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78 sats \ 4 replies \ @optimism 8h \ parent \ on: Which is Worse: Taxes or Fiat Money? econ
Fair, but I think that that is the best reason to choose taxes.
- Remove fiat you shall still be coerced no matter how much you learn about taxes
- Remove taxes, all you need to do is learn to get rid of that fiat asap.
This is why I asked the question. Good point. I still disagree but it gets us thinking doesn't it?
My thought is that if you eliminate fiat its dead forever because of bitcoin. And fiat is MUCH harder to fight than taxes.
Taxes are not invisible and if you take away the fiat tool to fund spending and special interests you take away a LOT of power from the state and its cronies. Then you have a situation where taxes will become more pressured as the source of funding things. People are far more likely to push back on that vs. the complex and largely invisible fiat system.
I will add though that one of the worst things about Democracy is how it clouds our thinking about taxes. Under a king people have no illusion what is happening. The King is levying taxes to do what he wants. Much easier to see that it is a forcible taking. Theft.
But we are propagandized to believe that WE are the government in a democracy(or whatever you think the US is). We the people and all that. How can the people steal from themselves? Unless you kill democracy and instead have a voluntary free society its gonna be hard to get rid of taxes.
This is why I don't think this question is an easy one.
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And another thing people have a hard time thinking through is that eliminating taxes doesn't mean you don't pay for services the state is now providing. Its just not gonna be theft.
Its not theft when I voluntarily pay for someone to take away my garbage. That is a fee for service.
Those of us who have studied some econ probably could agree that some things the government provides would be more expensive under a free system. But most if not all would be better and we'd have choice instead of fear of imprisonment.
Your choice only makes sense if choosing taxes means Bitcoin or gold or land or even stonks are no longer available because of that choice. Like: you won't be taxed but you aren't allowed to spend your fiat; that would make it a different story, because then there is no wealth preservation anymore, just "credits" that get devalued.
It is super easy to hedge against fiat without that, because you just need to spend it. Many bitcoiners still have fiat jobs (I don't but I should; it's one of my mistakes.)
Taxes though; I remember getting the knock on the door. And the threats. And then I had to go to court. And waste tons of money to defend myself against a wrongful government action because their automated system was extrapolating past income on me. Without taxes, I would have been spared that, so maybe I'm biased.
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