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Comment by zzzzzzzzzman | Hacker News Reader

"If you live on a farm off the grid...."

I agree, the monkey that does what you described shouldn't be forced to pay taxes.

But I am still confused as to why the monkey and his family can't attend private schools, drive on private roads, receive medical services from a private doctor, and donate any bananas he voluntarily decides to contribute to right the wrongs of his monkey island :)

In my opinion, the other monkeys that are trying to force him to subsidize other monkeys' consumption habits are just trying to collect rent from him!

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And private police, private military, private customs & border security... You cannot live in a modern nation and not rely on services that are paid for by taxes.

Why is the average able bodied citizen unable to protect himself the local and national level?

Why don't the concerned citizens pool their funds together to pay for their own defence?

If we must pay taxes for these things, why must their be so much corruption and fraud (think of the expensive fighter jets and missiles that government agents purchase at inflated prices, from companies that funnel profits to a very select few rich individuals, who funded the campaigns necessary to get the government agents in power?)

The concerned citizens do pool their funds together to pay for their own defence, they do this with a system called "government".

You are correct. So then why do those same citizens yell at me to pay my taxes, when I am not concerned as they are, and don't want the sub-par and expensive defense services they are providing me :)

Because you're benefiting from those sub-par services anyway. They're still better than none at all.

There is always an option to unsubscribe from living in a society - it's called "renunciation of citizenship".

> Why don't the concerned citizens pool their funds together to pay for their own defence?

Sounds like the purpose of a tax system to me.

Because all those private services that you describe in turn use public services.

Unless all these private services band together so that they become truly widespread and form something that makes paying for them easier. Maybe to make it fair the people that use them the most and profit the most from them should pay the most. Maybe we could call such a banding of public services a nation and call the usage fees taxes....

If the monkey expects other poor bananaa-less monkeys to behave in same standards as his educated ass deserves , then he better his bit to help progress the society which allowed him to have all those said benefits .

The monkey may buy his "private banana peeling education" , but failing to remember his anscestor monkeys and community monkeys who kept improving art of banana peeling and publishing it freely lead to the said monkey to live in era of "modern banana peeling" is a crime.

There is no price for education than helping others receive it , paying your bit to improve the overall condition of monkey kind is the only way to repay the debt

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