[extropy-chat] Still Stingy

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Wed Jan 5 06:36:50 UTC 2005


--- Olga Bourlin <fauxever at sprynet.com> wrote:
> I wonder how much more (or how much less?) would
> people voluntarily donate
> if the USA didn't collect any taxes at all? 
> (Sometimes I just hate to think
> ...).

Counterpoint: it seems that private American
charities have collectively raised more money from
Americans than the US government has sent.  (US$150
million from the gov't, estimated online donations -
not counting offline checks and the like - to US
non-gov't charities for tsunami relief are also US$150
million.)

Between this, the X Prize, and other things, I wonder
if the US is starting to become the nation where
people on their own initiative do things that only
governments usually do in the rest of the world?
(Which has both good and bad connotations.)



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