Taxes

[JaneV2.0]

If you think of taxes as the government stealing from you, you're probably not comfortable living in a civilized country, since taxes are what such places run on.

[LDAHL]

If you think of taxes as the government stealing from you, you're probably not comfortable living in a civilized country, since taxes are what such places run on.

Yes, but it’s possible to take that thinking too far if you begin to think civilization and government are synonymous. If a third of my income gets me roads and the Coast Guard, it doesn’t mean I’m eager to give up the rest for even more goodies. Nor does it mean that anything I keep for myself is robbing “civilization”. Good government is the froth on top of a civilization that produces the wealth that it feeds on, not the underlying bedrock.

I would go so far as to say that civilized countries don’t run on taxes. Civilized countries run on the productivity of their economies, the creative thinking of their citizens and the capacity for informed risk-taking of their organizations.

[Yppej]

Civilized countries run on a sense of community and common purpose.

[LDAHL]

Civilized countries run on a sense of community and common purpose.

I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. I think civilization advances in large part through competition, conflict and “creative destruction” more so than a sort ok lockstep common purpose.

[catherine]

I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. I think civilization advances in large part through competition, conflict and “creative destruction” more so than a sort ok lockstep common purpose.

I understand creative chaos, but I don't understand when you have small farmers competing against huge corporate entities like chemical companies moving into industrial farming; when citizens are competing against dirty industries for clean air and water, and when you have pharmaceutical companies competing to see how much they money they can from layers of middlemen who have no skin in the game except for a vested interest in keeping their members from getting treatment. That's competition, but not the kind of competition that serves the common good.

[Teacher Terry]

Wisconsin farmers are going out of business at a high rate. Really sad.

[catherine]

Wisconsin farmers are going out of business at a high rate. Really sad.

This was in the Washington Post this week, and I bookmarked it. Many farmers are committing suicide. https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...g/?arc404=true

[Yppej]

I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. I think civilization advances in large part through competition, conflict and “creative destruction” more so than a sort ok lockstep common purpose.

Conflicts work when they are against external threats. For example, the US pulled together and formed a community fighting against the Axis Powers in the Greatest Generation, putting aside the former divisiveness between isolationists and interventionists.

[LDAHL]

Conflicts work when they are against external threats. For example, the US pulled together and formed a community fighting against the Axis Powers in the Greatest Generation, putting aside the former divisiveness between isolationists and interventionists.

I suppose that’s why certain people are always trying to make their projects the moral equivalent of war. Generate enough fear and resentment to shut the dissenters up and discipline the general population to obedience.

[frugal-one]

Wisconsin farmers are going out of business at a high rate. Really sad.

I read it recently 600 or 800 (don't remember which) small farms THIS YEAR alone. We know who to blame for that. What benefit was the trade war with China? Now trump is getting rid of tariffs he said would be so great.