Vanilla eXee
I'm just gonna go out there and say that whether or not all of this stuff is true (taxes being voluntary), without taxes this country would be even more shitty than it already is.
Actually... not. There's a reason why the power to tax a nation is the greatest power you can have to destroy that nation.
And before you continue, please let me grovel at your feet for forgiveness for making this huge post. Because you responded to such a complex topic in of itself with a one sentence statement about an even more complex topic, I feel I must make a VERY elementary side by side comparison to give you the absolute basics.
Instead of looking at it from the sheer magnitude of the federal government, look at it like a typical household. Both the government, and a self employed family are fundamentally the same.
In our case we'll say the founding fathers was a homosexual male couple named Thomas (Jefferson) and James (Adams), who ironically died on the same day. We'll just say it was a car accident.
So the 300 million children are rounded down to 3 kids who now live with their uncle Sam
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On a federal level... There are 6 ways for a government to succeed
1.
Borrows money from the public (both the citizens and non citizens) by issuing bonds.These bonds are loan agreements. You give the government $100, and they give you a $100 IOU called a bond. They then invest that money in something like a toll road, zoo, tourist site, etc that earns money, they then pay you back your $100 + interest and they now have a cash flow asset..... (This is exactly how I invest in real estate, I borrow from banks, get a rental property, pay them back, and I keep a profitable investment I never have to sell)
2.
Investing, and reinvesting surplus savings into investments that pay a dividendAs mentioned, toll roads, government housing, zoos, parks, tourist sites, as well as gold, silver, commodities, stocks, bonds of other nations, technology, transportation, etc.... The idea is to take some spare cash laying around, and invest it in something that generates more money.
The Louisiana Purchase, and the purchase of Alaska from Russia were investments in raw land. 200 years later it's safe to say we got our moneys worth.
3.
Starting Socialized BusinessesBesides investing in quick or slow forms of profit, the nation is suppose to engage in business in the public sector with other corporations. It does this by creating government corporations such as....
USPS V.s. Fed Ex and UPS
COBRA V.s. Farmers, Allstate, Geiko, etc...
AARP V.s. (whatever private life insurance company)
NASA V.s. Boeing and Lockheed Martin
Government run bank Vs. Private corporate bank
etc...
The idea is for them to be competitive in the private sector as well, and this leaves them with lots of potential to be very successful financially. Unfortunately as we notice with USPS the mail service, when it fails financially, the government props it up with taxes from other sectors which a private corporation cannot do. This also ignores the fact that bad companies are meant to fail. And by propping it up with taxes they make it even worse. Even more ironically we now prop up private corporations, often times competitors with tax dollars too. Such as AIG, CitiBank, GM, etc...
Had these companies not been propped up, including USPS, letting them all fail evens out the playing field and invites new competition from new companies.
4.
Form PartnershipsThis goes along the same lines as #1 and #2. The key difference here is the government would partner with wealthy individuals, or with other nations or corporations and tackle one single project such as a super highway from Los Angeles to New York or Tokyo to Los Angeles! This would allow them to work together to create something neither of them would have if they didn't. And they each split the ownership, and profits.
This is also real good for forming treaties among nations who partner with one another in order to finance large international projects such as space travel to the moon, where each nation and corporations, etc would have a fair share of the ownership and control of the moon, or Mars, etc...
5.
WarfareIt is greatly expensive and often times not very profitable but if done for legitimate reasons it can be a useful financial tool used for offence or defense. But it's really to never be used....
Successful applications of war have been over indigenous tribes who are relatively inexpensive to fight, such as the Native Americans, Hawaiians, and other remote cultures that lacked technology whose territory we now control, especially Hawaii. Another successful application of war was the revolutionary war that gave us our independence in defense of England, who ironically was destroying us with their high taxes, which eventually lead to the Boston Tea Party (and this is why the Tea Party activists are so against taxation)
6.
TaxationStrictly to be used as an "In case of emergency, break glass" for specific situations only, with very clearly defined purposes, costs, effects, and the reward citizens will get in exchange for their forced participation.
Such situations would be natural disasters
temporary income tax for 5 years to fix up the gulf, then tax expires
----- Reward is citizens get their communities back + a little more
revolutionary war to defend our freedom and destroy our oppressors
---- the reward is a free nation with increased liberties
BP gulf oil spill. hike taxes on gas and oil and take care of the mess ASAP.
---- the reward is the government takes control of the private corporation, improves it, and makes it profitable (note USPS reference), and provides affordable fuel to the public at a far cheaper price than the oil companies, which forces them to lower their price
research and development into specific technological inventions
---- the reward is the public gets a much better product that can save time, money, fuel, environment, etc.... And if say it was an electric car invented, there would possibly be a rebate given back if the person buys the electric car from the government, and receive just as much money back as they paid in taxes. Thus getting a more efficient car at a huge discounted price, with some cash back in their pocket that would have otherwise been spent elsewhere.
