> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.
Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
151–160 of 366 posts
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#152I wish more people thought this way. Debt can be be used effectively, but as Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility." It seems that too much of America is wooed into a false sense of security by their ability to obtain debt without judging their ability to pay that debt off.
Debt is new currency. If everyone is buying their cars with credit, soon nobody can afford to buy with cash. Around here even if you have decent wage right now, but not a stable job, you can't get credit to buy a house, while someone with a low pay but stable job can, you're effectively poorer than them.
Appraising the current net value of a job is always a bit shaky though, because there are so many variables.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#153> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.
I don't mind paying property and local taxes for this reason, but if my Federal taxes are going to go toward building that fucking wall, I will do everything I can to avoid paying them.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#154> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.
I don't mind paying property and local taxes for this reason, but if my Federal taxes are going to go toward building that fucking wall, I will do everything I can to avoid paying them.
Anyone can feel free to answer this one. I'm interested in where people are drawing their own lines.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody ever argues that roads, railroads, and highways are an unfair tax burden. It's such a ridiculous straw man. The beef that most Libertarians have with government spending is with entitlement programs.
Sandy Rios, of American Family Radio, has indeed argued in the past that the Interstate Highway System was and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. So no, it's not a straw man. Some conservatives really do believe this.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#156> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#157Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was thinking about this recently when I filed my taxes. Maybe if they provided some kind of itemized receipt? "You paid $x in taxes. This was distributed as $y to infrastructure, $z to education, $w to defense" etc.
Your tax dollar don't pay for $y, $z or $w. You pay for the national debt mostly at this point. The government overspends and gets its money either from debt or from over printing. Even if top 10 of fortune 500 paid 100% taxes, it would still not cover spending. Just saying.
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#159> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.
Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.
[Citation needed.]
Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt
#160> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.