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I was a juror for a divorce trial recently where the wife had a salary job while the husband spent their entire lives presumably accepting checks for contract w

I was a juror for a divorce trial recently where the wife had a salary job while the husband spent their entire lives presumably accepting checks for contract work and cashing them without a bank account. So that portion of their joint income was to avoid the IRS and it of course made the settlement difficult because he didn't have any receipts for any of his work that was entirely done under the table. The plus side is that laws like this of course would prevent tax evasion. It would also mean you need to have a bank to make a living. While I'm not a fan of the creeping authoritarianism of a digital currency that's likely coming as well, it annoys me that so many people just mooch off of government services that the rest of us pay for.

mistrial9 3y ago
in rural Ohio a hundred years ago, I read that a man built his house, worked as the manager of a bowling alley in town, and raised a family of four with that income alone. The modern condition is not like that. Is it government taxation, money lending, fines and fees, whatever else? Or is it more like a system of middle-men who expand theirs at the expense of yours, at every turn of the game? A vague complaint of "moochers" lacks context. There are those that are less able, those that have less to look for, and those that give in to lazy and selfish ways.. all of that, but in different social niches? There is no simple answer, but if you outlaw the path for the ordinary person to have rights, something is lost forever.
za3faran 3y ago
People paying 30%-50% or more of their paychecks (not to mention VAT/sales tax) should stop and think about the enormous waste that goes on in their governments with respect to the money they're forced to give them. Islam has a 2.5% Zakat contribution amount for money, yet Islamic countries were very prosperous until colonization started post WWI, which continues to this day. Even today the Gulf states do not have these exorbitant taxes and they're doing quite well in the face of the capitalistic international financial system, even though they're heavily bitten by it. Give people the choice to pay 2.5% of their cash holdings and other wealth vs. 35%-50%+ of their income and it's easy to see what they'll choose. But it doesn't sit well with the greedy and wasteful governments, nor the law makers and lobbyists who design the laws with loopholes to be abused by certain people.

mistrial9 3y ago

in rural Ohio a hundred years ago, I read that a man built his house, worked as the manager of a bowling alley in town, and raised a family of four with that income alone. The modern condition is not like that. Is it government taxation, money lending, fines and fees, whatever else? Or is it more like a system of middle-men who expand theirs at the expense of yours, at every turn of the game? A vague complaint of "moochers" lacks context. There are those that are less able, those that have less to look for, and those that give in to lazy and selfish ways.. all of that, but in different social niches? There is no simple answer, but if you outlaw the path for the ordinary person to have rights, something is lost forever.

za3faran 3y ago

People paying 30%-50% or more of their paychecks (not to mention VAT/sales tax) should stop and think about the enormous waste that goes on in their governments with respect to the money they're forced to give them. Islam has a 2.5% Zakat contribution amount for money, yet Islamic countries were very prosperous until colonization started post WWI, which continues to this day. Even today the Gulf states do not have these exorbitant taxes and they're doing quite well in the face of the capitalistic international financial system, even though they're heavily bitten by it. Give people the choice to pay 2.5% of their cash holdings and other wealth vs. 35%-50%+ of their income and it's easy to see what they'll choose. But it doesn't sit well with the greedy and wasteful governments, nor the law makers and lobbyists who design the laws with loopholes to be abused by certain people.