Comment on somebody has a case of the Mondays

DudleyMason@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• CalemitousVariantK@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Taxes themselves are not theft, but the misuse of those taxes (such as waging purposeless war, refurbishing your gifted airplane emoluments, funneling money to a family member’s private business, putting public money into crypto scams, or vandalizing public monuments) is a kind of theft.

  source

  • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That’s embezzlement from the treasury, which is different than pretending that taxes going into the Treasury is theft.

    source
• MrChewy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Arguably, both the red and yellow can be theft at the same time

  source

  • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But in reality, community expenses don’t pay themselves and only whiny lolbertarian babies think that taxes to pay for those things is theft, so it is “arguable”, but making the argument says more about you than about taxes.

    source

    • MrChewy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I meant more so neutrally in the sense of people in general having subjective takes and experiences and as such neither chart being the objective universal truth. If in your view potatoes are disgusting and in mine they aren’t and we replace ‘potatoes’ with [insert whatever thing we’re talking about], it ultimatelly does come down to a personal view of things.

      If taxes are our topic, I wouldn’t think of the view on them as binary in the first place as either theft or not. Which government? How does the government handle said taxes, as in, what does it do with them? If it’s a corrupt nation where most taxes go to middlemen and criminal politicians stuffing their pockets that put some taxes into community services symbolically to not be as blatant, yes - it is theft; if it’s a responsible government actively trying to improve things and maintain what is already proper, then no, it isn’t. And even then, taxes being stolen or not depends on how they’re used by each government segment rather than the whole government as a whole - since it’s not binary either theft or not.

      source
  • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yes, one could argue that. One could also argue the world is flat. Arguing is easy.

    source
• Binette@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I don’t think they were talking about taxes, unless I’m mistaken. It’s obviously about wage theft, right?

  source