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by sowbug 243 days ago
#1 works fine in stores and restaurants. Why would the government be different?

#2 isn't a strong enough reason to justify the significant out-of-pocket costs and lost productivity of the US tax system. If the tax collector is regularly finding only $1 of $5 tax obligations, that seems better solved by improving the collector's record-keeping, not hanging civil and criminal penalties over the heads of 350 million citizens.
1 comments
maerF0x0 242 days ago
> works fine in stores and restaurants. Why would the government be different?

I'll posit a hypothesis: Scale and morality interpretation differences.

I've yet to have a > $1000 restaurant bill (not even close), and the experience I got and the reciprocity instincts in me compel me to correct it if say they were to forget to charge me for my guac or give me more change than i was owed.

Whereas in the Gov't there is scale that tempts people to choose immoral paths, and also there's a morality of efff the government in a lot of people's minds. It's an abstracted entity of which we mostly do not enjoy the experience and cannot treat humanely (it's not a person).

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sowbug 242 days ago
I get where you're coming from. But I don't know which is cause and which is effect.

Suppose your friendly neighborhood restaurant stopped giving you the check at the end of the meal, and instead had a stern sign on the table saying "Pay what you owe. Underpay and we call the cops."

Would you still feel that warm reciprocity?

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