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by Xeoncross 923 days ago
The growth of fines, licenses and taxes in the USA is substantial over the last 100 years. Very few things do not require fees these days (even visiting public lands).
3 comments
JKCalhoun 923 days ago
It seems we have dialed down corporate taxes and taxes on the extremely wealthy. In their place (because these things don't pay for themselves) we have shifted the tax burden elsewhere.

If I don't go to National Parks why should my taxes pay for them? Make the visitors pay to enter.

Seems to be where we are these days.

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LargeTomato 923 days ago
Incentives are powerful and scale.

There are 2 kinds of people in the world, those who understand incentives and those who don't.

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joshuamcginnis 923 days ago
True and so too have the expectations of services from the public.
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Xeoncross 923 days ago
Only a small portion of the total federal and state budgets go towards education, infrastructure (roads, transit and parks), and healthcare.

There is plenty in the budget for public services, we don't use it for that though which is why we add new fines.

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