Comment by alexey-salmin

> And the money the retail clerk gets paid was already taxed when the customers spent it at the store.

Your imaginary analogy chain breaks here. The store is taxed on what's left after the expenses, individuals are taxed on the total income.

If I, as an individual, could deduct my babysitter expenses from my income taxes, I would have no questions as to why babysitter has to pay them. This doesn't happen however. In some countries you can deduct 50% at best.

Therefore I don't see the point of taxing first the parent and then the babysitter again. You can as well tax the parent 2x, it would be the same from the economical standpoint.

> There are different levels of taxation that make sense for different people, different countries, different transactions, and different economic circumstances

You didn't make any effort to explain why taxing babysitters is the "level that makes sense" as you put it. You just write some generic words how taxes are good in general and help government to provide services. It's irrelevant to our conversation.