Everything’s a subscription, or wants you to sign up for one. I want off this shitshow please.
Most people online seemingly prefer to live in a shit hole without any infrastructure at all then to discuss how to fix their government to reduce waste of tax money…
The issue people don’t seem to understand is that, you don’t actually need to pay that huge amount of taxes to actually get all that from the state. You’re paying a lot more because the government is overeaching, by investing in failed private companies to rescue their mates, by creating huge amounts of debt, etc.
The government should exist only to provide essential services and regulation to the market, nothing else.
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) English7•11 months ago
The government should exist only to provide essential services and regulation to the market, nothing else.
There’s an awful lot of devil in those details. Does health care qualify as an essential service? How about Social Security, which is the only reason working-class people don’t all become homeless once they’re too old to work? Mail? Roads? Firefighting? Modern governments do an awful lot, and life would be an awful lot worse if they didn’t, but it costs an awful lot of money.
Effort should be made to root out wasteful government spending, of course, but that means unraveling the twisted schemes of those who would misappropriate tax money without destroying the government functions they’ve attached themselves to, and much like surgically removing a cancerous growth from an organ without destroying the entire organ, it is neither easy nor permanent.
Firefighters for example is an essential service but in my country is done by volunteers who doesn’t get paid too much (when they should be paid better and government should be responsible for the service). Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.
There are many examples in my country where government is overreaching by a lot but fails in the most basic stuff.
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) English1•11 months ago
Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.
This is a grave misconception. Taxes are not what stops people from saving money. Taxes are proportional to income, expenses, and/or wealth. No matter how little money you make, taxes will never take all of it.
Prices of goods and services are what stop people from saving money. Prices are always set as high as the market will bear. Landlords and merchants are trying to take all of your money, not just a fraction of it. This leaves no room for savings unless you make a great deal more money than the average person.
The saying does not go, “the taxes are too damn high.” The saying goes, “the rent is too damn high.” Never forget that.
Soooo… I’m pirating my country?
Just don’t subscribe. When netflix pissed me off, I unsubscribed. When Adobe moved to a subscription based platform, I forced myself to learn alternative applications (although I still have a copy of Adobe Creative Suite from 2003 which I am still using on old laptop when needed). When Microsoft started charging a subscription to use “office” apps, I switched to LibreOffice. During Covid when I wasn’t using my gym membership I cancelled it and used that $75/month savings to start building a home gym setup (it ain’t great, but its better than nothing!)
If something is a subscription, I either find an alternative program/service, or simply don’t use it.
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) 8•11 months ago
That’s not true of taxes in general—you only get taxed on income if you make income, for example—but property taxes certainly do feel like a subscription fee, because unlike other taxes, money doesn’t have to change hands in order for you to owe property tax.
now introducing: life as a service
Cancelling the US subscription is really hard, they actually charge you a premium for the cancellation service. I have been working on it for a while, but the customer service is just atrocious.
I mean businesses under capitalism have to support themselves somehow. On the web if you’re not a storefront you basically have to either advertise or offer subs.
