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This year, I'm writing a check for nearly 50% of what I earned in 2020. I have it saved up in account, and I'm paying it in one lump sum to the government. It's a fucking brutal check. Imagine having 50% of your total yearly earnings in a bank account you have to give away.

578

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The percent is only "brutal" relative to what the other 50% will get you. To say "imagine having 50% taken" poisons the well so to speak. I had a friend who would purposely park illegally, and he would posit that it wasn't illegal it cost X (fine) to do. He could afford it.

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and

I could just as eaily say, for example. Imagine having 50% of your income taken in taxes, and still having £500k left (or any sum which is far beyond average and the livable threshold) Worded like that, it suddenly takes a very different meaning.

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It's still *mine*. It's money that I earned, and someone is taking it from me without my consent, under threat of force. The bar to make this 'okay' is *extremely* high.

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Without your consent? It's absolutely with your consent. You don't have to live in the state you live in. Especially earning what you do. Even if I agreed it was fully against your consent, its still demonstrably better than someone low income with a lower percent.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

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@Crimsonak1

?? Can you imagine applying that argument to things you find unjust? "The government confiscated your possessions during a fruitless drug search. That was with your consent, because you chose to live in an area that allows this."

6:02 AM · Mar 21, 2021

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That analogy isn’t perfect. Civil assest forfeitures are executed against a small minority of people, so at best it’s a roll of the dice whether any given person will be affected, and that’s a big part of the unfairness. Everyone has to pay taxes and knows it ahead of time.

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That is like a childs analogy. The equivalent would be the state announcing in advance that if you generate possessions they get a cut, because they provide you with services and *currency* Then despite being able to afford (with *gain*) to avoid, you chose not to.