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I feel like I'm in crazytown when I express distress about taxation - literally people forcibly taking away your property - and ppl act like I'm the crazy one. Sure, you could argue that this forcible theft is worth it, and I'll respect that, but it's still not crazy to be upset.

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Think of it as paying for the infrastructure and society that allowed you to make that money. It may hurt, but it's a fair trade IMO.

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I'm okay with fair trades, I'm not okay with nonconsensual trades. My issue here is that it is *my* property taken *by force*, and people are trying to tell me "cheer up, it's a fair trade." I don't care if it's fair, it's still a violation.

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It is consensual. You could leave the US if you don't like it. The deal in the US is that you get to make an extraordinary comfortable living benefiting from the society that your taxes pay for.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

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@ssylvan

I view this as I am making a comfortable living *in spite of* taxes. Society has managed to grow *in spite of* taxes. Imagine where we would be if we didn't have that burden!

6:33 PM · Apr 24, 2021

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Well a country without freeways, the internet, electrical grids etc. probably wouldn't have lead to the extraordinary national wealth that lead to thinks like twitter.com.

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I think it's very possible that a better version of most of these would currently exist without the government.

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and

Without taxes we would simply have been conquered and dominated by another power who *could* raise money, then taxed by them.

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and

Taxes are inevitable component of a functional society- at minimum you need a standing military. It also is likely far more efficient to maintain a societal network of police and infrastructure to facilitate stability and ability to trade

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and

What evidence is this based on? What countries or time periods lead you to believe this? Why do most economists disagree, and the countries with the highest happiness and standards of living explicitly have high and broad taxes?

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and

I have managed to survive *in spite of * respiration and digestion.

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and

I get your complaint but still unclear on your goal? I mean I don’t trust the govt to be especially efficient/clear-headed with how they use my $ but... show me something better? We enjoy an unprecedented standard of living. So burden of proof’s on you. Spell it out for me.

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