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1. LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 13-Aug-2020 03:10:59 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
   I did not read #T-rump's announcement about payroll taxes and withholding, so this is not directly a response to that. It is more of a response to someone who was talking about taxation in reaction to the President's proposal.
   
   "Trump is going to eliminate payroll taxes"
   
   I doubt that. There are years of statutes and constitutional law behind income taxes, and he is not going to be successful at dissolving those things. What he's likely to be doing is eliminating tax withholding from people's wages. While people will like that _now_, they will hate it come April, when they have to suddenly come up with 20% or more of their annual gross earnings in order to pay the IRS before the deadline. I assure you, the Internal Revenue Service is exactly the agency that you do not want to have getting angry at you. Remember, Al Capone was finally locked up for tax evasion, not any of his other activities.
   • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 13-Aug-2020 03:11:44 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to
     "I would prefer it if there were no income taxes, only sales taxes."
     
     You're young and you still live under your parents' roof. Once you're supporting yourself fully, you will notice that people who make more money spend a smaller fraction of it because they can save and invest a larger portion. In plain English, that means that lower-income people pay more of their income in sales taxes than higher-income people.
     
     Likewise for many sales tax analogues, such as cigarette taxes, gasoline taxes, utility taxes, and the dreaded DMV taxes. The word for this is called "regressive taxation", because the more money a person makes, the lower the percentage of income they spend on the things that are taxed, and the lower their tax is as a percentage of their income.
   • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 13-Aug-2020 03:12:19 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to
     "Taxation is theft"
     
     I know. You did not say this. Someone else said this.
     
     Okay, I've lived outside the city limits, in an area where road maintenance happened if someone with construction equipment had a day off and the desire. Those of us without such equipment figured out that they were more motivated if we stopped and gave them a little money for their gas, their time, and the wear and tear on their equipment. So, yes, it was voluntary, but it was still taxation. If one did not pay up, there was the nagging possibility that they would pay in the form of automobile repairs.
     
     You know what? I'd rather pay a fixed amount and know that the road is going to be repaired in a timely manner by people that know how to repair roads.
     
     There are plenty of things that I wish the government (at least at the federal level) would stay out of, but there are also plenty of things that I want them to continue doing. Some of those I'd like them to do less, some of them I'd prefer if they did more, but overall, I want them to continue.
     
     For each of those things that they do, the ability to do it comes from taxation.