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Comment by DINKDINK | Hacker News Reader

>because debt is the same

No, not all debts are the same: Debts That Cannot Be Discharged in Bankruptcy https://www.thebankruptcysite.org/nondischargeable-debts

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Indeed and there even states in the US that are refusing to renew professional licenses for people who default on that debt. See:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/business/student-loans-li...

> refusing to renew professional licenses for people who default on that debt

The crapper of it is, it's not just professional licenses, such as nursing or cosmetic licensing, as if that wasn't bad enough. Some states, like Iowa, South Dakota, and Washington, have laws that permit the state to revoke or decline to issue any license issued by the state, including driving, hunting, fishing, and even camping permits.

Basically, those states say that not only will they wreck your ability to work in the field for which you achieved a degree or license (or maybe you didn't successfully complete whatever program and are now working to pay off that debt that resulted in no positive outcome at all), they'll ruin your ability to go places--outside of cities, public transit is a non-entity--or even just have a little recreation while you figure out how to get out of a hole that just keeps getting deeper.

good point. some debts follow you around for life. And after: my dad always said tax was a gamble, and he decided to ignore the final-demand letters which we found in his office after he died. In one sense, he "won" the bet. In another, viewing him as the tuple {himself, his estate} he didn't...

Tax isn't a self serving sociopathic "gamble" it's what allows you to go to school and drive on roads and use the internet. Don't dodge it as part of some insane game you were taught.

Just because something was funded by taxes doesn't mean it wouldn't exist without taxes. When the Soviet Union liberalised, people there were shocked at buying privately produced bread. The limits of one's imagination do not constitute the limits of reality.

And just because something can be privatized doesn't mean it should..

Don't be naive. If I don't pay my taxes this year the Internet and roads won't suddenly disappear. I'll still drive on the roads to work and use the Internet when I get there.

Not paying your taxes is absolutely a self-serving sociopathic gamble.

I should point out that he had an accountant, who almost certainly dealt with most of this, and that as for others in the UK, income tax is taken at source, PAYG. The letters were the adjustment, not the totality of his tax debt. He was an academic, and understood very well the socialized benefits of the tax which propped up the tertiary education system he worked in.

Driving on the road usually requires a car, thats usually an expensive piece of equipment, followed by expensive running costs - fuel (and it's non-gamblable tax), replacing parts, servicing and so on. Use of the internet requires a computer of sorts and a locked in contract to Comcast or another private ISPs (BT in the UK, NBN in AUS etc...). Perhaps I've missed something, am I eligible for a fully-maintained cost-free Tesla, a new computer and free internet?

> Perhaps I've missed something

The road that the taxes (probably) paid for?

Also, GP said "allows", not "subsidizes every aspect of the most luxurious way for".

Here in Australia if you have outstanding debt that is owed to creditors it is paid first before any-one on the persons will would see the money. So in essence most outstanding debt can be collected on a person death.

The idea is to make your debt exceed your assets. Can't collect a million from an estate that has zero.

The ideal finish is..

On death all your debts should be paid in full with the exception that the cheque for the funeral should bounce..

but it's your family member who pays that cheque, not you post humously.

Ah! No.. the payment is made from the deceased's estate..

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