Quote:
Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy
When people argue that taxes are good or not good, in my mind I am boiling the argument down to whether or not the government should intervene in business.
No tax equals no government (what government can exist without tax revenue to sustain its activities?), and in my post I was arguing that no tax (and thus no government) was good for business. I then went on to say that whatever is good for business is good for humanity.
No government means no regulation, which means that people would be free to do whatever they wanted, aka Anarchy.
Obviously this would not work. The reality is that human nature will not allow for society to exist without some sort of "boss" at the top (i.e. government). Therefore, we do need tax to a degree if only to keep the system running. Otherwise, the smartest people will figure out a way to win and exploit everyone else which isn't the way we are TRYING to do things.
I should have been more clear in my post, I certainly wasn't insinuating that little green aliens should police our society. I was merely referring to the fact that government is necessary (even in business), despite the negative externalities its presence generates. The benefits of government outweigh its costs. Looking just at private business and tax multiplier effects is far too narrow a view.
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I don't want to get into the government/no government debate. Been there, done that, it leads to nowhere. I was merely pointing out that if you criticize the human element problem in the no government scenario, you must criticize it in the government scenario because it is still there.
Replacing "smart guys exploiting everyone else in anarchy" with the government still doesn't solve the human element problem. Now you have the governemnt exploiting everyone else. Now the boss on top came to power because unwashed masses elected him. How is that any better? How did you get rid of the problem that someone is "exploiting" others?
Benefits outweights the cost? How, why, for who? Actually I'd say the government gives benefits to some and places cost onto others.
I never said anything about multipliers. That's a whole new can of worms...