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Comment by aianus | Hacker News Reader

I'd rather pay taxes to Apple, Tesla, and Google than the US government. At least they're competent.

So, in case anyone else hadn't noticed, we have reached peak libertarian techie madness.

What op doesn't realize is that he already does. It's called the CEOs salary and its sometimes 30000 times that of the lowest paid worker, who of course survives with welfare.

It's almost as if none of these guys have ever read any nightmarish dystopian cyber-punk fiction. Megacorps as stand-in for governments == bad.

Or they don't happen to think that cheap sci-fi pulp, which is the vast majority of cyber-punk, are a good argument for or against anything.

"We live on an internet created by corporate persons, our government is hacked by Russian spies, and virtual reality is real now, dear." - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gazACJ0R1Hc

Really? At least with taxes your money is likely to stay local (whether you agree with how it is spent or not), whereas with a multinational corp like Apple, Tesla or Google your money is just as likely to go somewhere outside the country.

AI and clean energy, once researched and developed, will never go away. The vast majority of government expenditures are for mundane transient things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and bombing brown people across the ocean. None of which will last past beyond our lifetimes.

> mundane transient things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

You might dislike some of the details but aren't those things there to stop people dying, starving or living in misery?

Doesn't the entire developed world have programmes similar to those you've just dismissed as 'mundane and transient' - presumably to stop the masses rioting in the street?

Which libertarian paradise should we be looking to for guidance here?

> aren't those things there to stop people dying, starving or living in misery?

Ubiquitous AI and clean, cheap energy would be more effective in accomplishing the same thing. Not to mention off-world colonies would stop the human race as a whole from dying.

Ensuring you and I and Grandma enjoy a little more comfort and security throughout our measly lifespans doesn't seem as inspiring and deserving of, what, $2 trillion a year?

You act like the choice is "Send Granny on an iceberg or we won't have Nerd Rapture for Everyone". It's not an either/or here and there's plenty of money (government or otherwise) to do both. Also, hundreds of millions of voters would disagree with you, so I guess the choice is "pay SS tax" or "move to sea-topia". Godspeed to ya.

You just hear less about their fuckups, because they're less transparent than governments.

> I'd rather pay taxes to Apple, Tesla, and Google than the US government. At least they're competent.

Welcome to the Cyberpunk era, where nations are private entities ... I can't wait to play CD Project game by the way.

This world isn't the 80s and 90s dystopia I craved. This is far worse.

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