[gorgoiler]

Moreover, check your tax filings next time you want to feel like you give back to society.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do anything extra-curricular, but as a wage earning citizen you are already doing a good bit of your fair share just by earning money and handing it over as tax revenue.

(Where I am sure this falls down, for many people, is that their local and federal government is useless at moving the needle on any kind of issues for social good. Hands up if you live in a nation with both aircraft carriers and child poverty!)

[asdff]

IMO I'm in the camp that the money you 'lose' to taxes were never yours to begin with, and not worth all the handwringing people give about rates. It only really makes sense to consider take home minus fixed costs such as rent when considering how much money a job is making for you, since that's the only cash that's actually yours at the end of the day anyhow. If I want more of that given these fixed costs, seems like I need to demand more in wages if I'm left with too little every paycheck.

[WalterBright]

You're giving back to society (in a free market) by creating something they want to have. The exchanges are mutually beneficial.

There's a word for a trade where the benefit goes only one way - stealing.

[bigDinosaur]

Taxes don't go one way though. Governments provide plenty of useful services. If your government provides no useful services then that would be stealing, and you should probably move asap.

[anonymoushn]

Even after you move, you have to pay $150,000 to buy another citizenship before you can end your relationship with the tax authorities :)

[bigDinosaur]

On a more local level this can apply in terms of city and state as well, so not just country. If you get literally no useful or beneficial services from a city government that's not a bad reason to move away unless you have no need for anything governmental.

[WalterBright]

Wealth redistribution programs go one way. It's the whole point of them.