2 ms·
Most states are complex structures largely manipulated by a tiny number of people for the benefit of themselves and the top echelon so as to capture the vast ma
by michaelmrose 4y ago
Most states are complex structures largely manipulated by a tiny number of people for the benefit of themselves and the top echelon so as to capture the vast majority of the wealth created by everyone for a minority of nonproductives whos contribution is owning things as opposed to doing useful work. Erasing every obligation they presently possess to the functional state that enabled the nonproductive to live in wealth and luxury seems like an incredibly bad idea for them and us.
Everyone deserves health care, fire suppression, police to respond to criminal behavior, courts, a national defense and a defense of democracy against terrorists and would be fascists and others who would overthrow it.
Some things like health care can be provided albeit exceptionally poorly with a ridiculously bad ROI by a mixed private / public system. Others are ridiculous to imagine. For example if you privatize the military you create a single concentration of power that could trivially be bought out by anyone wanting to shitcan democracy tomorrow.
If it were possible to effectively run a large society like that one would suppose that in thousands of years one would have been so constituted.
- sgjohnson 4y agoI do realise that. I’m not against all (or fair) taxation. I just sympathize with people who manage to get away with tax evasion. Sentences like “the state lost €30bn of revenue because of tax evasion” rubs me the wrong way. It’s not too far off from saying “mugger lost €500 of revenue because the potential victim ran away”. I do realise it’s a fallacy—it’s just not too far off.
- michaelmrose 4y agoIt's not "not far off" It's a defective fantasy. You are part of a society entirely based on pooling money through taxation and using it to pay for the things that make your entire life possible. The only people in a position to meaningfully move the needle as far as tax evasion are the rich who overwhelmingly are the folks who benefit from tax evasion and the people most harmed by austerity are the poor who lose benefits essential to their continued existence. Tax evasion is overwhelmingly the rich stealing from the poor.