Somewhere along the line, someone, somewhere, managed to convince people that tax was a part of our moral and social contract with 'king and country.'
The truth is, however, that in the very early days of tax, they were levied for one thing really - war. Kings funded their war chests from tax money, and if they happened to build a road with the money, it wasn't because they felt like making travelling easier, it was because it made getting to war easier. (Grossly oversimplified, but sums it up sort of.)
The thing is, however, that they weren't trying to convince their subjects that it was all for their own good. It was simple: pay the king's tax collectors, or get your head lopped off.
These days, however, tax is a much less honest affair.
These days, we're told that tax money is for our own good. That our global governments are somehow better equipped to spend our money (and steal large amounts of it in the process) than we are. That they know better than us, and that we owe it to our country.
Rubbish.
Tax these days is every bit as capitalist as everything else, and we should treat it that way.
We pay our government for services - roads, hospitals, infrastructure, and yes, to help alleviate poverty.
If we were paying a similarly huge chunk of our monthly income to anyone else, would we be meekly accepting it when they did nothing of any value in our lives, but renovated their offices quite nicely? Would we be happy if they couldn't fix a fault with the equipment we were hiring, but drove around in the latest cars?
Not in a million years.
If a company anywhere did that, we'd cancel our contracts as quickly as humanly possible, and take our business elsewhere.
So, since we're essentially buying a service from our government (even those of us who only pay tax through VAT) I'm sure we'd all like to know: WHERE IS THE PRODUCT.
Quite frankly, this arrangement is stacked all in the favor of fat, lazy, corrupt, useless politicians, and we're not getting what we pay for.
All that's left then is to start cancelling contracts I suppose. Anyone know how to go about that?
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