Taxes are not inherently “liberal”…
Nor are they inherently EVIL!
It’s not a stretch to understand that those two words are effectively synonymous to the second poster.
I will certainly agree with the sentiment of the OP that too often we only see the money coming off each paycheck… or each transaction and really wonder if we’re getting our money’s worth.
Imagine you could opt in or out, individually, from the social construct in any developed country.
If I could give you back every single tax-dollar you’ve ever spent, adjusted for inflation and with interest, in exchange for opting OUT of tax-payer funded services from that point forward?
Would you be foolish enough to do so?!?
Sure… you could hold your head high in the knowledge you’re not aiding or abetting any “parasites”.
We can start with the reality that you’ll have a pile of cash, that can’t go into an FDIC insured bank… nor into any market or fund propped up by tax-dollars in any way.
No police will come if someone tries to take this money from you.
No firefighter will extinguish the blaze should it start.
If you have children at all you’ll be faced with the prospect of educating them wholly at your own cost…
Obviously easy, accessible loans will no longer be such.
And what about all the road you’re gonna have to build???
You know… the one that you have to build and maintain… defend… to deliver your goods or visit any of the reasons that human beings live for.
Sure you won’t need to pave multiple lanes… No matter how big your truck is… or how frequently it goes over your road, just your truck probably won’t ruin your road in your lifespan.
I shudder to think what the cost of a single, square-foot of Eisenhower Interstate Highway system actually costs to produce…
Or maintain…
Thankfully it’s all just a thought exercise…
And previous generations weren’t as shortsighted as we’ve become and paid their taxes to build the infrastructure appreciated by any first world human…
anyone on this forum…
Third-worlders are willing to DIE to enter the social construct that first-worlders are complaining about.
Only a fool thinks they can actually better administer the pittance they spend in taxes… even those taxes paid over a particularly successful and above average lifespan.
It’s only slightly more foolish to act as if there is a political leaning to the concept of taxes…
The priorities paid for by tax dollars may have a political component, the concept doesn’t.
The common thread to taxes, is civilized humanity with government of some form, historically those governments have been EVERYWHERE in the political spectrum.
We all seem to agree, irrespective of political leaning or partisan affiliation, that this ain’t the place… yet human nature means we argue the things we’re passionate about, no matter how loosely connected those passions are.
All the same, this place is about knowledge… and truth, which out be transcendent, for the purposes we all use this forum for… of partisanship.
At base the practical machinist exists for people who ultimately have far more in common than not, again, irrespective and ultimately transcendent of foolish things like politics.
No tool ever gave a fuck how you vote. Or why.
Tools are ignorant in that regard.
Nearly as much so as picking a fight like the concept of taxes, no matter how they pertain to manufacturing for the purposes of this community, have some political affiliation.
Or acting as if there’s a way to live in the modern world completely devoid of taxation in any form.
Be safe
Jeremy