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Taxes create civilization and they power most of the things we love about society... roads, infrastructure, retirement, keeping the environment protected, keepi

by bwb 5y ago

Taxes create civilization and they power most of the things we love about society... roads, infrastructure, retirement, keeping the environment protected, keeping food safe, keeping restaurants from giving us all rat poop, etc etc... the list is very long. I never understood people who don't like taxes. I totally get not liking how much they are or where the spending is going, but they literally are civilization. To your 2nd point, money is psychological, that model might happen one day but right now that is not something lenders can get behind. Although you could argue MMT and the current system is headed that way. Taxes are also psychological to help you feel like you are part of the system, and not outside of it.

zionic 5y ago
This is reversing cause and effect. The population creates a civilization that creates wealth for the government to tax.
- bwb 5y ago
  I would argue you are reversing it. The people create government which creates a platform that creates greater wealth, which the government gets a percentage of through taxes to further improve the platform... repeat.. repeat...
ezekg 5y ago
> Taxes create civilization and they power most of the things we love about society... roads, infrastructure, retirement, keeping the environment protected, keeping food safe, keeping restaurants from giving us all rat poop, etc etc... If those things are important, citizens would fund these with or without government coercion through violence. Keeping food and restaurants safe is a function of a free market -- nobody would buy from a business that routinely tries to poison their patrons. These arguments are old and they don't hold up.
- bwb 5y ago
  Hah nah, that just isn't true, look at history at any point. By enforcing regulations to ensure clean restaurants and food, that market has grown so much bigger because people trust eating out by default.Don't overestimate the power of trust in growing a platform. If AirBNB poisoned you every 6th stay, how long would you use them? Sometimes I am stunned with how libertarian some of these comments are. Government is just us, and it is a amazing because it isn't free market. The free market only works when given strong bumer rails to stay between, otherwise it starts taking advantage of the system and causing environmental damage, damage to labor, etc... The free market can't do a lot of things. It can't provide high quality health care, it can't provide economic protections, it doesn't provide protections for labor, so many things.
saas_sam 5y ago
I don't think you read his post very closely. His first point was that the government has the ability to print money to pay for what it needs which is effectively "taxing" everyone equally across the board (which we feel as inflation).
- bwb 5y ago
  I read it very closely :) The government doesn't just print money to pay for what it needs. It also takes money from it's citizens so that we all pay for what it provides us with. Inflation isn't controlled by the government anyway, it is also psychological with consumers. There is no group in the government who can set inflation to x, there is a fed that tries to move it the right direction based on what smart people think.

by bwb 5y ago

zionic 5y ago

This is reversing cause and effect. The population creates a civilization that creates wealth for the government to tax.

bwb 5y ago
I would argue you are reversing it. The people create government which creates a platform that creates greater wealth, which the government gets a percentage of through taxes to further improve the platform... repeat.. repeat...

ezekg 5y ago

> Taxes create civilization and they power most of the things we love about society... roads, infrastructure, retirement, keeping the environment protected, keeping food safe, keeping restaurants from giving us all rat poop, etc etc... If those things are important, citizens would fund these with or without government coercion through violence. Keeping food and restaurants safe is a function of a free market -- nobody would buy from a business that routinely tries to poison their patrons. These arguments are old and they don't hold up.

bwb 5y ago
Hah nah, that just isn't true, look at history at any point. By enforcing regulations to ensure clean restaurants and food, that market has grown so much bigger because people trust eating out by default.Don't overestimate the power of trust in growing a platform. If AirBNB poisoned you every 6th stay, how long would you use them? Sometimes I am stunned with how libertarian some of these comments are. Government is just us, and it is a amazing because it isn't free market. The free market only works when given strong bumer rails to stay between, otherwise it starts taking advantage of the system and causing environmental damage, damage to labor, etc... The free market can't do a lot of things. It can't provide high quality health care, it can't provide economic protections, it doesn't provide protections for labor, so many things.

saas_sam 5y ago

I don't think you read his post very closely. His first point was that the government has the ability to print money to pay for what it needs which is effectively "taxing" everyone equally across the board (which we feel as inflation).

bwb 5y ago
I read it very closely :) The government doesn't just print money to pay for what it needs. It also takes money from it's citizens so that we all pay for what it provides us with. Inflation isn't controlled by the government anyway, it is also psychological with consumers. There is no group in the government who can set inflation to x, there is a fed that tries to move it the right direction based on what smart people think.