The government should exist only to provide essential services and regulation to the market, nothing else.
There’s an awful lot of devil in those details. Does health care qualify as an essential service? How about Social Security, which is the only reason working-class people don’t all become homeless once they’re too old to work? Mail? Roads? Firefighting? Modern governments do an awful lot, and life would be an awful lot worse if they didn’t, but it costs an awful lot of money.
Effort should be made to root out wasteful government spending, of course, but that means unraveling the twisted schemes of those who would misappropriate tax money without destroying the government functions they’ve attached themselves to, and much like surgically removing a cancerous growth from an organ without destroying the entire organ, it is neither easy nor permanent.
Firefighters for example is an essential service but in my country is done by volunteers who doesn’t get paid too much (when they should be paid better and government should be responsible for the service). Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.
There are many examples in my country where government is overreaching by a lot but fails in the most basic stuff.
Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.
This is a grave misconception. Taxes are not what stops people from saving money. Taxes are proportional to income, expenses, and/or wealth. No matter how little money you make, taxes will never take all of it.
Prices of goods and services are what stop people from saving money. Prices are always set as high as the market will bear. Landlords and merchants are trying to take all of your money, not just a fraction of it. This leaves no room for savings unless you make a great deal more money than the average person.
The saying does not go, “the taxes are too damn high.” The saying goes, “the rent is too damn high.” Never forget that.
There’s an awful lot of devil in those details. Does health care qualify as an essential service? How about Social Security, which is the only reason working-class people don’t all become homeless once they’re too old to work? Mail? Roads? Firefighting? Modern governments do an awful lot, and life would be an awful lot worse if they didn’t, but it costs an awful lot of money.
Effort should be made to root out wasteful government spending, of course, but that means unraveling the twisted schemes of those who would misappropriate tax money without destroying the government functions they’ve attached themselves to, and much like surgically removing a cancerous growth from an organ without destroying the entire organ, it is neither easy nor permanent.
Firefighters for example is an essential service but in my country is done by volunteers who doesn’t get paid too much (when they should be paid better and government should be responsible for the service). Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.
There are many examples in my country where government is overreaching by a lot but fails in the most basic stuff.
This is a grave misconception. Taxes are not what stops people from saving money. Taxes are proportional to income, expenses, and/or wealth. No matter how little money you make, taxes will never take all of it.
Prices of goods and services are what stop people from saving money. Prices are always set as high as the market will bear. Landlords and merchants are trying to take all of your money, not just a fraction of it. This leaves no room for savings unless you make a great deal more money than the average person.
The saying does not go, “the taxes are too damn high.” The saying goes, “the rent is too damn high.” Never forget that.