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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

> (yes it is not a typo. It is over $1000 per month). You are paying for all the schools and other stuff that you have access to.

(Genuine question, not from the US)

Isn't that what income tax is supposed to pay for?

I'm continually amazing to hear how much tax Americans pay for how little they get.

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There are roughly 3 governments every American is part of. Maybe 4.

1. Federal Government

2. State Government

3. Local Government (usually County level)

4. City Government (sometimes)

Property Taxes fund #4 and #3 typically. Sales tax (kinda like VAT) fund #4 and #2. Income tax fund #1 and #2. Obviously, it changes from location to location. Some states don't have property tax or sales tax.

Schools and Police are typically a function of #3.

Note that schools being supported primarily by local property taxes is how you consistently get bad schools in poor areas, which tends to be a self-reinforcing cycle.

Not at all. In the US, we fund the schools through a combination of property taxes and gambling, and local property taxes go to fund local schools, rather than being spread evenly across the system.

Without that system, it would be too difficult to maintain racially-segregated tiered government schools, and white people who had the ability would leave government schools altogether.

Depends on what level of education; K-12 is generally funded out of property taxes.

think of it this way. In Europe etc, you pay higher income taxes but then you get these benefits. In US, you pay a bit lower income taxes but then you pay these additional taxes like property tax. Did I mention that some states in US charge property tax even to keep a car ? (looking at you Virginia :)). But then we don't have things like VAT etc. So it evens out somewhere I guess. Except healthcare situation. That is a topic for a separate discussion.

> So it evens out somewhere I guess. Except healthcare situation

And higher education.

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