are taxes nessecary?

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2003-05-11 03:34am

I was wondering about it, I remember I played Caesar 3 where I didn't even need taxes the government paid for itself through exports, if it made enough money to pay for itself, and so it wouldn't be like communism where the government is the sole business in existence, it has to compete with the other businesses.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-05-11 04:07am

Real life is not a game.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-05-11 04:17am

No, because governments make shitty business operators. Corporations are driven by profit motive, governments by the need to provide certain basic necessities (defense, law and order, infrastructure) to its citizens. A corporation that loses sight of the profit motive loses incentive to be efficient and will quickly start taking losses (see, Soviet Socialist Republics, Union of). A government that stops providing for its citizens (inherently unprofitable) will find itself burdened with enormous costs trying to keep the population down or will disintegrate.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-05-11 05:18am

This is suddenly reminiscent of Jennifer Government That isn't a good thing...

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-05-11 11:11am

taxes are neccessary.

meNNis · Post by **meNNis** » 2003-05-11 03:57pm

Of course they are. That has never been the debate. The debate has always been how much taxes are neccesary.... things like income tax come to mind.......

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-05-11 04:02pm

Governments, almost as a part of their very nature, are meant to tax.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-05-11 08:29pm

Sure we can get rid of taxes if there is some other way of raising revenue. Does anybody here have a real means for the government to gain money?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-05-11 08:41pm

Unless the government is placed in charge of the economy or a big chunk of it, as in Communism, taxes are necessary.

The Albino Raven · Post by **The Albino Raven** » 2003-05-11 09:21pm

for the most part, the government is only exporting weapons to other countires anyways. Most exports are watched by the government, then done by business. No taxes, and you have no roads, no hospitals, no police, no army, no schools, no social programs. Not fun, not fun at all.

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2003-05-11 09:40pm

RedImperator wrote:No, because governments make shitty business operators. Corporations are driven by profit motive, governments by the need to provide certain basic necessities (defense, law and order, infrastructure) to its citizens. A corporation that loses sight of the profit motive loses incentive to be efficient and will quickly start taking losses (see, Soviet Socialist Republics, Union of). A government that stops providing for its citizens (inherently unprofitable) will find itself burdened with enormous costs trying to keep the population down or will disintegrate.

Hmm, remember in Robocop where OCP was in charge of running the police department? And that was really inconsistant, they mentioned Delta City in the first one, and in the second one they said they were going to make a new city where Detroit stood, but didn't call it Delta City, and that was after the city had a debt to them, which gave them that right.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-05-11 09:47pm

Fremen_Muhadib wrote:for the most part, the government is only exporting weapons to other countires anyways. Most exports are watched by the government, then done by business. No taxes, and you have no roads, no hospitals, no police, no army, no schools, no social programs. Not fun, not fun at all.

What goverment are you talking about?