[tomdemaine]

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No it's common sense. Taxes, in and of themselves, never help anyone. Taxes is just the simple act of the government stealing money from me.


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You've gone off the deep-end here. This is totally wrong. Taxes help and hurt people, but it's impossible for money to come into and leave a governemnt (without all of it being embezzeled) and no one to be helped.

Argue it's immoral or theft sure, but saying no one is helped by taxes is silly.

Cody

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This is absolutely true in the short term. However the argument can be made that giving people or companies government money trains them to become good at getting government money rather than perfecting their skills. Take the example of agribusiness. They have pretty much stopped investing in research and technology to get better yields and improve profits that way, rather they have become political experts playing the game to get more and more tax money.

Imagine if the government had mandated that every household be bought a playstation (at full $300 price or whatever) back when they first came out. Sony would have had no incentive to improve, lower prices or bring out the PS 2 or 3. They'd have kept rehasing the playstation perhaps spending a little money on token improvements. That's how it works for agribusiness that's how it works for the most part for those on welfare. Why do you think education hasn't changed nearly at all in over 100 years?

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Tom, I appriciate it but I understand economics and dependence.

Let me ask you then, Can taxes be helpful to a single person or group of people? Ignore the amount of the tax for this question.

Cody

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Absolutely. For starters they're incredibly helpful to Dick Cheney, Just look at the Haliburton stock price graph.