16 ms·

The reason the message "All taxes are bad" resonates so well is because there has been a near constant cadence accompanying it that "All government is bad". Ma

The reason the message "All taxes are bad" resonates so well is because there has been a near constant cadence accompanying it that "All government is bad". Many people think there is no inherent value in government because that has been sold to them for the past 50+ years. It is similar to the message that "Adam Smith's capitalism" = "no regulations" when in fact Adam Smith was not against regulations. Regulations are the structure that markets are built upon. Otherwise, everything is caveat emptor (translation: let the buyer beware) all the time. It is hard to know where the correct line between total freedom and total government control lies, but I have to assume it is somewhere closer to the middle than either extreme, but the middle never makes the evening news.

weberc2 7y ago
> Many people think there is no inherent value in government because that has been sold to them for the past 50+ years. I think most Americans' experience with government is bad. Especially with taxes--they won't even tell you what you owe them. Often the electronic systems are just broken (Illinois' form a couple years back required a driver's license to submit payment, but the field only accepted 8 digits while IL DL numbers are 12 digits long). I personally don't have a problem with tax or government if there's a sane value proposition.
- malyk 7y ago
  No. Most Americans have no idea when they are interacting with government. Safe water, safe food, safe(ish) drugs, roads, less air pollution, the mail, airplanes that fly safely, cars that are safe, fuel efficiency in cars, and thousands of other things are all generally good interactions with government that most people don’t attribute to government. Yes, going to the DMV sucks. Doing your taxes is annoying. Thats about all most people think about when they say the government is bad.
  - repolfx 7y ago
    Because none of those things are done by governments. They're done by companies that provide water, food, medicine, airplanes, cars etc. Governments mostly just insist that good results happen, and can easily cause problems doing even that. Meanwhile other things run directly by governments do have a long track record of being worse than the private sector equivalents, and taxpayer interactions is clearly an important component of that.
    - afuchs 7y ago
      > Because none of those things are done by governments. They're done by companies that provide water, food, medicine, airplanes, cars etc. Before the US federal government forced companies to act the country's polluted rivers caught fire repeated. The pollution that caused those rivers to catch fire didn't stop because of those companies' own will or because of the market's influence. The government needed to intervene, otherwise the pollution and fires would have continued. > Governments mostly just insist that good results happen, and can easily cause problems doing even that. Meanwhile other things run directly by governments do have a long track record of being worse than the private sector equivalents, and taxpayer interactions is clearly an important component of that. This is political dogma and not fact. Services provided by governments optimize for vastly different outcomes than the private sector. It also seems that many people harshly judge government services while they ignore real problem that occur when those services are privatized.
      - weberc2 7y ago
        > Services provided by governments optimize for vastly different outcomes than the private sector. It also seems that many people harshly judge government services while they ignore real problem that occur when those services are privatized. I'm not the parent but I started this subthread. I didn't bring this topic up to advocate for privatization; I brought it up to note that advocates for more/bigger government might enjoy more political support if they focused on improving government ROI. Lots of countries have competent governments; I'm certainly sympathetic to those who think we should improve the efficiency of our government before we raise taxes.
  - weberc2 7y ago
    You're right that people only notice the things that don't work well, but I think it's a lot more than going to the DMV and taxes. Road construction that cones-off 2 lanes out of 3 for 40 miles and 6 months while there's about a week of actual construction. Tollway systems that forbid you from knowing what toll you missed or how much you owe until after the "late payment" period. Nepotism and other kinds of government corruption. Extortionist property assessment practices. The broken/unusable/inaccurate state of most government websites. Insane turnaround times for construction permits. Pointless building restrictions. High fees for almost every interaction. Extortionist traffic violation practices. Terrible appeals processes. Abusive, rude bureaucrats. Broken or delapidated infrastructure. These are experiences I've had or observed in the last few years. I don't have these experiences when I deal with the private sector, and those dealings are also quite a lot cheaper than with the public sector. This isn't to say that privatization is the answer or the only answer; I've had really good experiences with the governments of other countries and even in the US, value varies across agencies.
    - afuchs 7y ago
      > ... I don't have these experiences when I deal with the private sector, and those dealings are also quite a lot cheaper than with the public sector. ... You are aware that much of what you just described, road construction, government websites, and many forms of traffic enforcement, is handled by private sector contractors?
      - weberc2 7y ago
        Who do you suppose hired those contractors? Why does the government have worse luck than the private sector when it comes to hiring competent contractors? Why is there a meme among contractors about how easy it is to overcharge the public sector? I voted for Obama, but his administration owns the disasterous rollout of healthcare.gov.
benj111 7y ago
"Otherwise, everything is caveat emptor" Does it even reach that level? Buyer implies contract -> contract law -> rule of law -> government. And caveat emptor is a legal concept which again reinforces the above. What's the Latin for 'Trade and hope the other guy doesn't have a bigger weapon'?
- AstralStorm 7y ago
  Closest I can think of is "Si vis pacem, para bellum" ;) Or the Roosevelt quote. Anyway, killing traders or customers is a good way to get out of business. (Only if there's enough "suckers" or your product is irreplaceable can you ever consider it. Such as with certain drugs.)

