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Comment by logicchains | Hacker News Reader

>the government can sped it on schools and other infrastructure, so the french citizens can be prosperous.

One of the fundamental take-homes of economics is that government spending is not what makes people prosperous. It may help achieve social outcomes, slice the pie more evenly, but not make it bigger. See for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP..., and cross reference against tax rates; most of the countries above France have lower tax/government spending. Singapore, with a purchasing-power adjusted per-capita GDP double that of France, has a top tax rate of 20%, and unlike some of the other top countries on that list doesn't have any significant supply of natural resources to fund government spending.

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I'm not even sure why you saying this. Google does not pay its taxes in France.

Education, healthcare and law enforcement is what makes people prosperous. How do you propose to have them without taxes?

Or are you saying that French government spends enough already and thus Google should avoid paying taxes if they don't feel like it?

>Education, healthcare and law enforcement is what makes people prosperous. How do you propose to have them without taxes?

>Or are you saying that French government spends enough already and thus Google should avoid paying taxes if they don't feel like it?

I'm saying Google's paid all the taxes it's legally required to pay and has no moral compulsion to pay any extra.

But yes, I do believe the French government spends enough already. If Singapore, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland can achieve better education, health and crime rate outcomes than France although they have less government spending, maybe the French State should work on spending what it has more efficiently rather than just trying to take more and more.

>I'm saying Google's paid all the taxes it's legally required

You don't know that. The court will say if this is true or not. How can you make this judgement? Do you have a law degree? Do you have experience in international tax law? Have you seen all the relevant paperwork?

>But yes, I do believe the French government spends enough already

This is not pertinent to the case. If you want the french government to tax less, go and vote for it. Campaign for it. What would happen if everybody disregards any law they don't agree with?

> What would happen if everybody disregards any law they don't agree with?

About the same thing that would happen if someone government used a "because we don't like it" clause to arbitrarily punish legal behavior. Essentially an anarchy where legality depends on the media-savvy lying to everyone else rather than the text or the intent of the law.

Get too successful and you'll be cut down to size by the jealous, and by those promising your money to them.

Pardon me if I see both of those as wrong, not only the one.

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