You never miss what you never had, even when it’s nominally “yours.” From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:
if you run a scam long enough, it becomes invisible
here’s a fun question (and one that should make the comments section one for the ages):
i’ll go first:
withholding state and federal taxes from paychecks.
this is actually an outlandish imposition if you really step back and look at it. it constitutes an all-but-involuntary extended duration interest free loan to the government. it was put in place to ensure compliance and make sure that everyone’s taxes are collected before we the people ever touch the money. the federales are literally garnishing your wages.
this is a cost to you (missed interest/investment income/flexibility) and a benefit to them from a pure economics standpoint, but it’s also a massive power play as it essentially eliminates most of the potential for any sort of tax revolt whereby people would refuse to pay a state they felt unjust. it’s basically impossible. your employer is paying the state for you and given what would happen to them if they stopped (loss of business permits/licenses, frozen accounts, seizures etc even in bankruptcy) there is very little they could do to help you even if they wanted to.
and, of course, even if you could withhold payment, if you had money in any bank anywhere the feds would just seize it.
stocks, bonds: ditto.
if you owned any real estate anywhere, they could grab it.
at points in the past, they have come for the gold and even if you held it in physical form or kept assets some kind of crypto currency, they could barge into your home and demand it and/or your passwords and bar you from all the “off ramps” that let you turn BTC/ETH/whatever into dollars without committing a crime for which you could be incarcerated.
