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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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How do you know? We didn't have income tax until what... 1913? and America was still creating infrastructure just fine. It's very possible, likely even, that we'd be even more prosperous and happy if we hadn't been taxing this hard since then.

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We had extensive taxes since founding — the means have varied: direct, exercise, income (civil war, 1913+), ... Infrastructure was paid for by those taxes. The means and amount have varied, that’s all.

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Lots of infrastructure *wasn't* paid by taxes! And taxes *for war* is one of the few reasons for taxation I think are justified, though I think war itself is very rarely justified.

6:38 PM · Apr 24, 2021

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You won’t here me argue for American colonialism. Some infrastructure was paid by property, excise and trade taxes. Others built by private industry — see the mess that created with standards for rails, power and communications + the resulting monopolies.