4 ms·

Yes. That's why we pay tax to the state, not to family members.

by exporectomy 5y ago

ekianjo 5y ago
You pay tax to the state bevause you have to. its not like its ever a choice.
- enjeyw 5y ago
  people choose to live in places with higher levels of taxes, sometimes due to the associated benefits of those higher taxes.
  - jjk166 5y ago
    There's a difference between choosing higher taxes and tolerating higher taxes. Further, voting with one's feet is easier said than done - the overwhelming majority of people can't arbitrarily move wherever they like whenever they like.
  - ekianjo 5y ago
    Most people live in the country they are born. Mobility is the highest of all time but it's still a very tiny minority of people who move borders.
  - dkdk8283 5y ago
    Arguably the benefits don’t outweigh the financial burden of taxes. The human element is the common denominator to all failing (or failed) policy and there will always be winners and losers. mIn my opinion the only way to succeed is to give people a chance at winning instead of taxing them into poverty.
- permo-w 5y ago
  Hacker News has a libertarian anti-tax bent that I think a lot of people on here assume is the consensus globally. It’s not. I’m happy to pay taxes and I like the benefits they bring society as a whole. I can understand why decades of Republicans and to some extent Democrats deliberately ruining your public services would give you a scepticism towards taxes, but you have to remember that not everyone lives in the US, and even then not everyone has the same attitude
mosselman 5y ago
You pay taxes because you enjoy benefits in return for those taxes. Benefits like being protected by police, being cared for in hospitals, getting an education in schools, etc. The government doesn't need your inheritance to provide all this. What they need is for big companies to pay taxes as well. So instead of taking my money by default when I die instead of it going to my children, they should start by making businesses and the ultra rich pay proper taxes.
- exporectomy 5y ago
  Yes, you enjoy benefits from paying money to the state. That's why we do it. Maybe ordinary tax could be reduced if it got more revenue from estates. I don't know. The point is not where the money goes, but where it doesn't go - as unearned windfalls to arbitrarily chosen lucky individuals who are often unequipped to manage it effectively.
  - yossarian1408 5y ago
    Such a twisted view. If someone works hard their whole life, and wants their hard-earned (and already taxed) money/investments to give their children a leg-up, who are you to say no? So they waste half a million on a ritzy house, or spend a couple of months in Spain with their own kids. What's it to you?
    - aaron-santos 5y ago
      Zoom out a bit and apply systems-level thinking. We all know that a small number of locally applied rules lead to complex emergent behavior. Millions of individual inheritance decisions have an impact. We can choose to believe that people, individually making self-interested decisions, aggregates into a net good, but I'm not exactly convinced based on whatever first principles are in play.
    - exporectomy 5y ago
      I'm not saying no. I completely agree with you. You must have misread my comment.
mucholove 5y ago
Here, the members of the state leave the pensions fund dry, the roads break down, the chemicals leech while they enjoy a private jet and get arrested when they travel to the USA on drug charges. Meanwhile, the prosecutor and the journalists trying to expose the corruption risk life and limb because these very same people want them dead. I personally don’t want the state to see any extra money—in particular because this is a Republic, not a democracy and so, I don’t even get a chance to say anything.
carlmr 5y ago
This just gave me an idea. We could build houses that are returned to the state when we die. In return there's no property tax, no sales tax, no tax on repairs to the house during your lifetime. That way people could afford a home that is theirs until they (and their spouse) die.
- woah 5y ago
  Homeownership is already heavily subsidized by tax breaks
  - sitkack 5y ago
    To banks. Those interest deductions aren't for us.
- ABCLAW 5y ago
  We tried this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_estate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_estate The move from life estates and fee tails to fee simples was not a mistake. It was a core component of western society moving out of the feudal era. It's VERY difficult to durably invest in lands and estates otherwise. We should be railing against the return of economic instability and lack of access to durable wealth for the middle class, not accelerating our return to permanently unlanded peasantry.
- nivenkos 5y ago
  I'd like the idea of the government having a monopoly on landlordism - like the Systembolaget, etc. but for renting.
- nly 5y ago
  You're just describing public housing. In the UK as long as you pay your rent and aren't breaking any social rules, you basically can't be evicted and can have your "council house" for life. I believe there are even rules that allow for children to take over tenancy

