> Can I increase your taxes by 5% for no benefits? You know that's not how taxes work, right? If someone's taxes are increased by 5% that means there's more m

> Can I increase your taxes by 5% for no benefits? You know that's not how taxes work, right? If someone's taxes are increased by 5% that means there's more money available to do things (or pay off debt). Many or even most of those things might have no direct benefit to the person paying the taxes but "we live in a society" (haha) and hence, we all pay into a pool that helps everyone in our community, state, country, etc. Sometimes the benefits are obvious such as infrastructure but for most government spending it's indirect such as restoring wetlands or hiring more code inspectors so fewer buildings burn down or collapse.