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Representing special interests != too much tax money. Orthogonal. It’s a mind boggling leap.

The tax money is a prerequisite for strong enforcement. Without an excess in tax money, there isn't going to be substantial enforcement. Think ahead.

Here's another prerequisite, even farther back than "strong enforcement"--not voting in governments with authoritarian tendencies.

Unfortunately it’s been impossible to avoid Red or Blue flavored authoritarianism for the last few decades due to authoritarian control over both the political process and the entrenched bureaucracy.

Yes because the countries with lower taxes are so free and democratic. Pretty sure the relationship is inverse if you take even 5 min of your time to look.

You're saying that like we have a choice. If we don't pay taxes we get jailed. Simple as that.

Stop paying so much is not the same as not paying. Why are you making it otherwise?

Oh OK, thanks for clarifying that I can pay less than I owe and be scot free.

Make less, pay less.

If you’ve had a successful career already, you may be able to “drop out” and find a place to live cheaply. I’ve heard good things about Panama.

If you've had a successful career already you probably already paid a lot of taxes, unless you're a billionaire in which case you're not paying taxes anyway.

The best time to start making a lifestyle change was years ago, but the second best time is today.

If you can legally opt out, there’s no good reason to keep pouring tax dollars into a corrupt, possibly unfixable system.

So your solution to fighting against authoritarian regimes is to be rich enough to fuck off to another state/country?

That would be an unfair reframing. The original intent was that erasing their tax revenue weakens the authoritarian regime by draining it of the resources needed for enforcement of unfair laws.

I understood the original intent. I just don't think it's a viable solution. The US govt has not been shy about borrowing and printing more money to do whatever they want.

That borrowing funds only the federal government, not the state government. The states don't get to borrow in the same way. Also, that borrowing will increasingly come with a high interest rate and high inflation.

Sure but these problems exist at the federal level too. And yes the consequences are real but it still happens and is why we can't just hit the federal govt in the wallet. For the time being, elections are still free, so voting is still the most effective way, but raising awareness of stuff like this makes people more aware of who NOT to vote for next office.

It's happening at the state level at this time. In any event, we don't need to hit the federal government in their wallet as they're too busy doing it to themselves with their immense exponentially-growing loan that will crush them soon enough.

There’s not really another good solution. At some point it will collapse on itself due to ever-compounding errors, but until then, the current structure simply absorbs all attempts to fight it. I can’t remember who pointed this out (I think it’s derived from a point originally made by Marcuse) but the difference between what we are facing in the West versus “traditional” authoritarianism is that all opposition in the West is commodified and co-opted before it can become a real threat. This is partially because our domestic oppression is typically subtle (economic and systemic) rather than obvious (forceful and directional). Force may be used in isolated instances or against already marginalized groups, but it’s not felt as a daily threat by most of the population as it is in more openly violent regimes. There is no real fear of stepping out of line, in fact stepping out of line is celebrated as long as you can then be steered into a commoditized and controlled “protest” channel.

If you aren’t able to leave, the next best thing is getting to know likeminded (and intelligent/effective) people and setting up mutual aid networks, or failing to find that, to acquire the tools, resources, and skills needed to ride out the coming years as best you can.

Outside of a W-2 salary, there are ways, more applicable to businesses, also to independent contractors. Even for those with a salary, they ought to do their best to collect all the legally qualified benefits that they can.

Lots of independent contractors get paid as W-2 when they could be getting paid as a corp, for which they could write off a portion of the taxes via deductibles and in various other ways.

Lots of people could be ordering online at websites that don't deduct a sales tax. Instead, they pay a substantial amount in sales tax.

Using a Delaware corp for various transactions can also go a long way.

I don't think anyone voluntarily pays more taxes than they ought to. People DO collect all their legally qualified benefits. It's why software like turbo tax is still around despite being a shitty company.

I disagree completely. There are all manner of loopholes and benefits that people fail to avail. Even the people with only a salary end up paying too much in sales tax and property tax.

so it's okay because we're just following orders?

Sure if you wanna put it that way. I don't like paying taxes because our government doesn't use it well. But I also know that if I don't pay taxes I'm gonna have a bad time.

Only if you're poor, the rich don't pay taxes just fine.

Incidentally these rules probably don't apply or won't be enforced on the rich because of some loophole.

How exactly am I supposed to do that?

This is happening worldwide.

Kudos for highlighting this, because almost everyone here seems to be thinking of their own pot, not the whole kitchen.

It is not happening in destitute countries, is it? If you have normalized and given up already, then your fight is already lost.

I don't know what the deal in developing countries is with this, but it is popping up on multiple continents. The PRC doesn't need it since their internet is so heavily controlled (although I gather workarounds exist), and it does feel like the west is copying the PRC.