what are your thoughts?
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20 sats \ 3 replies \ @TwoLargePizzas 9 Oct 2023
First of all, taxation is theft. But let's put that aside for a second. There's still a few problems with this...
- There's only about 750 billionaires in the US. Out of 330 million people they make up roughly 0% of the population.
- Billionaires generally have a lot of assets but their taxable incomes are proportionally lower. My guess is the amount collected from this will be close to not much.
- Billionaires generally make their money from selling goods and services to the rest of the population. Those additional taxes will trickle down into price inflation anyway.
Would I prefer they tax billionaires rather than taxing the little guy? Absolutely. But at the end of they day it's the little guy who pays anyway so.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @NeuroNinja OP 9 Oct 2023
Interesting thoughts, never thought about taxes this way
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @AJ1992 9 Oct 2023
Taxation isn't theft you tool. It's obvious you've never been to Europe to see how a society is suppossed to function. Also, we live on stolen land here in The United States, or do you forget the indigenous peoples that lived here before us?
Without taxation you wouldn't have interstates, roads, police departments, fire departments, public education, and don't forget all the children living under the poverty level whose parents wouldn't be able to afford their child's medical care for whatever chronic condition/illness their child has.
Thinking taxation is theft when you're living on stolen land is the most hypocritical statement i've seen in a while. But that's right, you tools on the conservative right/anarchist side of things are the biggest hypocrites the world has ever seen.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TwoLargePizzas 10 Oct 2023
To be clear, I'm not saying taxation isn't necessary for a functional society. It's entirely possible there are no better alternatives. I don't live in the United States but I do live in a country that benefits greatly from government funded roads, police, fire and education. I'm under no delusion of the benefits. For the record, I always pay my taxes.
However, it's also wrong to assume taxation is the only valid way to structure human society. We don't know what the world is going to be like hundreds of years from now. It's always a good idea to question the status quo. That's the only way we improve.
With that out of the way, let me explain my position starting with the definition of theft.
Now let's look at the definition of taxation.
Mechanically these are the same thing. You did not consent to the government taking your money. You didn't have to because they are going to do it anyway, whether you like it or not. If you don't pay your taxes, you go to prison. Aside from leaving the country, there's no way to opt out. No matter which way you look at it, it's still coercion.
In fact, the only difference between tax and theft is that one is legal and other isn't. Laws put in place by the very people who collect your taxes.
The argument that they spend taxes on public infrastructure doesn't change the mechanics of how taxes are collected in the first place. If I hacked into your bank account and took 30% of your money it's still stealing, regardless of what I spend it on. Even if I used the money to buy you something nice.
You could also argue that the people collecting taxes are elected in a democracy and that is a form of consent. Even so, the only thing you're really consenting to is who gets to decide how much tax their going to collect from you in the future. And even that's a pretty weak argument because it's rare they'll actually do what they promised anyway.
I'm probably not going to convince you and that's fine. But I do think you should at least question why you think taxation isn't theft. Did you learn that in school? Maybe your parents told you? Maybe you read it in the media?
Whatever the case, it's at least worth considering that it's not a black and white issue. How much tax is fair? If they taxed you 100% of your income is that okay or is it slavery. What about 90% or 70%. Where exactly is the line? How many months of the year do you have to work to pay for roads, police, fire and education?
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @AJ1992 9 Oct 2023
As they should. The corporate tax rate used to be much much higher than it is now..
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