<story><title>Anthony Bourdain on not having debt</title><url>https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-us/magazine/money-diary-anthony-bourdain-3</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tinco</author><text>&lt;i&gt;every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;How about every 60 minutes you work, 30 minutes of that is spent establishing the world around you? From the opportunities you had as a young person, and those of your children, to the safety and security of your adult life.&lt;p&gt;Half of your product is yours to spend freely, the rest goes towards the idea that you don&amp;#x27;t even have to think about mashlovs piramid. Well in a perfect euro-socialist utopia maybe, perhaps not in the U.S., but that&amp;#x27;s the general idea of high taxes.</text></item><item><author>rsync</author><text>&amp;quot;Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I think there&amp;#x27;s an important distinction to be made between two different sorts of &amp;quot;high taxes&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;One is a high absolute amount of taxes - you made millions of dollars in a year and therefore your absolute tax payment is relatively quite high.&lt;p&gt;The other is a high &lt;i&gt;percentage&lt;/i&gt; tax rate.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t mind paying a high absolute rate of taxes - I think that is the scenario in which one can think fondly of all the things that government provides - things like:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;However, there comes a point in percentage tax rates where basic fairness comes into question.  I&amp;#x27;m sure it varies from person to person, but I think an effective tax rate north of 40% is getting in the danger zone.&lt;p&gt;As a US citizen who lives in California, in Marin, and owns land, my effective tax rate is 50%, give or take, and I think that&amp;#x27;s a problem.  It&amp;#x27;s very difficult to rationalize that every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government.</text></item><item><author>vinhboy</author><text>&amp;gt; Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind.&lt;p&gt;How refreshing.&lt;p&gt;I agree with him.&lt;p&gt;Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It&amp;#x27;s a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>faceyspacey</author><text>Except for here in the states 25% of the taxpayer money is going to military, intelligence and debt from past wars we know to have been bad ideas and knew all along were bad ideas.&lt;p&gt;And let&amp;#x27;s just say another 25% is misspent. In a country this big and bloated, that&amp;#x27;s also likely a low ball figure. But overall, only 50% of taxpayer money is going to anything remotely properly executed and needed.&lt;p&gt;That said, our public schools suck, we invest nothing in research, we don&amp;#x27;t provide healthcare until your old, and our interstate highways were built 70 years ago, and state and local governments handle needed construction now, yet they take the smallest percentage of our taxes. Some states like Nevada don&amp;#x27;t even charge state income tax.&lt;p&gt;In my view I&amp;#x27;d be way happier paying taxes if this was managed right. That means cut military spending by 90% knowing we are never going to need an aircraft carrier again while completely evacuating the Middle East, and the state local government&amp;#x27;s charge more since they will be more effective at putting it to use.&lt;p&gt;Taxes should be no more than 30% total (federal, state + local) like the Apple App Store.&lt;p&gt;Yea, likely not happening any time soon. But that&amp;#x27;s what is correct imho.</text></comment>
<story><title>Anthony Bourdain on not having debt</title><url>https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-us/magazine/money-diary-anthony-bourdain-3</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tinco</author><text>&lt;i&gt;every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;How about every 60 minutes you work, 30 minutes of that is spent establishing the world around you? From the opportunities you had as a young person, and those of your children, to the safety and security of your adult life.&lt;p&gt;Half of your product is yours to spend freely, the rest goes towards the idea that you don&amp;#x27;t even have to think about mashlovs piramid. Well in a perfect euro-socialist utopia maybe, perhaps not in the U.S., but that&amp;#x27;s the general idea of high taxes.</text></item><item><author>rsync</author><text>&amp;quot;Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I think there&amp;#x27;s an important distinction to be made between two different sorts of &amp;quot;high taxes&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;One is a high absolute amount of taxes - you made millions of dollars in a year and therefore your absolute tax payment is relatively quite high.&lt;p&gt;The other is a high &lt;i&gt;percentage&lt;/i&gt; tax rate.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t mind paying a high absolute rate of taxes - I think that is the scenario in which one can think fondly of all the things that government provides - things like:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;However, there comes a point in percentage tax rates where basic fairness comes into question.  I&amp;#x27;m sure it varies from person to person, but I think an effective tax rate north of 40% is getting in the danger zone.&lt;p&gt;As a US citizen who lives in California, in Marin, and owns land, my effective tax rate is 50%, give or take, and I think that&amp;#x27;s a problem.  It&amp;#x27;s very difficult to rationalize that every 60 minutes I work, ~30 minutes of that work product is appropriated by government.</text></item><item><author>vinhboy</author><text>&amp;gt; Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind.&lt;p&gt;How refreshing.&lt;p&gt;I agree with him.&lt;p&gt;Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It&amp;#x27;s a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zymhan</author><text>Especially at an income level where you will be paying 50%, you should be able to save enough for the future&amp;#x2F;rainy day AND live quite comfortably.</text></comment>