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Re:I am done. I give up by andrepd on Friday December 23, 2022 @07:32AM (#34105096)
1. Finland doesn't have oil, you're mistaking it for Norway.

2. Progressive taxation is the basis on which the best places to live were built. This is an empirical observation, make of that what you will, but it's strange to give your gut feelings of "basic economics / human nature" more weight than objective reality.

3. Why do is the word "rob" applied to taxation? Without the state to at least enforce laws, enforce property rights, and physically protect you, there wouldn't even be any wealth creation. Your current life is only possible because you are inserted in a society, it's only far you have a debt to pay society back.

Re:I am done. I give up by uffndnjfncnc on Friday December 23, 2022 @08:14AM (#34105409)
You should visit Tokyo. Japan spends very low on welfare.
Re:I am done. I give up by serverholic on Friday December 23, 2022 @08:49AM (#34105743)
Oh yeah the salaryman life sounds fantastic /s
Re:I am done. I give up by andrekandre on Friday December 23, 2022 @07:09PM (#34112256)
what is your definition of welfare?
Re:I am done. I give up by tosc on Friday December 23, 2022 @08:31AM (#34105560)
>!Without the state to at least enforce laws, enforce property rights, and physically protect you, there wouldn't even be any wealth creation.

This is the kind of minimalist state that libertarians would agree to. People talk about robbery when the state is spending money on arbitrary things.

Re:I am done. I give up by kwhitefoot on Friday December 23, 2022 @03:07PM (#34110046)
Arbitrary? Or just things they don't agree with?
Re:I am done. I give up by tosc on Friday December 23, 2022 @04:13PM (#34110689)
Arbitrary in the sense of non-essential things that governments spend other people’s money on.

The fact that most people don’t agree is why tax is taken by force.

Re:I am done. I give up by kwhitefoot on Sunday December 25, 2022 @06:49PM (#34132840)
That's not what arbitrary means. The fact that someone is spending on something non-essential doesn't make that spending arbitrary. Lipstick is non-essential but that doesn't mean the spending on it is arbitrary.

I'm quite confident that a lot of thought goes into pretty much all government spending, even if a proportion is misguided, counter productive, and non-essential.

Re:I am done. I give up by prottog on Friday December 23, 2022 @12:43PM (#34108543)
> Your current life is only possible because you are inserted in a society, it's only far you have a debt to pay society back.

Sure, but at some point it starts to sound abusive, like a narcissistic parent telling their child that they and not the little child owns their accomplishments, because without them the child would not have existed.

The state, at least in the US, is supposed to work for you, the people. The burden of proof is on the state if it wants to tax more and expand itself. It needs to justify every penny of the taxpayer's money it spends. It simply cannot take the position that everyone's output is by default a debt owed to it, and by its grace alone are the people allowed to keep some of it. That's the talk of the divine right of kings.