[mindcrime]

Do you think tax payer money is just burnt or something?

No, some small percentage of it is used for "social good" and the rest is wasted or funneled to well connected / powerful political insiders and their cronies.

[jamespo]

You would not be earning if society didn't exist due to the taxes you pay

[DominikR]

Until the first world war there was no income tax in the US. Yet they still had a society and earned money.

Edit because I'm not allowed to reply anymore to below comment: I once lived in a Communist country. Never again. I'd rater die.

[akiselev]

I'm assuming you've never lived in a country without a vast social safety net, extensive national highway network, department of education, or a well funded TVA/EPA/FDA/FTC/FCC/FAA/NIH/NSF/etc?

Trust me, "society" was very different before the federal government had vast amounts of money to fund everything we take for granted today as "government waste."

[aianus]

In my experience the countries with lower tax rates have higher gross salaries and higher net immigration so this argument that low-tax regimes are shitholes seems to break down.