[michaelgrafl]

The article is insane. Pure ideological reductive bs.

To say anyone who points out social injustice plays a silly mean game of status is the most cynical thing I've read in a while. As if capitalists weren't driven by status.

And describing taxes as stealing is simply juvenile and fucking stupid and unhelpful.

[throwaway3699]

Taxes are something we've decided is in the collective interest, but they are still the government reaching into your pocket. Especially with ever increasing overreach, mainly to fund blowing up kids overseas, I can understand this opinion.

[michaelgrafl]

I don't pay taxes in the US. I pay them in Austria, where the system mostly works (in comparison).

If taxes are misused, the misuse is the problem, not the concept of taxes itself. Government may be reaching into our pockets, but we also reach into the government's pocket when we need to (again, Austrian speaking here. My wife received around 2700 Euros per month during Mutterschutz, which surprised both of us, since she hadn't been working for some time due to it being our third child, just as an example).

[developer93]

Sometimes taxes are misused, but try working without them as a country.

[ixacto]

I’d say taxes are halfway stealing and halfway actually doing good things for society.

Paying income taxes into the national debt and finding the military industrial complex is not that appetizing. That is just allowing for geopolitical shenanigans and bombing poor people the world over. Also funding the state governments (hello CA/NU) that think that they are small countries is ridiculous.

Paying property taxes to fund EMS/schools/roads is an entirely different thing that I fully support.

But yeah, right now as a whole we are paying way too much tax IMO and could get away with paying like half if we got rid of the military and bloated government. Then you could have the first 100k that you make you actually get to keep.

[developer93]

As a general principal would you call robin hood a thief? Taxes are theft since they're collected by threat of force, but they pay for things we all need (mostly), so necessary theft. I doubt an organised society that works for everyone could work purely on donations.

[michaelgrafl]

Theft is an abstract concept, and paying taxes simply doesn't reflect the meaning of that word.

Paying taxes is a result of the legislation we've indirectly put into action by voting our people into office. Robin Hood acted out of his own agenda, albeit an allegedly noble one. I'd call the latter theft, without judging it on an ethical level. Taxes aren't that.

[smolder]

Your hypothetical version of the government that's unbloated, doesn't tax small earners, and has no military is unfeasible.

[michaelgrafl]

On a spectrum, I'd say most countries are a lot closer to this hypothetical version than the US.

[ixacto]

Define unfeasible. This country operated just fine for over 100 years without an individual income tax.

And do we really need like 12 aircraft carriers?