I think a better title of the post would have been ‘State as a Firm.’
But essentially, you’re right. It is just a private firm with illigitimate priviledges. A political philosophical variant of your argument would be Do We Ever Really Get Out of Anarchy.
And I’m sure that the robber increases his wealth by robbing the lil’ old lady. So you are putting “increasing wealth” ahead of property rights? Theft is okay as long as it increases wealth? Also, how do know you that your mother utilized the stolen money better than the person from whom the money was stolen?
But someone else didn’t get to spend the money that your mother got to go to school on the things they wanted. Which means that some other person may have starved or lossed their job or whatever because the government took someone’s money and gave it to your mother. This is just another example of the forgotten man.
Ugh. Im not getting into this argument again. Robin Hood, or Jesus for that matter.
And didnt i just show you how going to school taught me to play the market instead of lottery. I never said everyone who gets educated will invest in the market. But some, like me, will.
I encourage you to look up the story of how algebra (probably) came about; it is a good example of what giving someone a chance (who may have never recieved that chance otherwise) can do.
Please provide an example of someone who broke themselves becuase of their tax responsibility. And dont include people who had years of back taxes, if they spent years not paying them, then their responsibility came down all at once that is a different story… No, nevermind. Im not here to play the “defend taxation” game. I merely see it as a necessary evil.
so what are you here to get into?
Taxes may be unavoidable, but the level and degree of taxation is surely up for debate. The scope of the government and what responsibilites it actually has are up for debate.
And for every story of algebra there are probably ten thousand forgotten men.
How would you like a $30,000 pay raise? That’s what I’d get if we abolished state/fed income taxes. I can think of plenty of ways to spend or invest $30K rather than giving it to the government so it can kill Arabs and buy votes from people like you and your mom.
Much less the payroll taxes for the Medicaid I don’t use and the Social Security and Medicare that will be gone when I’m 65.
How would anyone respond emotionally if I were to take a few bills from their wallet to pay my forthcoming tuition bill? If I were to do it to you, I presume it wouldn’t push you to the financial brink of starvation. That isn’t the argument being made. Benefitting from stealing someone else’s property being wrong would be the argument. That should probably elicit some kind of emotional, as well as intellectual and moral, outrage.
As to your boast that an “education” advances production, look at the types of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree compared to, say, 50 years ago. Why would an administrative assistant require a college degree? Many of the simplest day-to-day tasks require a curriculum involving humanities, arts, sciences, and maths? “Public investment” is just shifting (by theft) the money around–what was the difference in what your mother made compared to the difference in what unfairly taxed citizens lost?
Dont get me wrong Marissa, I encourage people to think emotionally to a point. But I have been accused of being emotive numerous times when I try to talk of real people who’ve been screwed by the market.
And 30k in taxes? Is that self-employment or personal income tax alone? Does that include AMT? I figure you to be making from 500k to 1mill at that rate of taxation. If not then that includes back taxes which is a different problem.
I agree
Using a simple income tax calculator found here, I was able to estimate his income at around $130,000 per year.
I did not break myself Herm…
The tax system broke me…
Payroll taxes, which hit my employers caused me to lose work, numerous times…
I have worked for plenty a company that was outcompeted by untaxed labor…
You having the right to speak freely is a necessary evil, taxation is unnecessary…
Where did you get your estimate from exactly? What taxes are you including? It seems laughable that you would guess such a high income. If you were to include all taxes that are passed on to the consumer (corporate taxes), inflationary tax from monetary regulations, artificially high costs caused by government intervention in the market (minimum wage laws, unemployment benefits, regulatory union laws, etc, etc ,etc), and not to mention the forgotten man- which would have brought prices even lower had a less productive member of society not had his position, I have no idea why his income wouldn’t be closer to 50-60K mark.
Socialists can’t calculate. Lol.
Sure they can, they calculate that if you earn you are rich and therefore subject to taxation as punishment for earning…
Wait… that is stupider than I thought is sounded…
What are you talking about? If you are rich, then you are greedy (read: profitable) and must punished by the state. If you are poor, then you are too stupid and must be helped (read: enslaved) by the state.
Like I said it sounds dumber every time…
Hermes, when are you going to learn what the free market is? When are you going to learn fascism and socialism are government unjust perversions. You are not here to discuss with dialogue but only to repeat your own tired lecture. People post to you and you can’t even discuss back with them in a civil conversation. You skip ahead and lecture post. Monologues get boring real quick.
The problem is Wilderness is that he cannot stop, if he did, he might have to admit that he is wrong…
If public investment goes into your degree in sanskrit, you are not more productive and the public has wasted resources.
On the other hand, private forces would surely align to provide you an education now for a share of your increased productivity later - businesses actually do this. But then you’d bitch about your freedom and how you have to serve a capitalist like a slave. Of course, you could do this yourself with student loans; but you’d still be bitching because other people are still making money off of you using capital ownership instead of labor. Apparently, using state violence to give you a “free” education is the only scenario you’d call free.
Maybe on the day it starts raining free lunches and Marx is resurrected you’d still find something to bitch about.