| > you got the benefits of the system, pay back into it The "system" isn't the government, though it's easy to muddle that line, considering some developed countries have government spending that's over half of the GDP (with Norway sitting at around a fifth as of 2021); and the existence of a government that facilitates the "system", which is in reality the private activities of the people, does not make it that without that particular government the system will not exist at all. Imagine a parent who tells a fully-grown child well into his adulthood that they have an ever-increasing claim on what the child produces by virtue of having given birth to and raised him. Does that not sound abusive? That's not the kind of relationship I want with my government. The government, or at least the American one, is meant to serve the people, not rule over them and allow the people to keep whatever scraps the government allows them to keep. Every time you perform a service for somebody or make a widget for somebody -- basically any economic activity -- you are paying back into the system by fulfilling a demand that someone else has. And not just remunerative efforts: every time you pick up a cigarette butt off the street that you didn't smoke, or every time you watch someone else's kid for a night, or you volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Those are all ways that people pay back into the system. Let's not make the mistake of thinking taxation is the only way, or even the most important and effective way. Many roles that are currently performed by government funded via taxation have only been that way very recently in human history, and I'm in no way convinced that this is either optimum or necessary. |
Thank you for putting that into words, I’ve struggled to succinctly frame the unease that this way of thinking makes me feel.