American military might is arguably the
sole reason we live in a stable, peaceful world.
Yes, terrible things happen, but the alternative might be even more terrible. I think of this often. Vietnam was a terrible war, maybe a senseless one, but then again, maybe the war on communism was right -- after all, no ex-communist state is a paradise of civil liberty today, and none of them are even particularly prosperous. With no counter to Russia or China, we could be living in a communist world.
How far into Europe would Russia march if America could not write the check for Ukraine?
What would Europe look like had America not funded the victors in the world wars? What would Asia look like had Japan not been castrated?
I would like to live in a world of global peace, liberty, and cooperative prosperity, but if I can't have that, American hegemony is preferable to some other hegemony, at least so far as we know or can infer.
If men with guns didn't force you to pay taxes, would we have interstate highways or weather satellites or top-notch hospitals, public schools, sewer systems, or a covid vaccine?
In fact, I pay taxes so they can buy guns for the men who make you pay taxes. In return, I get to live in this beautiful, modern, prosperous, scientifically breathtaking world.
It is imperfect, I admit, but it is much better than anything else we have had historically. So much better that it's hard to even understand.
Not long ago our president was in a wheelchair and our nation starved; Americans no longer starve nor does polio cripple them. Would those things be true without federal taxes?
It seems likely that less taxes would only harm us. There is still room to improve what we spend on but...
We just achieved fusion, thanks again to taxes.