Yes. That's why we pay tax to the state, not to family members.

ekianjo 5y ago

You pay tax to the state bevause you have to. its not like its ever a choice.

enjeyw 5y ago
people choose to live in places with higher levels of taxes, sometimes due to the associated benefits of those higher taxes.
- jjk166 5y ago
  There's a difference between choosing higher taxes and tolerating higher taxes. Further, voting with one's feet is easier said than done - the overwhelming majority of people can't arbitrarily move wherever they like whenever they like.
- ekianjo 5y ago
  Most people live in the country they are born. Mobility is the highest of all time but it's still a very tiny minority of people who move borders.
- dkdk8283 5y ago
  Arguably the benefits don’t outweigh the financial burden of taxes. The human element is the common denominator to all failing (or failed) policy and there will always be winners and losers. mIn my opinion the only way to succeed is to give people a chance at winning instead of taxing them into poverty.
permo-w 5y ago
Hacker News has a libertarian anti-tax bent that I think a lot of people on here assume is the consensus globally. It’s not. I’m happy to pay taxes and I like the benefits they bring society as a whole. I can understand why decades of Republicans and to some extent Democrats deliberately ruining your public services would give you a scepticism towards taxes, but you have to remember that not everyone lives in the US, and even then not everyone has the same attitude

mosselman 5y ago

You pay taxes because you enjoy benefits in return for those taxes. Benefits like being protected by police, being cared for in hospitals, getting an education in schools, etc. The government doesn't need your inheritance to provide all this. What they need is for big companies to pay taxes as well. So instead of taking my money by default when I die instead of it going to my children, they should start by making businesses and the ultra rich pay proper taxes.

exporectomy 5y ago
Yes, you enjoy benefits from paying money to the state. That's why we do it. Maybe ordinary tax could be reduced if it got more revenue from estates. I don't know. The point is not where the money goes, but where it doesn't go - as unearned windfalls to arbitrarily chosen lucky individuals who are often unequipped to manage it effectively.
- yossarian1408 5y ago
  Such a twisted view. If someone works hard their whole life, and wants their hard-earned (and already taxed) money/investments to give their children a leg-up, who are you to say no? So they waste half a million on a ritzy house, or spend a couple of months in Spain with their own kids. What's it to you?
  - aaron-santos 5y ago
    Zoom out a bit and apply systems-level thinking. We all know that a small number of locally applied rules lead to complex emergent behavior. Millions of individual inheritance decisions have an impact. We can choose to believe that people, individually making self-interested decisions, aggregates into a net good, but I'm not exactly convinced based on whatever first principles are in play.
  - exporectomy 5y ago
    I'm not saying no. I completely agree with you. You must have misread my comment.

mucholove 5y ago

Here, the members of the state leave the pensions fund dry, the roads break down, the chemicals leech while they enjoy a private jet and get arrested when they travel to the USA on drug charges. Meanwhile, the prosecutor and the journalists trying to expose the corruption risk life and limb because these very same people want them dead. I personally don’t want the state to see any extra money—in particular because this is a Republic, not a democracy and so, I don’t even get a chance to say anything.

carlmr 5y ago

This just gave me an idea. We could build houses that are returned to the state when we die. In return there's no property tax, no sales tax, no tax on repairs to the house during your lifetime. That way people could afford a home that is theirs until they (and their spouse) die.

woah 5y ago
Homeownership is already heavily subsidized by tax breaks
- sitkack 5y ago
  To banks. Those interest deductions aren't for us.
ABCLAW 5y ago
We tried this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_estate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_estate The move from life estates and fee tails to fee simples was not a mistake. It was a core component of western society moving out of the feudal era. It's VERY difficult to durably invest in lands and estates otherwise. We should be railing against the return of economic instability and lack of access to durable wealth for the middle class, not accelerating our return to permanently unlanded peasantry.
nivenkos 5y ago
I'd like the idea of the government having a monopoly on landlordism - like the Systembolaget, etc. but for renting.
nly 5y ago
You're just describing public housing. In the UK as long as you pay your rent and aren't breaking any social rules, you basically can't be evicted and can have your "council house" for life. I believe there are even rules that allow for children to take over tenancy