I agree with "fairness" when it comes to paying your fair share of taxes. But it's defining "fair" that most of us disagree. I think of "fair" as being a balance between how much work a citizen puts into creating his own wealth, versus how much he benefited from being a citizen of his country. I am a profitable business owner and pay far more in taxes than what I take from government. Compare that to an unemployed person who takes far more from government, and pays very little of it back. #taxes
@SteveJohnson It seems from your bio that you travel around all the time on a motorcycle and have no fixed address, so you don't pay for local roads through property taxes. You're a web developer, which means you wouldn't have a job without a government developed project called ARPANET. Your entire business you "created" and lifestyle you enjoy wouldn't exist without tax funded structures. Just because you don't get a voucher from the government doesn't mean you don't use government money.
@SuzanEraslan That's exactly what I pointed out, when I said, "than what I take from government". But in terms of defining, "pay your fair share of taxes", how does one measure that? I already pay a pretty fair pile already. What is going to motivate the next guy into getting off his butt if the solution is to squeeze more taxes out of business owners like me?
@SteveJohnson Have you ever met someone on government assistance? Just jumping through the hoops to secure it is a full time job, and deeply humiliating, and yet most of them still have full time jobs, as well. The reason they don't pay much in taxes is because we live with such a pathetic social safety net and massive tax cuts for the wealthiest that even working full time (or more) they can't afford basic needs like food, shelter, and health care without help.
@SteveJohnson Characterizing people on government assistance as "on their butt" is not only dismissive and inhumane, it's factually wrong. And I'm frankly happy to cut all corporate welfare in order to feed people and make sure they have roofs over their heads. Maybe you'd even pay less in taxes, too.
