
- chillacy 6y agoOne of the only convincing rebuttals to the statement "taxation is theft" I've heard relies on the fact that the government is the entity that bootstraps the very concept of private property as we know it. Without this guarantee of private property, there is no way to accumulate wealth for an individual in the first place.
- nybble41 6y agoThe main problem with that argument is that it's based on false "facts". Private property predates government; it wasn't created by government. People have to actually have stuff worth taking before the predatory protection rackets will appear to prey on them.
- chillacy 6y agoAfaik governments emerged during the transition from hunter gathering to agriculture. Hunter gatherers have some concept of private property, but it's in no way the same extent as in modern society. For one, hunter gatherers wouldn't really even think about owning land or animals.
- neolog 6y agoRobbers can take stuff from you or governments can take stuff from you and build public goods with the money.
- mempko 6y agoThe government created the systems (the markets, the laws, etc) that allowed that person to acquire their wealth. Fundamentally there is no way they would acquire it without this government. Most rich people's wealth is stored in legal fictions back-propped by the legal system they live in.
- DC1350 6y agoThat’s why I singled out remote workers. The governments who created the systems that allow people to acquire wealth are different from the ones that collect taxes. The government that allows my employer to exist could invade the one I pay taxes to.
- ramphastidae 6y agoThey get a functioning, stable society which continues to build them wealth in return.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- DC1350 6y ago.
- coldtea 6y ago>There’s a pretty weak economic connection between me and the locals, so how is it justified? It's the price for the locals to accept an otherwise freeloader with no ties to the place, to live in the country they've built.
- commandlinefan 6y agoBut by definition, they've been getting that for what they're paying already, so the avoidance isn't hurting anything.
- coldtea 6y ago>High income people get almost nothing for the amount that they have to pay. The whole environment that made it possible for them to have a high income and keep, from instracture to law, and from defense to consumer markets, has been paid almost entirely by others.
- eyelidlessness 6y agoHere's a thought: paying to live in a functioning society where people less privileged than us don't die destitute serving us... might mean they don't have to guillotine us to survive when it comes to that. Just, you know, keep it in perspective if you don't have a moral compass about what you "get" living in a society where other people besides you are safe and healthy.
- DC1350 6y agoAlmost everyone in the world who provides anything for us already lives in terrible conditions and makes a few dollars a day. The people nearby are even less deserving since they’re so much less cost efficient to help.
- eyelidlessness 6y agoHonestly... I wish I could wish the same on you when you inevitably need to depend on others, but I don’t have it in me. I’m not even mad, I’m just amazed that people who think this way are so unthreatened they think they can say it outloud without consequence.
- throwaway210222 6y ago"Almost everyone in the world who provides anything for us already lives in terrible conditions and makes a few dollars a day." Tim Cook only makes a few dollar a day and lives in a ghetto? Surely you jest.
- jl2718 6y agoI don’t need nor want servants.
- eyelidlessness 6y agoNeither do I, for what it’s worth. My approach to this subject is probably too brash, but it comes from a time when I was among the servants and being priced out of the place I would live to continue that work.
- 6y ago
- TrackerFF 6y agoFor one, they get to live in safe and civilized countries. That's a price MANY wealthy people are willing pay. But truth be told, there are many wealthy people that have grown up rich, in those safe countries, or have grown complacent.
- csomar 6y agoYou are getting downvoted, but I feel you (tax bill is approaching here...). The reality is, you need to strike a balance somewhere: Taxes are a matter of supply/demand. If you increase the taxes, at some point people are going to move somewhere else. If you reduce the services, you have to reduce the tax bill otherwise people and business will feel ripped off. Most people here are either 1. employees who can't evade taxes because of how the system is setup, or 2. Entrepreneurs who are virtue signalling because of the magic internet Karma or 3. Simply have no money and think somebody else should pay for stuff. In reality, pretty much everyone will try to avoid taxes if he gets the chance (isn't that what the article is about?).