That is how the federal government is suppose to succeed financially..... Now lets scale this back down
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Individual House level
In a normal home, the parent or guardian (in this case uncle Sam) is suppose to.....
1. Have a job, In this case he is a self employed business owner.
2. He makes small conservative investments with his earnings so he can have a retirement, pay for the education of the kids
3. He builds multiple businesses
4. He makes occasional big investments by buying other businesses, buying apartments, buying lots of land to mine and develop, etc... This is primarily supported by his businesses.
5. He occasionally charges some reasonable tax on the 3 children when appropriate.
If anything he should give the kids an allowance to influence a desired behavior. We call these "tax" credits. today. So instead he would give them $100 to encourage a child to set up a lemonade stand on the corner.
Although something he never does is engage in warfare, he's not going to bomb his neighbor for their assets. If they're a problem the entire community neighborhood (the other nations) are suppose to help keep the order. The only exception is should he himself be invaded and must defend himself. and then the entire neighborhood decides what to do with the delinquent trouble makers (such as North Korea)
In this case Uncle Sam brings in all the income, invests small conservative amounts of it in investments that pay for the social services we benefit from, like education... He also builds business all the time and lets his bad businesses fail knowing that he cannot afford to keep it up otherwise it will destroy him financially. With the vasts amounts of revenue brought in by those corporations, much of which come from the 3 kids he cares for, because they might prefer the us.pod over the ipod, he uses that revenue to make large investments in buying lot next door, or the park across the street, and more. So the kids now have more room to run around and play (Alaska, Louisiana purchases), and he has the rights to control the resources there...
He will also take out huge loan when needed. However unlike you and me, Sam has the right to legally print money, so he doesn't go to the bank and borrow money at interest, he simply prints money, buys what he wants, and uses the profits to gradually buy back his dollars (the IOU notes he gave to the person paid money to) and destroys them. Otherwise he risks having too many Post-It notes floating around. That would make people lose confidence in the value of his IOU notes when he prints money.
He will also ask to borrow money from the children, as well as other nations in the form of bonds to pay interest if he doesn't want to devalue his Post-It notes. This would be like a parent borrows $10 from you and will pay you back. Formally though when the parent pays you back, they should pay you back $11 for your help.
And because all 3 kids are employed, they too generate revenue to help the economy of this house, they will partner with Sam, lend him money and keep it very formal...... And occasionally the car might break down, or the window gets smashed, or a tree falls on the house and he forces the 3 kids to help pay for the repairs. but the reward is they can stay out later with friends, go further without permission, or have some other reward later on.
What Sam shouldn't do, and this is what many parents shouldn't do with their kids is tax them so heavily that the parents/guardians become dependent on the kids to support the "house". Such as by taxing them on their income, by giving the parents an allowance, even worse if they use that money to buy and sell guns and drugs. As the largest arms and drugs dealer in the world, this is a good reflection of our uncle Sam not being the high class business professional he needs to be, instead he acts like a violent substance abuser. Who, if a child decides not to give him money, he beats them, scolds them in front of the others, and locks them in their room with nothing. He also wouldn't tax them on the things they buy and use.
If a child earning their own money buys a TV, he wouldn't tax them on top of the cable bill for them to watch TV, wouldn't tax them on the size of their bedroom or how much stuff it has in it. He also shouldn't charge them fees for using things they bought. Such as if a child bought a car, he shouldn't have his kids pay him to stamp some letters on it to track where it goes, and use his security team to track them. He also shouldn't charge a monthly or annual registration fee to redo the process over and over again just because he can.
He also shouldn't tax their income just to take it from them and say that he has to be the one to pay for their education. But since he spends it all on guns and drugs he can't afford a good school so the kids pay for their own school with their own money left over... But he STILL demands a tax on their property to pay for an education they aren't using....
Remember that allowance he is suppose to give? That's suppose to be his money to the kids to influence their behavior in a way that's good for them, and possibly the whole house. As I mentioned we call them "tax credits" today. Instead of giving a child $100 to start up a company called Minute Maid Lemonade on the corner, he's actually makes a reverse threat! By saying "If you set up a lemonade stand, I will -return- $100 back to you which you paid me in taxes."
I'm not a parent yet, but I have to say that's just sick.....
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With those two examples side by side, you can see the difference between the two realities. One is a self confident, fully sustainable business professional who does what he can to succeed both for himself and his business, as well as for his children. The other is a sadistic abusive drug abuser who commits violent crimes, buys and sells weapons of mass destruction, and bullies the neighbors around and terrorizes them. He makes enemies with the ones he doesn't like with the plasma TV he wants, and uses some of the money he takes from his kids to bribe other neighbors.....
I've grown up with rich and poor people who reflect those two lifestyles very well. I know the difference personally and I know which of the two realities I would use to shape my personal home, as well as any nation I would ever establish.