21 sats \ 2 replies \ @kevin 11 May 2022 \ on: Food for tought: if you need to pay taxes to keep your things, are they really yours? bitcoin
Honestly getting pretty tired of the libertarian "tax is theft 🤬🤪" narrative that is pretty pervasive in large parts of the Bitcoin community.
Taxes are necessary for a society to function. There will always be a certain part of the population that won't be able to take care of themselves due to all sorts of reasons that are out of their control.
If you live in a country where you have a say in how those taxes are spent (through representation or otherwise), then I agree, but in so much of the world governments are at best incompetent and at worst borderline evil.
For the people living under those governments, Bitcoin is a source of hope, a way to take back some power without having to resort to violence and turmoil.
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The problem is excessive taxing -- what is enough tax? It is my understanding that a big portion of US taxation for example is used to pay back piles of debt. For example, where I live you pay much less taxes (maybe 1/3 of the US) and we have incredible social security, probably top in the world. You seldom see homeless people. We are top 20 in exports.
We have our issues but I am proud of how much gets done with the amount of taxes paid -- highways, metros, most hospitals and education subsidized, etc.
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