[Jach]

Meanwhile the infrastructure is not exactly doing great in many places, and it seems doubtful that it would be doing particularly better with more taxes collected. Anyway, there's been a pretty clear trend towards not-less, even in just the last few decades (really, compare quality of services and infrastructure at revenues and debts in the 90s to now), without a clear sign that it's actually worth it or that more would make anything better. A fruitless 20 year war didn't help either.

[Teever]

How does infrastructure look in places like Norway and Finland?

Why can those countries have what they have but America some how can't?

What are they doing that America isn't?

[asdasdsddd]

They have a high trust society where people follow rigid norms thereby lowering the cost for infrastructure. For example, they probably don't need to clean the streets as much because people don't shit on the sidewalk.

[yencabulator]

You're attempting to blame all of US problems on some homeless people. Try blaming the corporations and politicians instead.

High trust societies are ones were those in power are not (very) corrupt.

[asdasdsddd]

What part of example does not make sense to you?

[Teever]

What does high trust society mean?

[oceanplexian]

I’ll give you an example, I live in rural Utah and more than once walked into a store and bought something and left money on the counter when there were no employees in the store. Or, as a pilot I’ll fly into an airport and the keys to a courtesy car will be on a table in the lounge with a note to fill up the gas tank.

High trust society is one where people do the morally right thing even if they wouldn’t get caught. To do have that you need a set of common societal values.

[shiroiushi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie...

"Mechanisms and institutions that are corrupted, dysfunctional, or absent in low-trust societies include respect for private property rights, a trusted civil court system, democratic voting and acceptance of electoral outcomes, and voluntary tax payment."

[asdasdsddd]

Everyone has a very similar value system.

[Clubber]

The citizens don't tolerate deadbeats who trash everything.

[callalex]

It’s a racist dog-whistle.

[gamblor956]

For starters, they have much smaller populations, and more natural resources per person.

They also rely on America to provide the bulk of their national defense...

[Teever]

Do these places have more natural resources per person than the US, or do they just do more with the resources that they have?

Can you tell me more about the military aid that Finland has received from the US?

[gamblor956]

The US is the reason it's still Finland and not the newest Russian state...

[Teever]

Can you elaborate?

[rovolo]

There isn't a clear trend to more taxes in the US (scaled to GDP). Federal tax receipts were higher in the 90s (17-20%) than the 00s/10s (14-18%). Local and state receipts have been basically flat at ~8.8%.

Federal: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S

State & Local: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pltN

[Jach]

Has GDP gone up or down over time? It's gone way up, so even if the percentage was constant, the amount of money collected has increased significantly. This is what I mean by a clear trend towards "not-less". Despite this increase, I don't think we're seeing proportional returns, and I'm very doubtful that increasing it even further will help anything. If the root problem is mismanagement/corruption/inefficiencies/pointless wars, throwing more money at it isn't going to fix anything, while taking money away could.