> Are you sure of this? Where do you think retirement income comes from? Public schools, infrastructure, hospitals, parks, national defense, COVID relief, etc?

> Are you sure of this? Where do you think retirement income comes from? Public schools, infrastructure, hospitals, parks, national defense, COVID relief, etc? They came from the government... I was referring to the social credit system, not just taxation. Social credit is an absolutely inhuman way of treating people. We are not slaves of a government. In regards to where income comes from: it comes from the tax-payer, not the government. The trouble is the tax-payer did not contribute to this of their own volition, but did so under duress because they were extorted by the government which threatens violence for non-compliance. If people deem the services you listed as ideal or necessary, they would of course, contribute to them without the need for force. How does a State become authoritarian, and what put these western states in the position they are in today? The answer is that the ancestors people of those states fought numerous violent rebellions against their slave-masters to obtain the freedoms that are enjoyed (in decreasing fashion) today. But what happens when a population becomes docile, or robbed of their ability to fight a rebellion against a corrupt government. What if the docile even encourage putting their fellow neighbour into such position of helplessness? Governments are not a force for good. They never have been in history. The only thing that keeps them on a good path is the ability of their populations to hold them accountable. If you remove that ability, you will soon find out that your government is not a force for good. Cambodians found that out after surrendering their arms. Australia is learning the hard lesson as we speak. I'm not American anyway, but America enjoys the most freedom in the world thanks to its thoughtful founders, who put some constraints on future governments. Today, these constraints are often ignored and you even have the docile calling for them to be abolished.