3 ms·
Why? Do you think the US government mostly spends that money on good things? They mostly spend it on foreign wars and throwing it at a broken and disfunctional
by javert 13y ago
Why? Do you think the US government mostly spends that money on good things? They mostly spend it on foreign wars and throwing it at a broken and disfunctional black hole of education, healthcare and social programs.
People actually working in restaurants have earned that money and can use it to better their lives. It's a moral crime to forcibly take the money from them.
- patmcc 13y agoSo all taxation is immoral then? I'm Canadian, so I could have more correctly written "CRA" instead of "IRS" - and on balance, I do believe my government spends the money on good things. Certainly there are parts I disagree with, but that's why I, you know, vote and stuff. More importantly, I think a server who grosses $50,000 and a QA analyst who grosses $50,000 should end up paying the same amount in income taxes. The server shouldn't get a pass just because lots of his/her income comes in the form of tips.
- javert 13y agoI think taxation is legitimate when needed for protection of people's rights, which is the purpose of government. (I acknowledge that people differ in what they think rights are, but that's a different discussion.) I also think it's OK to tax to fund programs that shouldn't be funded in the long run, while you're in the process of phasing them out; I'm not for changing things drastically overnight. That said, I think it's wrong to think that the government can invest money more wisely or efficiently than the people who have earned it can, and I think it's morally wrong to take money from people (like wait staff--note that doing this materially hurts their pursuit of their own goals and happiness) for government boondoggle.