Ok two things here. First, theft is theft. Someone steals my shit and I get nothing for it. Taxation funds a lot of stuff, but also the provision of public services—to you and also to other people. We can argue until the cows come home about whether that’s right or wrong, or whether you get enough in return for your tax dollars, but show me a person who is aggro about their taxes and I’ll show you someone else who benefits from a government program. The fact is it’s a value exchange. This is a core belief of mine, however lop sided the value exchange might be today.

Second: sure, if there was some massive public version of kickstarter that could direct my funds to the things that matter most to me, hot damn, sign me up. But—keeping the examples to public works, since that’s my jam—to my knowledge there is no way for me to contribute to redevelopment of the northeast corridor, or expansion of New York City sewer capacity, or public schools or the construction of a nuclear plant. So for now my best bet is to pay my taxes and vote for the people that care about the things that I do while I stack sats.