[ExI] Private and government R&D [was Health care in the USA]

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/7/2 Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com>:

>> The choices are:
>> (a) everyone pays tax;
>> (b) everyone pays tax except me;
>> (c) no-one pays tax
>>
>> My selfish preferred option is (b), but obviously that isn't going to
>> happen. Second best is (a). I would probably be financially better off
>> under (c), but I see that as morally wrong and would not support it.
>> (I would feel guilty about (b) as well, but at least it would do
>> little harm to the rest of the population, unlike (c)).
>>
> ### Hey, how can not paying taxes harm us? You say it's morally
> wrong!? And all this while agreeing that you and of course everybody
> else would be financially better off under option (c). What's wrong
> with being financially better off?

I might be financially better off without taxation since I am in a
relatively high tax bracket, but the people who currently can't work
for one reason or another would definitely be worse off, and the
country as a whole might be worse off, given a few years of no public
services such as education or health. You don't believe this,
obviously, but most people do, which is why they agree to be taxed
when taxation is such an intrinsically unpleasant thing.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou