"I gladly pay my taxes" why does this make people laugh at you?

[AzNick]

At the store, the item I was paying for was $179 but amounted to close to $200 with taxes, and the store owner (I shop at mom and pops) gave me a sorry look.

I said "it's ok, I gladly pay my taxes" and he laughed and said "well I don't".

I said "well that's how we got roads, cops and firefighters" (knowing he was probably a Republican, I did not say "teachers", I just needed to make my point fast and efficiently).

He said "well, don't forget the politicians!"

What followed was an "interesting" discussion, which I kept short as he was in the middle of moving his store and I had to go back to work.

But why is it always these people who want to send us to war who disagree with paying their taxes?

[MineralMan]

1. They don't believe you, because they don't.

I told a guy the other day that I got paid in cash for a web content job. He said, "Well, there's some money you don't have to declare." I told him it was already posted in my accounting program. He looked shocked.

[pnwmom]

2. +1. n/t

[gratuitous]

3. Because they've been told for 30 years that government is evil

And they've (not coincidentally) installed politicians who make sure it is evil (that is, Republicans). Most voters are passive receptors, and they've internalized the idea that taxes are confiscatory takings from decent people, squandered on the undeserving. Good for you for pointing out the obvious: Taxes pay for quite a number of things that all of us benefit from. Roads, cops, firefighters, and quite a few other things that make a comfortable life possible. All because of taxes paid, pooled, and spent under the most exacting oversight of any expenditures anywhere in the world. Some government agency spends a few thousand dollars for a weekend management retreat, and there will be a dozen people yowling about the waste. You think these people give a happy rat's ass if Microsoft's managers go on a weekend retreat, even though it bumps the cost of their computer by ten bucks? They do not. They're not aware of any connection there.

[alstephenson]

8. Good point. You are right on.

[historian]

15. you cant compare microsoft

to government. They are a company and as long as the shareholders dont object thay can do as they please. The government on the other hand supposedly belongs to the people and we are the ones who support it ergo we ought to have a say in how our money is spent.

[gorfle]

4. Because everyone knows taxes are for stupid people, poor people, and suckers.

Taxes are for poor people, stupid people, and suckers.

If you make enough money, you hire accountants to shuffle your money around to minimize your tax exposure, so as to maximize the amount you can keep.

If you're don't make enough, or if you just fill out the 1040-EZ, or you just pay because it's the right thing to do, you're poor, stupid, or a sucker.

Do you really think any of the politicians in Washington honestly file their taxes? I don't. Every April 15th is a mini-Enron when they do their taxes.

[Initech]

5. Because that's the American way damn it!

[baldguy]

6. They want something for nothing.

Republicans are the ultimate parasites.

[alstephenson]

7. I've run up against this same thing.

I told my mother and my sister that I would gladly pay more taxes ir order to have universal health care. They looked at me as if I had two heads.

[TwilightGardener]

9. That's what keeps us from universal health care, in a nutshell.

[Romulox]

10. Because their gov't takes their money, spends it on wars and bankster bailouts

then claims any domestic spending must be "deficit neutral". :hi:

[JonQ]

11. I don't mind paying for those things

I do mind the waste and corruption though. If I could dedicate my taxes only to useful endeavors and not the other stuff that would be great.

Also, isn't refusing to pay your taxes a time-honored leftwing protest?

[DemoTex]

12. I always quote Oliver Wendell Holms, Jr., on this subject.

"Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (8 March 1841 - 6 March 1935) American jurist; Justice of U.S. Supreme Court (1902 -1932) often called "The Great Dissenter"; son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

[prole_for_peace]

13. I'm a tax accountant and I HATE listening to my wealthy clients

bitch about their taxes. Ok so they owe $300k on a million of income...well I would trade with them in a minute.

The problem is that they spend all their money trying to be better than everyone else and then have no money to pay their taxes at the end of the year and then gripe at me for not finding some way to get them off the hook.

[historian]

14. because we have no say whatsoever

in how this money is spent!