re: #253 reine.de.tout

No, you’re not “giving” me money, to tell me that you’re going to allow me to keep $200 of what I’ve earned.

You are simply not taking as much as you could.

I’m not arguing that taxes are not real obligations, of course they are.
Nor am I arguing that breaks are relief from those obligations. They are, of course.

I’m arguing that if I’ve earned it, it’s MINE. And allowing me to keep more of it than before, is NOT subsidizing ME. It’s just taking less away from me.

I simply do not understand how you can believe this. Philosophically or not.

You only have the ability to prosper in this society because of the trillions and trillions of dollars of infrastructure that has created America in the first place. All this society you see around you, it all costs money. And I don’t get how anyone can take it for granted, especially if they know a helpful government employee personally, like a cop, or a teacher, or a fireman, or anyone.

You couldn’t earn the same paycheck in an undeveloped country. Go to Somalia or Haiti or Rwanda or any other country with far less and far weaker government than we have here, and try to earn the same coin. It’s not 100% yours.

hell, I couldn’t earn a paycheck at all where it not for the internet. I literally would have no income without the internet. Which was paid for with tax dollars, military research, arpanet, etc etc. Without government tax dollars, there would be no internet. Packet switching tech wouldn’t exist. So I don’t kvetch about paying my taxes.