I lived in a town of 200 in Montana once. The County was so small that they had little government. When I bought my house for $5000 it was just a shack with a two holer and a cold water line. I was free to rebuild my house without having to worry about permits or inspectors. Still living in town placed some limits on my freedom. One neighbor took me to court because my dog barked, and we argued about my ratty fence.
Then we moved out in the country. With no nearby neighbors I could do as I wanted. I raised goats and a pig, and could grow my own food. I could do odd jobs and some carpentry to make enough to pay the taxes and buy the tools, fuel, and stuff I couldn't make. Freedom was good and taxes were low.
Then when I had kids I realized that traveling 40 miles to see a doctor when they were sick was a pain. I wanted better schools and more friends and activities for the kids, and jobs were scarce so I moved to the big city.
Civilization requires that you trade off some of your personal freedoms for better services. In Montana no one complained about my having several parts cars scattered around the place, now if my car drips oil on the pavement I can get a fine. Sometimes those restrictions chafe. 95% of homeowners associations have covenants against clotheslines.
We could probably get by with smaller government and less taxes if we had unlimited land, few people, and we could give everyone 40 acres and a John Deer. But even then few would have the expertise or inclination to live off the land. Now that there are 7 billion people on the planet, most are crowded in cities, which require more regulations because we need to keep everyone's sewage and accompanying communicable diseases out of the water supply. Things like sewage plants, water treatment systems, and road crews, etc. etc. all need to be paid for and require taxes. In the real world, if you live in a city you have to get along with your neighbors. You can't build too close or too high to threaten their solar access. You have to get permits and inspections if you build anything. We have a good sewer system, good water, parks, bike paths, and good roads. To pay for all of the added services the taxes have to be much higher than in the country.
I think we still have the best country in the world, but in some ways we are slipping behind other nations. In many ways we get what we pay for. We have the best military in the world, and spend more on that then the rest of the world combined, but in other areas we are slipping. Our education used to be the best, but now kids are scoring poorly, yet we are laying off teachers and cutting the time our kids attend. Now some cities are ripping up crumbling asphalt and returning the roads to gravel. We are laying off police, telling citizens that they are just out of luck if they get robbed, and letting criminals out of prison because we no longer want to pay for the services we expect.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212470...Taxes are the price that we pay for civilization. People in the Scandinavian countries gladly pay half their GDP in taxes and get many more services, while we pay only 28% and gripe that the country is becoming Socialist.
Most of the people in this country are overburdened with their taxes while others accumulate unheard of piles of cash and do not pay their fair share. Most of the people in this country are suffering and having trouble making ends meet, while others are living in unprecedented luxury.
The ironic thing is that many of those who are suffering the most, defend the existing social disparity and income inequality and attack those who are trying to make their lives easier. Ideology is more important than self interest.
The country is collapsing but those on the right would rather see it collapse than raise the taxes necessary to sustain it.
Our empire is slowly collapsing and we have the choice of changing to a more equitable society that invests in the future, or we can watch as other nations overtake us.
http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/...