We make 250,000/year. I'm not a f***ing billionaire

The only correct take on this is that a man - EVERY man - has a moral right to his money.

The notion of a "societal obligation" is obscene. There can be no such thing as an unchosen obligation. Income taxation is plain, naked THEFT, no different from crimes like burglary, robbery and extortion. Its advocates are moral criminals.

Benjamin Franklin of LRC wrote:

The only correct take on this is that a man - EVERY man - has a moral right to his money.

The notion of a "societal obligation" is obscene. There can be no such thing as an unchosen obligation. Income taxation is plain, naked THEFT, no different from crimes like burglary, robbery and extortion. Its advocates are moral criminals.

Well said, sir.

Yes, there are people who take advantage of the system because they're lazy shits and/or morally bankrupt. Maybe your friend had crappy parents that didn't instill a work ethic in their son. And steps should be taken to discourage such abuse.

But is your friend typical of the unemployed?

Jeff Wigand wrote:

But is your friend typical of the unemployed?

Come to Chicago and see some of the people on unemployment. Yes, this is extremely typical. I have multiple friends that are cops, they tell me all their stories and this is pretty much the norm with unemployed people here.

My brothers friend is 34 with a wife and 4 kids. He's getting 60% of his salary, again tax-free. Same deal, he said would he rather find a job working 50 hrs a week making about $500-$1000 more a month, or take the unemployment for 12-18 months and spend time with his kids. It's a no-brainer.

Granted they're all screwed once they try and rejoin the workforce. But for the time-being they're doing nothing and getting good money to do nothing.

That's great, you hit the lottery by being born to your parents. Congratulations.

Providing all these things for your kids is great. But the point is that it's clearly not necessary, because most people grow up without all those benefits. I've written this before, but think about Russom Keflezighi. How much do you think he was making for his wife and nine children, all of whom attended public high school and all of whom went on to top universities and many with advanced degrees.

Do you get what we're saying? That a lot of what you're spending your income on aren't necessities? They're nice, and that's great, and if you want to spend your cash on that, that's your choice. But imagine an NBA player like Sprewell who thinks $7 million per year isn't enough money on which to raise his family.

The clear moral message here is that it is obscene to benefit from the roads, schools, pollution control, safe food, police and armed forces that taxes buy and whine about paying taxes. The very notion that there is something wrong with paying for the services that your receive is obscene and unpatriotic.

No Taxes wrote:

Medieval serfs paid only 25% of their incomes to their lords. If only a successful person in modern day America could be as lucky as a medieval serf!

All income taxation is slavery. To impose a 39% marginal tax rate is to enslave me for 39% of my working life. The fact that the rates are higher elsewhere is utterly irrelevant and only proves how bad the state of the world is.

What did the serfs get for their 25%?

Why is it that those awful countries with higher tax rates all have better standards of living than the United States?

Benjamin Franklin of LRC wrote:

The only correct take on this is that a man - EVERY man - has a moral right to his money.

The notion of a "societal obligation" is obscene. There can be no such thing as an unchosen obligation. Income taxation is plain, naked THEFT, no different from crimes like burglary, robbery and extortion. Its advocates are moral criminals.

Why are you allowing yourself to be robbed? You could just renounce your citizenship and be free of this theft.

I agree with the OP wrote:

Come to Chicago and see some of the people on unemployment. Yes, this is extremely typical. I have multiple friends that are cops, they tell me all their stories and this is pretty much the norm with unemployed people here.

My brothers friend is 34 with a wife and 4 kids. He's getting 60% of his salary, again tax-free. Same deal, he said would he rather find a job working 50 hrs a week making about $500-$1000 more a month, or take the unemployment for 12-18 months and spend time with his kids. It's a no-brainer.

Granted they're all screwed once they try and rejoin the workforce. But for the time-being they're doing nothing and getting good money to do nothing.

I'm not looking for anecdotes about two people. I have friends who were out of work, too, and they never took unemployment, even though they were entitled to it. I'm looking for stats.

