why do people agree to pay taxes?

[sonofacoin]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

How would you pave the roads or build school or build hospitals genius?

Oh, yeah, a community effort... where everyone pitches what they can... oh wait a minute... Joe has a bigger farm than me, maybe he can pitch a little more... oh but wait, he makes great produce and his volume keeps the vegetables affordable..ok, well, lets come up with a table where we everyone is placed into categories of how much they can pitch in based on what they make... and let's name our trusted, smart, Yale graduate as the keeper of this log..... Fucking bingo... taxes and some form of government...

Or everyone can just go fuck themselves...

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[dinofelis]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

I think that the main incentive for people not only to be willing to pay taxes, but to demand from the gouvernment to raise taxes, is the pleasure and joy modest people have from the knowledge that rich people have to give up part of their wealth.  The power of jealousy and the joy it brings to see richer people having to give up on their wealth (partly) is easily paid for by one's own taxes.

I think a lot of people are willing to give up 10% more of their income, if they know that rich people will suffer from that.

[panju1]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

I think that the main incentive for people not only to be willing to pay taxes, but to demand from the gouvernment to raise taxes, is the pleasure and joy modest people have from the knowledge that rich people have to give up part of their wealth.  The power of jealousy and the joy it brings to see richer people having to give up on their wealth (partly) is easily paid for by one's own taxes.

I think a lot of people are willing to give up 10% more of their income, if they know that rich people will suffer from that.

I doubt if people are happy to give up a portion of their income, just because the rich may have to pay more. 
Every time a person migrates from a lower slab to a higher slab, the feeling of being burdened by taxes would increase a lot. Then a person may look at poorer people in his neighbourhood, who pay no taxes, and feel jealous.
If your argument was true, every person would then say " Of course we need taxes, but keep people who earn as much as me out of the tax net".

[dinofelis]

If your argument was true, every person would then say " Of course we need taxes, but keep people who earn as much as me out of the tax net".

Well.  Isn't that what most people argue :-) ?
Isn't there a huge lobbying effort to get tax cuts for "your" club, while having others pay them ?

[teukon]

How would you pave the roads or build school or build hospitals genius?

Oh, yeah, a community effort... where everyone pitches what they can... oh wait a minute... Joe has a bigger farm than me, ...

Wait.  So roads, schools, and hospitals can only fathomably be created through a community effort but farms can be created and owned privately?  What is it that makes the provision of food fundamentally different from the provision of transport, education, and health care.

If your argument was true, every person would then say " Of course we need taxes, but keep people who earn as much as me out of the tax net".

Yep.  Suppose we're in the US and the median personal income is 40 000 USD/year.  Enter a politician which promises to tax the hell out of everyone with a personal income greater than 50 000 USD/year so that everyone else can enjoy free government.  We put this new policy to a vote.  56% of votes are for the policy with 44% against.  Great, now we have a new law passed in truly democratic fashion which allows the majority of people to live tax free with plenty of free government services.

[ObscureBean]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

What you say is true, except that you wouldn't have solved anything because after you overthrow the government, given enough time, a mini government will emerge from within your group of rebels/do-gooders. It is inevitable. No man is an island, remember? 

[NotLambchop]

How would you pave the roads or build school or build hospitals genius?

Oh, yeah, a community effort... where everyone pitches what they can... oh wait a minute... Joe has a bigger farm than me, ...

Wait.  So roads, schools, and hospitals can only fathomably be created through a community effort but farms can be created and owned privately?  What is it that makes the provision of food fundamentally different from the provision of transport, education, and health care.

Private schools and private hospitals, like private roads, could exist without government intervention.  The problem is these schools and hospitals would only cater to the moneyed elite, as they have always  done in the past.  Creating an angry, unsightly, and violence-prone class.

The reason we have public schools and public healthcare in most of the civilized world is not because of some misguided egalitarian need to help the poor, but because the poor have become unmanageable in early 20th century--giving us inconveniences such as Russian Communism and German National Socialism.

TL;DR:  Yes, private industry can and does build roads, hospitals, and schools.  Obama does not go out building with his family in tow, singing "I been ballin' a shiny black steel jack-hammer/Been chippin' up rocks for the great highway."  No, governments don't build roads in US--private industry does that.
What governments do is collect the money & pay private industry.

[opossum]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

What you say is true, except that you wouldn't have solved anything because after you overthrow the government, given enough time, a mini government will emerge from within your group of rebels/do-gooders. It is inevitable. No man is an island, remember? 

This. Also most of the services the government provides are not able to be purchased at the individual level so if there was no government then people would be lacking very important services

[loulis]

Because tax is necessary for the economy.

[bl4kjaguar]

Because tax is necessary for the economy.

False.

If the State surpluses were returned to the people in the form of refunds or tax/charges for service fees/assessments/etc. reductions, it would create the greatest economic expansion in the history of the U.S.A. and probably the entire world.

If your neighbor steals $2,000 from you, you get all excited, want immediate justice. Yes, "Throw the b_____d in jail." However, whenever State governments steal $2,000 from you, you say nothing. I guess it is no fun to talk about the stealing by governments at the water cooler. It takes too much "thinking".

