Dear confused people,

[forgotten_aria]

Dear Confused people,

Taxes are not the government being mean and beating you up and taking you lunch money.

Comments

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

OMG seriously. This entire attitude pisses me the fuck off.

[auros]

Tom Friedman FTW!

[M]y parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization."

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I've usually heard it called theft or enslavement. Both of which are just as ludicrous.

Civilization

[binkbink.livejournal.com]

I heartily agree.

So many see only one small aspect

[binkbink.livejournal.com]

Some see the bad side--Extortion: Pay us or we send men with guns to take you to a place of confinement.

Or we can recognize it as a contract: The government provides the monetary instruments which we will all agree to honor, and in return for using the system, part of the flow is used to support our group efforts. So many important and good things can only be properly accomplished if we all contribute. Taxation just makes sure the selfish don't get a free ride. The hard part is making it fair.

[bluepapercup]

christ, yeah. I wish more people understood all the AMAZING things that taxes pay for!