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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

I'm an immigrant. I consider it a blessing to be able to do so.

I equate this to the first time I paid my own rent. I loved it. I was paying my own money for my own place and it felt awesome. It seems crazy to love paying rent but there was a period of time where I did.

That makes sense if you're a 3rd world immigrant, because the value delta between your old life and your new life is immense. For someone born in a 1st world country, it makes little sense to compare their situation with that of a 3rd world denizen. Reference points are subjective. I take issue with the way my government collects taxes and how it distributes them. I don't care how Africa or India are doing.

I'm an immigrant. I consider it robbery to be intimidated by force into paying taxes.

Not to be rude but why'd you immigrate then? It's not like taxes just started happening recently.

Maybe because in real world the choice is between fixed alternatives and not imaginary scenarios? Even if you think US taxes are way too high and immoral, it's not like you can live in a country like US but without taxes. You can live in a country much worse than the US with taxes, or in US with taxes, or in a country with failed government where there are not taxes but instead people might just kill you on the street. So you might make non-ideal choice, knowing it's not ideal, but it's best of what you have. Every country has its benefits and its flaws, and accepting it as it is doesn't mean one has to be blind to the flaws.

Maybe there's a correlation for a reason? Namely that functional governments which keep the peace and provide services to their citizens need income in order to operate.

What US government is doing goes very far beyond "keeping the peace". Only the discretionary budget is 1.5 trillion dollars. Americans would be a really wild bunch if it required $1.5 trillion to "keep the peace".

I apologize for the confusion. I didn't immigrate to California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Individ...

You also consider it a right to drive on roads?

Roads are the go-to argument for the value of taxes. But it's a dumb point to make because there are a ton of programs which we fund but do not benefit from. In fact, the vast majority of every dollar we pay in taxes does absolutely nothing to benefit us directly. No one argues against true infrastructure investments, it's all the other b.s. that we hate (immigrants and non-immigrants alike).

Being a dick to someone for seeing what's wrong with the taxes here is awfully small of you.

> Being a dick to someone for seeing

How unabashedly self-centered! It's adorable.

You were forced to immigrate to this country?! Otherwise... the "force" part here is more like, "I was forced to pay for the meal I decided to eat at the restaurant! How dare they!"

Don't like it? Don't eat.

>You were forced to immigrate to this country?!

I should clarify that I didn't immigrate to California, but was an immigrant to elsewhere. I apologize for the confusion.

I see, that make a lot more sense, sorry for the hostility.

When I went to Australia I was surprised at the number of people from my ethnic background who had immigrated as adults and would complain bitterly about taxes. They loved the safety and security, general standard of education, healthcare, amenities, infrastructure, opportunities and their secondary effects (well-educated employees for their businesses, people who showed up to work instead of being home sick and so on). They just couldn't connect with the idea that taxes might be the reason that these were available.

It would guess it's a pretty common thread among people who grew up unused to a properly functioning government.

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