If you rush to your representative to ask them about the surpluses, do you really believe that he/she are going to tell you that there are surpluses? If you do, you live in a dream world. It would be political suicide to say, "Yes, we have excess funds that we are not using."

The composite totals of investment assets held internationally by USA government is staggering. Between local and Federal government, the total of liquid investment assets held Internationally as of 1998 was a conservative sixty (60) Trillion dollars. Come the year 2007 the collective totals topped a conservative (110) Trillion dollars.

"GROSS" INCOME of government is now 1/3rd "TAX" income and 2/3rds NON-TAX income derived from: return on INVESTMENTS and money generated from government Enterprise projects.  

The Blackout of the mention of the CAFR and government’s collective investment wealth held is still firmly in place. The public continuously is masterfully entertained into distraction and the beat goes on for the government inside players as they perpetuate their next wealth transfer plan to build and perpetuate their own financial empires.

Do you know how many trillions of dollars YOUR Local and Federal Government has invested with Mexico, China, the old Soviet block countries? Investments held in foreign currency? Government investments that greatly profit from that cheap labor abroad and a lower dollar.
 
Investments that profit even more when the dollar drops in value due to foreign currency exchange rates?

THEY SAY THIS IS A COUNTRY OF LAWS, WELL, WHEN THE LAW ITSELF IS LAWLESS BY APPLICATION AND WHEN THE INTENT OF THE LAW IS FOR EXTORTION OF WEALTH OR REPRISAL OVER PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE, THEN THE LETTER OF THE LAW ITSELF BECOMES MUTE AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF A CRIME IN ITSELF TO BE REPUDIATED.

Sources: http://cafr1.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20040708041151/http://www.cafrman.com/
http://cafr1.com/STATES/1KLATT1999-Read.pdf

[TheButterZone]

Because tax is necessary for the economy.

... to be defined by any reasonable person as dystopic, yes.

[loulis]

Economy is like a lake. From one side of the lake, water comes in (inflation) and from the other side, water comes out (tax).

[sonofacoin]

Most farm as subsidized by the government.. Not your backyard farm.

No, governments don't build roads in US--private industry does that.
What governments do is collect the money & pay private industry.

Correct, when we say the government provided the roads we mean they call for the construction and pay the private industry, like you said, not that the government actually paves the roads.

The main point, without going into splitting hairs is that... Taxes (or some for f community collecting) will always exist, that is, if you want to have infrastructure and use services.

 

[panju1]

The composite totals of investment assets held internationally by USA government is staggering. Between local and Federal government, the total of liquid investment assets held Internationally as of 1998 was a conservative sixty (60) Trillion dollars. Come the year 2007 the collective totals topped a conservative (110) Trillion dollars.

"GROSS" INCOME of government is now 1/3rd "TAX" income and 2/3rds NON-TAX income derived from: return on INVESTMENTS and money generated from government Enterprise projects.  

A country having surplus or investment assets is not a bad thing.
In fact, it shows that there is a responsible government, which ensures that future generations are not left holding the bill for spending by the current government/generation.

The investment assets of the US government pale in comparison to the wealth held by other sovereign funds.
http://www.swfinstitute.org/fund-rankings/

In an utopian world, the government at some point will have enough investments so that it doesn't have to tax its people. 

[bl4kjaguar]

In an utopian world, the government at some point will have enough investments so that it doesn't have to tax its people.  

The US government already has enough investments.

Want to End all Taxation?
OK  LET'S DO IT!

[numismatist]

People agree on paying taxes if they can forsee a meaningfull outcome from that.

So questionable operations costing millions of dollars are shaking that believe, citizens might become more reluctant to pay in the aftermath. Historical example: Funding the army following vietnam. More recent examples might exist.

[Atdhe]

It is really more about the rule of law and what is good for society as a whole. When the government imposes taxes on it's citizens, it is effectively forcing them to pay for things that is good for society as a whole.

How can we know when a thing is "good for society as a whole"?

The winners always define what is good for society as a whole. That is the truth. You know it then, because the winner has the power to force you to believe his propaganda about the good for the society as a whole.

[Atdhe]

why is it ok for a group of people calling themselves the government to force everyone to buy their services?
if enough armed people refused to pay and told the government to go fuck itself there is nothing they could do.

The problem is that people who care about rights and understand how things work are usually too busy leading productive lives and being good citizens. The people who have time to do what you suggest enjoy using government force to make up for their laziness and lack of ambition.

I agree with that, but I do not think it is a problem.

On the top I do not think that the busy people live unproductive lives. I do not think being bad citizen is unproductive. I think the oppose. Is good politician or his dedicated voter productive. I really do not see how it can be true. The busy people, even if they are busy for their own good or for some obscure reasons, they are trying undiscovered paths. And that is productive.

[Gianluca95]

People pay taxes to create a good place for live (with services like hospital, police ecc.). But in many country this isn't possible. I would like to live in the North of Europe, where there is very civilization (and very beautiful woman  ).

[Erdogan]

People pay taxes to create a good place for live (with services like hospital, police ecc.). But in many country this isn't possible. I would like to live in the North of Europe, where there is very civilization (and very beautiful woman  ).

Be careful what you wish for. It has been reasonable up to now, but as fewer and fewer people work, and the working population is taxed up to their ears, it may start a downward slope ending in collapse.