Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by sbsudbdjd 663 days ago
Ppl's obsessions (on both sides) on taxes is so weird.

Governments can fund themselves in numerous ways, not just taxes. Either way you'll pay.

The key issue is do we want a federal government expenditure of 20-25% of the economy? I'd say no.
2 comments
amrocha 662 days ago
This is such a stupid argument. Is your issue that the number is too high? Why? What’s the right number?

Should government spend 25% percent of GDP? Who cares. Governments shouldn’t aim for a specific number, they should spend enough to make sure full employment is achieved, according to saving desires and the private market’s appetite for investment.

Whatever the private market isn’t willing to invest, the government should take care of.

Whether that’s 10% or 50% is literally irrelevant.

link
imgabe 662 days ago
The government only gets money by skimming off the top of private enterprise. If the percentage is too high then there’s nothing left to skim and the system collapses, so yes we should care what the percentage is and we should want it to be as low as possible.

We should be demanding ruthless efficiency from the government, not dreaming up new ways for them to take our stuff.

link
amrocha 662 days ago
No, you have no idea how sovereign economies work. Taxes don’t fund government spending. Learn about economics before you complain about the number being too high.
link
imgabe 662 days ago
> Taxes don’t fund government spending.

Cool, then let's just do away with them altogether. This is great news. All those people saying I needed to pay taxes so I can have roads and schools and a military and everything must be wrong.

link
amrocha 662 days ago
Again, go read up on economics. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
link
imgabe 662 days ago
Smugly insinuating that you’re right without providing any sort of reasoning does not make you look as cool and smart as you think it does.
link
Loughla 663 days ago
What other ways are there?
link
sbsudbdjd 663 days ago
Glad you asked. There's the obvious three ways to finance government:

- Taxes - debt financing - seignorage

The latter two aren't taxes, but people end up paying for the expenses anyway.

Governments can also plunder other country's money. While this sounds very Roman empire, it's still a thing. Case in point freezing another country's foreign exchange reserves, refusing to return their gold, confiscating the interest on the reserves, etc

link