So it's no secret a good portion of peoples' pay goes towards taxes, probably more than some of us prefer because it is a fairly significant portion of our income goes towards government expenditures that seem questionable at best.
So thus far this is what we get out of our tax money and you most certainly add on to it if I forgot a few:
- Free education up to high school
- Roads, utilities, etc.
- Cops, firemen, ambulance (still have to pay for the medical bill.)
- We have a massive army at the government's disposal.
- They pay for many government functions which is mostly just paper pushing, but you do get some quality assurance from the things like the FDA.
- You're entitled to be on the dole if things go tits up, albeit nobody wants to be in section eight housing because most ghettos are there.
- Medical insurance at a reduced rate with some government backing that they won't dick you over as much.
Now lets go look at the rest of the "1st world" and see what they have that we don't. Again, my knowledge is limited but:
- Reduced/Free University tuiton-wise although books could be a different story.
- Nationalized healthcare, nobody will be brought into the poor house or need to sell meth to pay for their cancer treatment.
There's probably more to it but that's all I can think off the top of my head.
So the question is: Do you think you're getting enough out of your taxes since ultimately it's supposed to benefit the people or do you feel like it's pissing all your money in the wind?
Also our taxation system is rather byzantine with the rich business-owners being able simultaneously to evade taxes while high income earners getting shafted with massive cuts to their own income. Do you think it could use reform and do you have any ideas on how you'd set the tax system up?