This hits hard

14mo ago

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ZoomyMuffin

Stealth14mo

Yes, I walk on the road funded and constructed by the Govt, at nights, I can drive due to the streetlights put by the Govt. My property rights, as simple as my phone, wallet, clothes and car are not snatched away from me due to police which are funded by the Govt. The food in the supermarkets, grains to my plate and water from the rivers to my tap are affordable due to infra building which was initiated by the Govt.

Say I earn 1L and pay 45K in taxes. Had there been no taxes, the company (market) would peg my salary at 65K or wouldn't be able to operate in an environment where it can afford to pay me a surplus of 65K at all.

Bashing Govt for inefficiency is one thing and I am all for it, bashing them for the return you get on your taxes is a birthright; but criticising about simple taxes like IT & GST which ensures the basic system around us works half decently is plain snobbish.

QuirkyNugget

Stealth14mo

55k*

DizzyMuffin

American Express14mo

Fair point, I don’t mind paying taxes. The problem is paying way too many taxes. There are many countries, and some states in the US of A wherein they don’t have Income tax, which turns out to be fine anyways.

Currently, it’s the middle class that’s getting fleeced to the bone, while people like SRK’s daughter can claim “agricultarist” and get away with allegedly not paying a cent for her properties.

BubblyDonut

Dream 1114mo

Waiting for people to defend this clownery

TwirlyPotato

Stealth14mo

So I have a story to share for why I think this although may sound like a poorly reasoned argument is still valid.

I'm a patriotic, fiercely so. To the extent I don't bother exploiting HRA loopholes even if I lived with my parents for the first few years of employment because that's not right and tax needs to be paid. So a couple of years ago we got extorted by the same govt officials who we pay to run our country to not demolish our house under false allegations that it blocked the natural flow of water according to a 1920s hand drawn map.

I get all the points about keeping the lights on, funding the military and all that. I also get critique off the govt is different from absolute hot takes like this but this feeling that we are getting fleeced stands on some truth. We charge taxes like a Western country whose per capita GDP is many times ours but we run it like an African plutocracy.

The Koramangala flyover that's been laying untouched despite all the pain and embarrassment it has caused is a classic point. I'd expect that in a country that can't function, not in one of the most promising nations in the world. If we continue to be like this, all the hoopla about demographic dividend etc will not matter because eventually the middle class will decide it's better to be middle class elsewhere than here and leave.