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Comment by exabrial | Hacker News Reader

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All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

I don’t think you’re in the right country for that to ever happen.

For one, what you consider “wasteful”, others might not.

Maybe consider being an entrepreneur and go start your own country?

"I built my own country and it started to be successful and then gangsters took over, the neighboring countries got pissed and bombed us, we all starved because farmers grew more profitable drugs than food but countries wouldn't import to us because we were sanctioned, and then bears finished us off because we didn't deal with the trash and they got out of control" --Libertarian paradise.

You'll love Ethiopia. They have no meaningful federal government to speak of right now.

Of course, you'll end up paying most of your income as tribute to the various warlords, but they won't be taxes! They'll be "payments in lieu of death."

Or, you could live in the real world and pay taxes because they enable things like...preventing warlords. Also unimportant things like roads and police and clean running water.

... Ethiopia? Huh?

There's a civil war going on right now with various rebel groups, but overall they certainly do have a federal government. They have an income tax rate around 30% plus a VAT of 15%.

Have you consider Somalia?

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