The word tax hits me like a gut punch every time, because it is not some straightforward invoice for value delivered, like the bill for my electricity or the water I actually run through my pipes. I am all in on paying my share for the roads that get me where I need to go, the security that keeps the chaos at bay, or the internet that powers my day, as long as I see the direct return on that investment, not some bureaucrat skimming off the top for systems they neither build nor bother to streamline. If there is a massive project on the table, something bigger than my daily grind, then issue bonds and put it to the market, let folks like me vote with our wallets on whether it sparks real demand or just crickets, and if the appetite is not there, walk away clean. That is why I plant my flag on the no tax side, because once you crack open that door with a promise of just this once, it turns into a siren call for the insiders and opportunists who thrive on the drip feed, and history backs me up, like how the emergency wartime taxes rolled out during World War II to fund the fight morphed into a permanent fixture that ballooned federal revenue from a slim five percent of GDP before 1941 into the sprawling beast we wrestle today. One taste leads straight to the next hike, then the creative loopholes, until you are right back in the overreach we are all trying to escape.

https://blossom.primal.net/41c4ce1a102fd735efd5d1a53ca819aced9b077c65383178ffb63b7e3fc151fb.mp4