Dwight Schrute, from The Office: [After he didn't tip the sandwich delivery boy] Why tip someone for a job I’m capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones.
That theme fits in well with the tax philosophy regarding what we “need” taxes for. I can’t — or it would be wildly inefficient for me — to defend the country, put out a house fire, etc. But I don’t need the government to get involved in everything in my life. More specifically, I want the right part of government doing the right job. We do not need the Federal Government involved in education at all. Even the smallest states are big enough to run things themselves, and could easily leverage the successful ideas (read: not California’s) of other states.
And note that the government doesn’t really do many of the things attributed to them. They don’t build roads. They collect our money to pay others to build roads. This is probably the best way to do it, even though the politicians often get kickbacks when handing out contracts.
It’s a self serving cycle. The government tells you what you need the government to do, then they tell you how much they want you to pay for it. How sick is that?
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