I posted this earlier today in the tech lemmy instance, but, they have no sense of humor and deleted it. I’m trying here.
Ahh yes, taxes which have existed since the first and most basic state came into being – millennia before capitalism, even at its most primitive, was conceived of or practiced – are capitalist.
It’s kind of incredible how teenagers on the internet use the word “capitalism” the same way boomers on facebook use “communism.”
My bad, just meant to argue that taxes weren’t explicitly communist. I don’t have any strong feelings for or agains t communism yet, maybe I’ll look into it later. Just hate to see people use thr name of an economic system as a debate ender, although I suppose I did the same. Guess it’s just the debater in me wishing we could have actual structural arguments on thr internet instead of throwing slang words around.
Oh yes, an ideology defined by private ownership and small government intervention is also somehow responsible for the basis of government intervention - taxes.
They don’t actually believe in small government intervention at all - they want the goverment to enforce private property rights and then just tax a little back, below the profits from owning that property.
The big lie is that private property is natural, and thus its enforcement is small.
(Edit: clarity)
A government which only enforces private property rights is still significantly smaller than most alternatives.
Enforcement of private property rights is a part of virtually all governments, and then you pile all other stuff on top of that hence making the government bigger.
And ofc the taxes will be below the profits, no sane person would make any investments in anything if it was above the profits.
Edit: and to add, many hardcore capitalists, like minarchists, libertarians, or anarcho capitalists, propose that you don’t even need a government to enforce private property rights. They’d rather solve that issue privately.