weberc2 7y ago

> Many people think there is no inherent value in government because that has been sold to them for the past 50+ years. I think most Americans' experience with government is bad. Especially with taxes--they won't even tell you what you owe them. Often the electronic systems are just broken (Illinois' form a couple years back required a driver's license to submit payment, but the field only accepted 8 digits while IL DL numbers are 12 digits long). I personally don't have a problem with tax or government if there's a sane value proposition.

malyk 7y ago
No. Most Americans have no idea when they are interacting with government. Safe water, safe food, safe(ish) drugs, roads, less air pollution, the mail, airplanes that fly safely, cars that are safe, fuel efficiency in cars, and thousands of other things are all generally good interactions with government that most people don’t attribute to government. Yes, going to the DMV sucks. Doing your taxes is annoying. Thats about all most people think about when they say the government is bad.
- repolfx 7y ago
  Because none of those things are done by governments. They're done by companies that provide water, food, medicine, airplanes, cars etc. Governments mostly just insist that good results happen, and can easily cause problems doing even that. Meanwhile other things run directly by governments do have a long track record of being worse than the private sector equivalents, and taxpayer interactions is clearly an important component of that.
  - afuchs 7y ago
    > Because none of those things are done by governments. They're done by companies that provide water, food, medicine, airplanes, cars etc. Before the US federal government forced companies to act the country's polluted rivers caught fire repeated. The pollution that caused those rivers to catch fire didn't stop because of those companies' own will or because of the market's influence. The government needed to intervene, otherwise the pollution and fires would have continued. > Governments mostly just insist that good results happen, and can easily cause problems doing even that. Meanwhile other things run directly by governments do have a long track record of being worse than the private sector equivalents, and taxpayer interactions is clearly an important component of that. This is political dogma and not fact. Services provided by governments optimize for vastly different outcomes than the private sector. It also seems that many people harshly judge government services while they ignore real problem that occur when those services are privatized.
    - weberc2 7y ago
      > Services provided by governments optimize for vastly different outcomes than the private sector. It also seems that many people harshly judge government services while they ignore real problem that occur when those services are privatized. I'm not the parent but I started this subthread. I didn't bring this topic up to advocate for privatization; I brought it up to note that advocates for more/bigger government might enjoy more political support if they focused on improving government ROI. Lots of countries have competent governments; I'm certainly sympathetic to those who think we should improve the efficiency of our government before we raise taxes.
- weberc2 7y ago
  You're right that people only notice the things that don't work well, but I think it's a lot more than going to the DMV and taxes. Road construction that cones-off 2 lanes out of 3 for 40 miles and 6 months while there's about a week of actual construction. Tollway systems that forbid you from knowing what toll you missed or how much you owe until after the "late payment" period. Nepotism and other kinds of government corruption. Extortionist property assessment practices. The broken/unusable/inaccurate state of most government websites. Insane turnaround times for construction permits. Pointless building restrictions. High fees for almost every interaction. Extortionist traffic violation practices. Terrible appeals processes. Abusive, rude bureaucrats. Broken or delapidated infrastructure. These are experiences I've had or observed in the last few years. I don't have these experiences when I deal with the private sector, and those dealings are also quite a lot cheaper than with the public sector. This isn't to say that privatization is the answer or the only answer; I've had really good experiences with the governments of other countries and even in the US, value varies across agencies.
  - afuchs 7y ago
    > ... I don't have these experiences when I deal with the private sector, and those dealings are also quite a lot cheaper than with the public sector. ... You are aware that much of what you just described, road construction, government websites, and many forms of traffic enforcement, is handled by private sector contractors?
    - weberc2 7y ago
      Who do you suppose hired those contractors? Why does the government have worse luck than the private sector when it comes to hiring competent contractors? Why is there a meme among contractors about how easy it is to overcharge the public sector? I voted for Obama, but his administration owns the disasterous rollout of healthcare.gov.

benj111 7y ago

"Otherwise, everything is caveat emptor" Does it even reach that level? Buyer implies contract -> contract law -> rule of law -> government. And caveat emptor is a legal concept which again reinforces the above. What's the Latin for 'Trade and hope the other guy doesn't have a bigger weapon'?

AstralStorm 7y ago
Closest I can think of is "Si vis pacem, para bellum" ;) Or the Roosevelt quote. Anyway, killing traders or customers is a good way to get out of business. (Only if there's enough "suckers" or your product is irreplaceable can you ever consider it. Such as with certain drugs.)