Comment by 15155
"Fairness" - it's not about fairness, it's about basic accounting.
Government could not afford to provide the services they provide if these taxes weren't paid, full stop.
Progressive taxation or 'fairness' doesn't change this reality.
> Government could not afford to provide the services they provide if these taxes weren't paid, full stop.
Of course they could. Taxation is not necessary in the short term for a government to provide services (especially if we're talking about the US which both issues its own currency and benefits from massive foreign demand for its debt).
Over the long term, taxation needs to at least pay back the debt but that long-term appears to be much longer than I would have expected (when was the last time the US government ran a surplus?).