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A comment on France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US. Parent comment

Re:France has approved a digital services tax despite threat... by smolder on Thursday July 11, 2019 @06:39PM (#20416541)
I don't believe taxes give me more control. What I believe is that taxes aren't inherently bad and that we should express more concern over where the money goes and what economic effects it has, not paint all taxation as bad. Effective democracies do have an explicit mechanism to make government accountable: votes on issues (like where taxes are gathered and how they're spent) and representation. Through an effective democracy, using government as a proxy, people can also keep bad behavior by big amoral profit-motivated corporations in check. We don't have an effective democracy in the US. That's because it is overtly influenced by money, which, amorally or immorally, goes to help the spender.
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Re:France has approved a digital services tax despite threat... by leppr on Thursday July 11, 2019 @07:13PM (#20416749)
There's very little democracy in France as well. Corporate lobbying might not be as prevalent (simply because they don't have as many humongous corporations), but it's still the same old self-serving oligarchy story.

If we really want to compare, American-style plutocracy might actually be more democratic, because it's easier for a diverse array of citizen to become rich, than it is for French citizens to join the elite club from ENA [1] and co.

[1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47991257

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Re:France has approved a digital services tax despite threat... by JetSpiegel on Sunday July 14, 2019 @08:39PM (#20437232)
America legalized corruption (Citizens United), so I fail to see how is this more democratic.
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Re:France has approved a digital services tax despite threat... by leppr on Wednesday July 17, 2019 @10:02AM (#20459568)
Money is more fluid and impartial than political club camaraderie. It crosses and fills the moats dug up by the ruling class better than the occasional "working class", "diverse" guest-candidate could ever hope to.

I'm not saying the USA is a Democracy, just making the point that the average USA citizen may have slightly more hard (=concrete, realistic) agency over their rulers than French citizens do.

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