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That's not the right metric. The right metric is what you would have paid if there was no coercion but also if free loading wasn't an option (aka you would pay

That's not the right metric. The right metric is what you would have paid if there was no coercion but also if free loading wasn't an option (aka you would pay up to the marginal benefit to you of the marginal tax. The benefit includes network effects, which gives you the logical framework for why someone would want to pay tax to benefit someone else (they get a positive network effect from helping that person)) It's hard to calculate but it's almost certainly lower than 42 %

lm28469 3y ago
Everyone I know would pay 0% if they could, and they do as much as they can to get close to that. But that's not how you build a country, especially not with the demography we have in the west
- snapplebobapple 3y ago
  That's because everyone is naturally a free loader to some extent, especially under the current regime of blatant misallocation of resources, corruption, etc. If you instead asked them what the value to them of receiving the various direct benefits to themselves was (roads, partially functioning legal system, military protection from invasion, etc) and the value to them of the benefits provided to others (i.e. the fairly well educated workforce to work in their businesses and/or the businesses they are invested in for their retirement plan, management and/or eradication of many diseases they would otherwise be exposed to, etc.) it would be some non zero number and it would increase if the quality of the services increased or if new services that the person needed in of those pathways were added. Governments should endeavor to have taxes that approximate this number. They don't because it leaves no room for vanity projects that have no benefit to the tax payer and large benefit to the politician, no room for corruption and it focuses service provision on services that are of actual value to the tax payer rather than whatever stupid nonsense the politician wants.
Retric 3y ago
The network effect of taxes represents far more than 50% of my salary. Which is a major reason why people in so many countries are so poor. However, paying out the full benefit I receive isn’t a good baseline because at that point I may as well go somewhere else and keep a larger slice of the pie.

lm28469 3y ago

Everyone I know would pay 0% if they could, and they do as much as they can to get close to that. But that's not how you build a country, especially not with the demography we have in the west

snapplebobapple 3y ago
That's because everyone is naturally a free loader to some extent, especially under the current regime of blatant misallocation of resources, corruption, etc. If you instead asked them what the value to them of receiving the various direct benefits to themselves was (roads, partially functioning legal system, military protection from invasion, etc) and the value to them of the benefits provided to others (i.e. the fairly well educated workforce to work in their businesses and/or the businesses they are invested in for their retirement plan, management and/or eradication of many diseases they would otherwise be exposed to, etc.) it would be some non zero number and it would increase if the quality of the services increased or if new services that the person needed in of those pathways were added. Governments should endeavor to have taxes that approximate this number. They don't because it leaves no room for vanity projects that have no benefit to the tax payer and large benefit to the politician, no room for corruption and it focuses service provision on services that are of actual value to the tax payer rather than whatever stupid nonsense the politician wants.

Retric 3y ago

The network effect of taxes represents far more than 50% of my salary. Which is a major reason why people in so many countries are so poor. However, paying out the full benefit I receive isn’t a good baseline because at that point I may as well go somewhere else and keep a larger slice of the pie.