[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Feb 13, 2008 10:55 AM, Tom Tobin <korpios at korpios.com> wrote:
>
> A job is what I'll be spending 1/4 of my life doing (approaching 1/3,
> if you only count waking hours); I damn well *better* enjoy it, lest
> it aggravate and depress the hell out of me.  I've been fortunate
> enough to (mostly) enjoy my current and previous jobs (web-oriented
> programming using open source tools), but the salary demon keeps
> haunting me due to my debt.  If not for the debt, I could stop chasing
> money — I'm perfectly content with a handful of gadgets (laptop, etc.)
> and renting apartments indefinitely.

### Yeah, I agree that since you don't feel like making money,
spending it wasn't a good idea.

--------------------------
>
> > BTW, the point of not being a slave to others is not "accumulating as
> > many goodies as possible" but being free to choose. I refuse to accept
> > the legitimacy of any peremptory claims on my life, time and property.
>
> I don't quite get how taxes make me a "slave" to others; I appreciate
> many of the things that taxes accomplish, even if I wince at many
> others.  I've never bought into the libertarian "taxes are the root of
> all evil" argument; hell, without public roads, libertarian property
> interests could keep me physically boxed into one area, unable to
> move, forever.  :p

### Taxes mean you are forcibly deprived of the resources you could
use to attain your goals - obviously, right? Slavery is being forcibly
deprived of the use of all your resources (body and mind). In both
cases the resources taken from you are used by others to achieve their
goals, which frequently may be immoral and repugnant on their own
(like slaughtering brown people, jailing drug sellers). There is only
a difference of degree, since a slave is wholly owned, while I am
owned only during about 40% of the time I spend working for money. I
wonder what would you say about taxes if they took not 20% but 80% of
your income? You presumably wouldn't be able to afford your laptop,
among other things. Would that change your POV?

In general, since as you say you are not interested in making money on
your own, I am surprised you show interest in monies belonging to
others. If you really don't care about money, don't ask (or force)
others to give it to you.

As an aside, this public roads argument is an old canard - of course
you don't need taxes to have excellent, widely accessible roads. The
theory and practice of non-state road ownership are/were
well-established. If you think that your taxes efficiently accomplish
many of the things you appreciate, you may be a victim of political
salesmanship.

Rafal