Re: Being told \"professional poker doesn\'t contribute to society.\"
OK at first sight I'm fairly convinced that professional poker doesn't contribute to society.
However I'm a bit more in two minds about the taxes not counting thing. The logical conclusion of this argument is
1) The act of paying taxes contributes nothing to society
2) So bypassing the government and giving directly to good causes contributes nothing to society
3) So giving money to charity does not benefit society
4) People shouldn't give money to charity because there's no benefit
Is this correct? Should we tell the billionaire philanthropists not to bother?
I have a feeling that in fact giving money to charity does provide a net benefit to society. (For example, if a local project offered to pay me enough to go and work for them in my spare time instead of surfing the net or playing Civ 4, there would be a net benefit.) The logical conclusion of this is that paying taxes should be counted as a "contribution" - agree?
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