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Everybody wants the benefits that tax money gives society, but nobody wants to pay for it. Companies don't exist in a vacuum, as evident in that very few compa
by Drakim 12y ago
Everybody wants the benefits that tax money gives society, but nobody wants to pay for it.
Companies don't exist in a vacuum, as evident in that very few companies prefer to put their offices in the middle of the sea or deep the jungle. They benefit greatly from infrastructure of our society, and it's fair that they should pay their share to build and maintain it.
- the_real_bto 12y agoYou make a very fair argument. The real question is, how do we decide what is fair for each of us to pay? Companies playing legal games around taxes is exactly the behavior that the complicated tax code incentivizes. Play games, get money. Are corporations not supposed to play? It's parallel to programming productivity measurements. If a company starts counting LOC and rewarding it, they are going to get precisely what they asked for: More lines of code.
- nickff 12y ago>"Everybody wants the benefits that tax money gives society, but nobody wants to pay for it." There are a lot of people who think that much (if not most) tax dollars go to waste, so they do not want to pay because they think that taxes are funding harms to their fellow citizens and foreigners. I am one of those people, and I do not want to be responsible for hurting my fellow man.
- Kudos 12y agoBut you use the roads we pay for, if your house catches fire, our money goes to the firefighters who try to save it. I wonder if you would be so principled if it cost you money rather than saved you money.
- nickff 12y agoIf I take your money, then give you something which you must use, or would have to pay for a second time if you did not, your use of this item or service is no endorsement of my action. I use the roads which I (and all my fellow citizens) are forced to pay for, at least partly because the government has crowded out all the alternatives. With respect to firefighters, I would be very happy to return to the system where the insurance company provided fire-fighting services, as was the case before the government took over the industry. I have often made the case against policies that greatly benefit me (financially and otherwise), but at an unacceptable cost to others, and I am sure that I am not alone in having done so.
- vixin 12y agoCan we stop these generalizations? Elsewhere in these comments we have a 'society that thinks'. Now we have the views of 'everybody'. Thanks but no.