When I started this thread, I wasn't trying to slam taxes in general.
I was saying that filing income taxes every year is retarded. And there's the threat that you can get in trouble if you do it wrong or don't do it. Filing taxes is what I think is just plain retarded. The tax codes are also incredibly confusing, it almost seems like they are purposely made to be confusing so that some people can have loopholes in it and exploit it.
Everything you say here is absolutely correct. And how did it get to this point? By allowing the government to get bigger and bigger and take more and more control in our lives. The government main function, in very simple terms, is to protect people from each other. I don't mean just against violence or foreign enemies, but that when you buy a gallon of gas it's really a gallon of gas. That your meat isn't polluted with e-coli. That I can't build a tire factory or open a whore house right next to your house. That the bridge isn't going to collapse when I drive over it. That if I press on the brakes my car will stop. Now this in no way means that these never happen. Nothing is 100% a sure thing. Shit happens either by malice, incompetence or human error. Coach might punch you in the nose and my manapua might make me sick. But now we have a recourse. We have laws and a police and courts that can enforce these laws.
The government was never meant to take care of you. To provide you with a job, food, shelter, clothing and even health insurance/care. Do not conflate the concept of rights. There's a difference between having a right to have access to these things but you don't have a right to have others provide it for you. People don't seem to realize that the government can't really give anybody anything simply because it has nothing to give. What it gives one person it has taken from another. It is truly a zero sum game. The more the government "gives", the more it has to take. This is not the case with the oft demonized "rich" people. The richer Bill Gates gets doesn't mean you get poorer. In fact, it's just the opposite (if done legally of course). The more successful and rich a person gets the more he can stimulate and promote economic activity by buying goods and services that supports jobs and job growth. And in the case of a businessman to expand his business making his products, that people obviously want because they buy it, more available to the public and again creating more jobs and growing the economy.
This, my friend, is capitalism. It's not perfect but when you compare it to the alternatives it's the best we got. How do I know? Just compare the life styles and standards of living. It's not even close. Not even remotely close. It's in America where you find that the majority of poor people are fat. Diarrhea is one of the top killers in this world. And it's simply because those people don't have access to clean water.
We are a soft, spoiled, complacent and ungrateful lot and have no clue how the majority of the world lives.
