Do We Actually Need Taxes?

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Taxes are an unfortunate reality for most people living and working in the modern world, we pay them every year, we complain about them, and then we forget them until next year.

Taxes are one of the most important elements of any economy around the world. Entire societies can grow from effective taxation and crumble without it.

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[EconomicsExplained]

Thanks as always for watching :D See new videos early, participate in exclusive Q&As, and more!

[dewberry_]

As a street lighting engineer with 10 years in the industry I'm genuinely happy to hear someone actually acknowledge my tiny passive contribution to society!

[hylianknight]

Most people dont have a problem with some degree of taxes, most people have a problem with how many taxes there are, and how poorly the government uses those taxes

[falsehero]

“Do we actually need taxes?”
Close, but you’re not asking the right question.
“What are our taxes being spent on?”
That, is the right question.

[rnrtruestories]

Just finished doing my taxes. I wouldn't mind paying taxes if the money was used wisely. As someone whose seen how different levels of government works, i can tell you a lot of our tax money pays for the bloated beuracracy as well. Sadly, reforming government and making it more efficient never seems to be on the top of a lot of people's list.

[benjamino.]

Next video: How should we structure our taxes? Flat? Progressive? Regressive? Aggressive?

[UrbanLegend]

I just think every Government should have a public display of invoices and receipts paid by all our taxes. So that its harder to steal and easier to debate their uses.

[NINJAxBACON]

We just need a publicly available and easily accessible audit trail of where our taxes go. This would basically solve all problems

[gardevoirtrainer]

Sale's taxes are super annoying at times. When I think I have enough to purchase something, sale's tax comes in and squashes that purchase. I feel everything should have the actual full cost on the price tag.

[CosmiaNebula]

Economics Explained 2120: Do We Actually Need Death?

[looinrims]

“Or take on more debt until they go bankrupt”

*Stock footage of the Greek flag*

[townsendliving]

"Rich people just declare war on things to get thier way" ummmm yea that's happening now, just not with rifles but every other way imaginable.

[kyleh]

When thinking about different forms of taxation and government, or the anarcho-capitalism situation you described, I keep ending with some similar kind of end point problem. Like the problems eventually created by any kind of human based system are unavoidable and baked into reality itself. I feel like the corruption of power, the increasing points of failure in an expanding complex system, the Pareto distribution (in terms of wealth and power concentration) and even the fear of unfairness (necessitating controls and restraints in prevention, even if unfairness isn't actually present) all lead to some fucked situation at some point down the line.

It's almost like entropy inevitably taking hold of our societies, with disorder, inefficiency, corruption, inequality and distrust. While we have never had a society last "forever, " and the way we approach our large economic problems has changed, I think there is a general feeling of progression. Like we are building towards something approximating the correct way of organisation. Is that just a shared delusion? Can we ever come up with a perfectly effective and fair system? Would the world be a better place if we strived for improvement but understood that we can only get so far to utopia, and we don't even know how far along in that sort of development we already are? I'm actually asking, I watch interesting videos like this for fun and I'm not educated or well versed in socioeconomic theory or the fundamental forces in human made systems. It is fascinating though.

Maybe all that is endorsement for some kind of AI run economy and government. Then again, even that's designed by humans, and might come with a whole new set of problems that I'm not seeing, beyond the questions of "who gets to program it, and how exactly."

Awesome video, thanks.

[erwinespinosa]

I don't mind paying taxes...as long as the collection doesn't end up in the pockets of corrupt public officials and their cronies in and out of the government. Look at the Philippines.

[Nadir]

"hyperinflation is straight up not a good time" Economics Explained, 2020

[nox]

Glad to come across this channel. As a philosophy student each vid contains a wealth of interesting material to dive into. Much appreciated.

[nilsqvis]

How much people mind paying taxes is also greatly depending on how it's done. If it's directly drawn from your salary you might not even notice it, while if you have to do the calculations yourself and pay after you've received your earnings, you're probably gonna be less happy about it.

[EconomicsExplained]

Last time I was this early we still paid taxes on tea. (ohwait)

[DataDrid]

Just for future reference: Asterix is a Belgian comic book character; an asterisk is a character used to denote additional information elsewhere.

[baronvonteuchter]

In the UK:
The company you work for pays tax
You pay tax on what you earn
You pay tax on things you buy
You pay tax on things you consume (food, drink, fuel, electricity)
You pay tax to watch tv (tv licence)
You pay tax to get a passport
You pay tax to live in a house (council tax)
You pay tax on things you import
You pay tax to have a car (VED)
You pay tax when you sell assets (CGT)
You pay tax when you buy or build a house
Then you die and your kids pay tax on what’s left

Is it worth it?

The principle is sound, the level of tax and the inefficiencies of how it is used by government is not.