I used to work for a small business owner who used to screw their employees (like me) out of state-mandated overtime. But I can't say their behavior is typical of small business owners.

jskajslasd wrote:

I am not inherently against paying slightly higher taxes. The problem is that the govt seems to think that higher taxes is always the solution. When was the last time the govt cut any spending?

When was the last time the government increased taxes? I didn't even read the rest of your post after that stupid statement. Taxes have never been lower. Mortgage rates have never been lower. People making $150k-$200k per year have it better than they've ever had it.

TAX PAYER wrote:

The clear moral message here is that it is obscene to benefit from the roads, schools, pollution control, safe food, police and armed forces that taxes buy and whine about paying taxes. The very notion that there is something wrong with paying for the services that your receive is obscene and unpatriotic.

The obscenity is that the government arrogates to itself the power to seize control of vital institutions like education, transportation and food production to the detriment of all of those activities and then sticks citizens with the price tag as an unchosen obligation. It's the equivalent of kidnapping someone, imprisoning him in your basement, feeding him a meal and then claiming that he owes you a debt for preventing him from starving. In other words, your're an IDIOT.

Benjamin Franklin of LRC wrote:

The obscenity is that the government arrogates to itself the power to seize control of vital institutions like education, transportation and food production to the detriment of all of those activities and then sticks citizens with the price tag as an unchosen obligation. It's the equivalent of kidnapping someone, imprisoning him in your basement, feeding him a meal and then claiming that he owes you a debt for preventing him from starving.

Yes, because he's incapable of feeding himself. That's the point. Humans, being social animals, need society to survive. Don't believe me? Compare life expectancy rates today to those several centuries ago. Or compare those in Scandinavia to those in Somalia.

Show me a society in the world's history that didn't redistribute resources from the overproducers to the underproduces.

Who Begrudges Me???? Are you kidding? Due to my income, I am one of the Evil 1% The Occupy Idiots begrudge me every dime I make!! Open your eyes. And my post had nothing to do with tax rates. I didn't mention them at all. I mentioned the class warfare mentality and you didn't address that at all except to ask who begrudges me our income which came from our hard work. Believe me, I am "begrudged" by plenty.

Jeff Wigand wrote:

Yes, because he's incapable of feeding himself. That's the point. Humans, being social animals, need society to survive. Don't believe me? Compare life expectancy rates today to those several centuries ago. Or compare those in Scandinavia to those in Somalia.

Show me a society in the world's history that didn't redistribute resources from the overproducers to the underproduces.

Man you are one sick f*ck.

meatandveggies wrote:

Who Begrudges Me???? Are you kidding? Due to my income, I am one of the Evil 1% The Occupy Idiots begrudge me every dime I make!! Open your eyes. And my post had nothing to do with tax rates. I didn't mention them at all. I mentioned the class warfare mentality and you didn't address that at all except to ask who begrudges me our income which came from our hard work. Believe me, I am "begrudged" by plenty.

So you're upset because of the Occupy Idiots?

No Taxes wrote:

All income taxation is slavery. To impose a 39% marginal tax rate is to enslave me for 39% of my working life.

You appear to be unfamiliar with the definition of slavery.

Pizzaguy wrote:

Why don't you just make LESS so you aren't taxed as much? Idiot.

Wait. What? When did I complain about being taxed too much?

Benjamin Franklin of LRC wrote:

Jeff Wigand wrote:

Yes, because he's incapable of feeding himself. That's the point. Humans, being social animals, need society to survive. Don't believe me? Compare life expectancy rates today to those several centuries ago. Or compare those in Scandinavia to those in Somalia.

Show me a society in the world's history that didn't redistribute resources from the overproducers to the underproduces.

Man you are one sick f*ck.

How's that search for a society without redistribution of resources coming?

Benjamin Franklin of LRC wrote:

There can be no such thing as an unchosen obligation.

I don't think you know what words mean.