I think we're in agreement. Taxes are a small but seemingly inevitable cost to pay for living in a liberal democracy. I am also not using pleasant literally he

I think we're in agreement. Taxes are a small but seemingly inevitable cost to pay for living in a liberal democracy. I am also not using pleasant literally here: as in, places stuffwhitepeoplelike.com crowd like to visit and rave about, but would not chose as a place to settle down with children. I like US (Bay Area in specific) and am not going anywhere. As far as within the US, I considered Seattle area, Portland area, and Austin as mental exercises, but Bay Area seems to represent the best set of trade offs in terms of what I want. US could have either lower taxes or same taxes and greater social benefits if excessive military adventures or the drug war were curtailed, however, but the change would probably come gradually. I am curious as to how Taiwan and Singapore are able to sustain low tax rates despite welfare states, military on active alert, and in Singapore's case, an expansive police state. Would never be able to live in Singapore (I can say that with absolute certainty), slight chance I might consider Taiwan (but probably a "no" too).