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Comment by n3rdy | Hacker News Reader

> His money hasn't been taken; they just won't disburse it until he does his free paperwork, as required by the US Government. That's entirely legitimate.

Half of it will be taken by the U.S government, that's likely the reason his paypal account got locked.

There is nothing legitimate about theft, whether its paypal or the IRS stealing his money.

> Yeah, they did. Maybe you should read the user agreement of a system before using it to collect nearly a quarter million dollars internationally. It's only three pages. There is a point at which OP had a responsibility, too.

He earned that quarter million dollars providing a service other people found useful. There is no justification for any organization or government to take any of it away from him.

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>Half of it will be taken by the U.S government, that's likely the reason his paypal account got locked.

Yes, that's called taxes. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, the correct number is likely quite a bit lower.

Venezuela's going to take more than the US does.

> There is nothing legitimate about theft, whether its paypal or the IRS stealing his money.

It's really hard to take you seriously when you pretend that taxes are theft, and that the IRS is stealing.

> There is no justification for any organization or government to take any of it away from him.

Uh huh.

>Yes, that's called taxes. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, the correct number is likely quite a bit lower.

Taxes are usually filed by a specific time. Taxes are not taken at an arbitrary time, after an arbitrary amount of money is collected. Which appears to be what is happening here.

It seems to me that all this talk about taxes is wrong - it sounds like PayPal's insane money laundering hair trigger got invoked, and they froze the money. Now they are asking for paperwork or ID (a Social Security Number) that cannot be provided because the one who collected the money is not a U.S. citizen.

That's holding the man over a barrel.

Please count me out of any talk that taxes are illegal though. That's about the most ridiculous position anyone can take.

> Yes, that's called taxes. There's nothing wrong with that.

Of course there is.

> It's really hard to take you seriously when you pretend that taxes are theft, and that the IRS is stealing.

It's hard to take me seriously because I assert that its theft when one group of people threatens another with violence unless they give them their money?

What gives governments the right to take whatever they want from anybody?

Looking at taxes as a partnership is more appropriate. The government sets up systems that help you make a good business, for example a good financial system, a good law and order system, good infrastructure etc. These things help you make the money. So the government is a partner with anyone who uses these infrastructure to make money and in this partnership there is a sharing of profit which can be understood as taxes.

That would be fine if it were voluntary. But you cannot opt out. If you try to opt out, you go to jail.

I didn't ask the government to do any of that for me, and I would prefer they didn't. I can't fix someones car without telling them, and then demand payment.

Our government has done a terrible job at infrastructure and I hardly find it unreasonable to believe that I should be allowed to hire people I choose for my needs.

If I wanted an exciting life full of collapsing bridges, sinkholes, and trigger happy police, I would gladly hire government. I'm dull though. I prefer things to work the way I expect them to, no surprises for me please.

You can opt out. Renounce your citizenship.

Do you think its reasonable that government takes less from you if you commit suicide than if you renounce your citizenship?

I never agreed to be a citizen in the first place. Why should anyone have to give up everything they have just because the government decided to auto enroll them into a system without their consent?

You didn't ask to be born. Humanity has done an absolutely terrible job of managing this planet. It's not fair that people have no say about being born into it.

Only a very small fraction of tax revenues are applied toward this helpful infrastructure. The majority is used to fund useless wars and other special interest groups - hardly a mutual partnership.

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