Do you ever despair at the apparent lack of regard for the "social contract" by so many?
Do you ever despair at the apparent lack of regard for the "social contract" by so many?
In this case, I'm referring to the notion that we all make minor sacrifices in our daily interactions in service of a "greater good" for everyone.
"Following the rules" would be a simplified version of what I'm talking about, I suppose. But also keeping an awareness/attitude about "How will my choices affect the people around me in this moment? "Common courtesy", "situational awareness", etc...
I don't know that it's a "new" phenomenon by any means, I just seem to have an increasing (subjective) awareness of it's decline of late.
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Paying taxes is one way of doing this, and man, people are really hellbent on trying to avoid that.
People are more inclined to pay taxes when they think it's actually going to something. Check out socialist Nordic counties, where many people proudly pay the high tax
If your gov is corrupt then yeah, why would you want to pay taxes
taxes get higher and nothing changes, then great ideas come up like lotteries to help fund the school but somehow the schools are falling apart because they have no funding still
I think if wages were higher people would have less problem parting with some of their income. But when living expenses are so close to net income it's tough.
I was a beneficiary of an inheritance. I learned that my tax rate would be that of my state (higher) rather than family members in another state. A relative framed it as a negative. I said that I was happy that the taxes I'd pay would go into my community and not theirs. It's like a foreign concept that taxes are good and provide infrastructure that we depend upon daily.
Its trickle-down tax evasion. When I see our politicians avoiding paying millions in taxes and getting away with it, I wonder why should I contribute. I see Apple, Amazon and the tech companies who make a fortune in my country get away with sending the profits to the Cayman islands. All the super markets having a zero-tax liability, so more of the burden falls onto me, I figure maybe I should get an accountant who can help me too.
Yep! And any examples of countries to have high tax rates but spend well are outright ignored. So annoying!
Probably cause the US doesn't spend the money well.
The US spends money in awful ways. But these people don't mention better ways to spend it. Only that their taxes are too damned high. they have no problem with billionaires paying a far lower percentage than they do...
Seeing as how the vast majority of the population is not billionaires, in part you'd think a lot of people would prefer to spend the money on their own basic needs, mortgages, etc.
I'm not sure what your point is, but to reiterate, mine is that people are selfish and I think that's a bad thing. I can't tell if you think it's a good thing or what.
Well, if you have a population packed with people (call it 50%, 70%, whatever) who are basically scraping by, it's unreasonable to accuse them of being selfish for wanting to keep their hard-earned money while they're scraping by. Particularly when there's anything money's being spent on by the government which is lower priority than people's basic shelter, food, medicine, etc.
We should absolutely call them out on being hypocrites. These are people who vote against their own interests and against anyone's interest who isn't a billionaire. They do not care about the waste until it's spent, ironically, helping poor people. But if a Republican wastes trillions on war or even raises their taxes, they're as quiet as a mouse.
I wish it were as simple as you say. Republicans would never make into office again. But you're entirely wrong about that simplicity
This is what I'm talking about. We have this slippery equivalence between taxes on billionaires and taxes on everyone else. The vast majority of the population couldn't care less about how billionaires are taxed besides maybe to increase it. Now you're on some thing about how Republicans are hypocritical about spending, which is true, but it's not even what we're talking about. What I'm talking about is that most people don't want their own money going to taxes for any kind of dumb shit (including the military budget) when so many of them are struggling to get by.
The same people don't wash their hands after the toilet.
This!! Taxes make a society run, and it's like we're born to hate them in the US! Insane
Remember, the catalyzing moment that started the American experiment was a bunch of colonists rioting to eschew their duty to pay taxes. Right or wrong, avoiding taxes is at the core of American ideals. Modern American oligarchs are upholding the ancient tradition. The colonists rioted and destroyed some tea, modern day do-nothing billionaires buy politicians and destroy entire countries to avoid taxes.
You are kind of leaving out the whole "without representation" portion of tax avoidance.
More like being taxed on anything and everything, including paper (the Stamp Tax 1765 - a massive issue at the time), while having no one to be their voice. Taxes mostly to help fund wartime and reconstruction that didn't involve the colonies.
It wasn't an anti tax movement. It was movement to stop being bilked for everything while having no legal say in the matter.
When you can barely afford to pay rent and you see a third of your cheque disappear to "deductions" while the Prime Minister gets 350k a year for life. you start to get a bit resentful.
I know taxes are fees for services, but I couldn't afford to use many of those services.
Paradoxically, the poor pay taxes more often, and those with significantly more income are the ones bitching about taxes.
I’m from the U.S. most of the services I actually Can use are funded by state taxes. My federal taxes go partially to good things, but when looking at the discretionary budget, which excludes entitlements to which people have directly paid and which the government is obligated to pay out, the vast majority of my federal tax dollars go to oppressing people in foreign countries, and then those weapons are given to police departments to oppress people locally.
This is a good example.
I have a friend who is constantly complaining about having to pay taxes. One of these days I'm going to break and say that his complaining is essentially him shitting on my profession, a public librarian, and that he doesn't respect what I do and how I contribute to society.
Houston is decommissioning libraries and turning them into detention centers.
You are spot on. God damn I hate this timeline.
I guarantee you that he would tell you that the community would come together and pay for the library if taxes didn't. Because they say that about roads and fire departments too.