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Comment by civilized | Hacker News Reader

It speaks poorly of some on HN that you would be downvoted for making this argument, which is based on well-known, documented facts. Are there Intuit shills lurking this site?

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I've lived and paid taxes in three of the G7 countries, including the US.

For what it's worth, I've had to fill out tax assessment forms of greater-or-lesser complexity in all of them. The US is certainly the worst, but the trope that "all other major economies just take care of the tax for you" isn't exactly right.

So long as you're equally critical of all statements that "aren't exactly right" even when they come from groups that advocate for your political preferences, this is a totally fine and reasonable comment.

My comment is totally fine and reasonable because it's based on me sharing my personal experiences with others on HN, who may not have similar experience. The insinuation that this somehow comes from a viewpoint of political bias in uncalled for.

It's fair play when you use quotation marks to insinuate a strawman opposing argument that no one in the thread has actually made.

>most other developed nations where the government just sends you a receipt for you to verify and your taxes are otherwise taken care of for you

... is quoted literally from the original post on this thread.

It's because his comment is essentially "Republicans are evil and the US should be more like Europe." Even if you agree with that, by now you're probably tired of seeing it on every single thread everywhere.

I think his comment is more like "Lobbying is evil, and is the same as bribery, and has the same outcomes". (i.e. Rich people and companies get laws that are favourable to them)

Bribery (lobbying) should be banned - for all political parties.

If there are any republican commentators willing to defend this policy I'd love to hear their reasoning. This one does seem, almost objectively, evil imo.

Where are you getting this bizarre assumption that the average Republican commentator would side with Intuit here?

It's not a bizarre assumption, it's an easily verified fact:

https://slate.com/business/2012/04/grover-norquist-and-h-r-b...

A single lobby is not "the average Republican"...

I was hoping for at least a poll of some sort.

There isn't anything that verifies your argument in that link, FYI

Its a predominantly republican politician led position. Likely not mainstream among actual constituents, just corruption among the politicians. But if there are any who can defend the practice, I'm interested to hear.

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