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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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I'm confused why you don't just see it as a cost of living in the US. Like, every place / situation has it's costs and opportunities, regardless of whether they're fair or capricious. But like, you have a ton of freedom compared to nearly everyone on earth and across time

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Do I? I have way more freedom given by tech, but I'm uncertain about negative rights encroachment; a lot of people were living outside of effective reach of government throughout history, and when they were taxed I think it was much, much lower in general.

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though "getting roped up for war" does seem like a nice problem we don't have to deal with

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But also you could say "it's a cost of living here" about a lot of other terrible things the government does; would you be like "why are you upset, it's a cost of living here" about stuff like when gay marriage was illegal, or drug laws?

7:04 PM · Apr 24, 2021

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I can hold a lens where those just do feel like costs, though I have fairness intuitions that kick in as well as social motivations. If I think about moving to Singapore I don't feel outraged I just see those as costs. Though if I was born there I might be outraged