@Ebalosus
 
New Zealander, eh? That’s one of my top places to which to move if I ever end up leaving the US. It’s no coincidence that all my top places know how to treat farm animals.
 
Anyways, nah. Direct democracy is less beneficial than representative democracy. And if that image is meant to indicate how they think people should vote… ew.
 
I’m actually a fan of the US Supreme Court, because it’s once-removed representative democracy, and because of lifetime appointments, it’s not directly answerable to whatever idiocy is passing for public opinion. It’s… not perfect, but I like having people in power that don’t have to explain that there’s a thing called a Constitution and you may be in favor of putting away everyone ever arrested of a crime, but that’s only because you’ve never been arrested of a crime that you didn’t commit.

@CocoaNut
 
So in other words, I should vote for the Internet Party?  

 
_{Even though this year I’m a Pirate Party supporter}

@Ebalosus
 
Oh, but you are choosing the things for which you pay taxes. It’s called “representation.” You choose who goes into office, and in many areas, you also help choose laws directly. Why can’t you choose which taxes you pay individually? Well…
 
Look at it this way: Let’s say that your city wanted to build a bridge across a river. Instead of taking money from everyone, they only take money from people that support the building of the bridge. Well, all you’d have to do to get out of paying that money is to say that you don’t support building the bridge, putting undue pressure on the honest individuals and allowing dishonest people to get away with not having to pay for the things they use. Do you really want to know what would happen to welfare or Social Security if those that pay the most taxes to those areas were allowed to choose whether or not their taxes went to that?
 
Oh, as for my example, about tolls (to base it off of usage and so eliminate dishonesty from the process): Those were much more common than they are now. The reason why they’re so uncommon now is because people regularly have been voting against them, because taking it out of taxes means that the rich pay more based on usage than with tolls.

@Background Pony #1E46  
Americans have a sense of entitlement with no equal in the world outside of the Ultra Orthodox in Israel; that’s a big part of it. Mostly it comes from being one of the only nations in history to have conclusively won our own war for independence, and then gone on to have a civil war that was bloody and vicious, but left all the institutions of government completely intact; it’s instilled a bedrock sense of independence which has been steadily built upon by the fact that our enormous size and population, resource wealth, and geographic isolation from hostile nations has left us almost completely untouched by war (both physically and economically) for nearly 150 years. We, as a nation and a people, don’t really need anyone else to help us, and it gives us a (thoroughly false, by the way) impression that we can just do whatever the hell we feel like as a nation without consequence, which translates directly into a feeling that we can do whatever as individuals as well.
 
There are also plenty of other socioeconomic issues involved, such as poor brown people not actually having much reason to expect anything helpful from the government, and a highly successful propaganda campaign by corporate fascist media outlets to convince poor White people that any government run by The Other Political Party is inherently evil (and to convince them that poor Black and Latino people are THE ENEMY, which keeps them from organizing and effecting any real social or economic change that might improve their situations).
 
…Also, I don’t mean to dismiss whatever trauma your country has suffered, but America has more people imprisoned for felony crimes than any other nation on Earth– including fascist China and oligarchic Russia– and a significant reason for that is a deliberate effort on the part of certain officials in our Department Of Justice to disenfranchise poor minorities by making felons of them and thereby shutting them out of voting, federal aid programs, gun ownership, military service, and most reasonably-paying jobs. Plenty of the overall fear and suspicion of the U.S. government is entirely justified.

@Background Pony #1E46  
Because many people just don’t understand how the government works and that makes them paranoid about things the government does like taxes, laws and other things. I don’t understand the government myself, but I don’t hate them for it. I just don’t like it that they keep still haven’t updated the Declaration of Independence to fit modern society.

I came from the country where government illegally imprisoned, tortured, and massacred it’s own people just several decades ago. But even i’m rather disturbed by rabid hatred toward the gov displayed by some Americans.
 
Tell me, why?

So taxating a sugarcube is theft. Or is it that thieving a tax is a sugarcube?

@TexasUberAlles  
Ah’ gonna ask for payment in advance mistah.  
 

Build me a toaster, Mister Galt.

@Ebalosus  
I honestly didn’t like the third game here’s why: no weapon wheel, weapon upgrades are not seable, characters are poorly developed, the Vigors are strange and the story had little decision making involved. In the first two you actually care about the characters Delta was misunderstood giant fighting to get his daughter back and the first guy was essentially the equivalent to a halo spartan with how he was raised.
 
I hope for a fourth one that takes place in a space city with aliens and the things that infinite didn’t have. But that’s just me.

@steve the hammerhead
 
I agree with this, if only insofar as this time around in Rapture, they *gasp* actually discuss objectivism.

@Madison  
Did you play the burial at sea episodes? They are better than the rest of the campaign in bioshock infinite.

@Background Pony Number 17  

A man chooses, a slave obeys!

are you not entitled to the sweat of brow? No gods or kings, only man.

@Bexar Bandito  

Given the state of the road outside my house, you can bet your ass I’d be happy to pay for roads. Same with emergency services.
 
Put it this way: if a private company offered me a better service, for cheaper, then yes, I’d happily pay for it voluntarily.
 
My main gripe with taxes (which I DO pay btw, about 42% of my income added up) is that I’m forced to pay for things that under a free market system I’d refuse to pay for. Things like drug prohibition, kickbacks for favoured individuals, foreign interventions, etc.
 
I’m not against taxes per se, just that I dislike not being able to decide on the ones I prefer. If all taxes were handled through a referendum, then I’d be happy with that.

@WM-R  
OH GOD WHAT DID I JUST DO. I’M ONE OF THEM NOW. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY PLACE.  

@Prof.NightJack
 
Gah! I fell into the trap!
 
I have to get out! No! It’s too late for me, save yourselves!

@Ebalosus  
as much as i hate to participate in any kind of political discussion, i feel the overwhelming urge to give my two cents. would you, or would anyone you know, voluntarily pay money out of your own pocket directly towards the usage of the roads in your city? if a fire starts in your house, would you want to pay the firemen for their services directly? i’ll be the first to admit that i don’t like a lot of what taxpayers’ money is being used for (e.g. america’s huge military presence, disproportionate congressional salaries, etc.) but in many ways taxation is beneficial for the nation at large because it funds many aspects of our society that people appreciate, such as public transport and wages for civil service workers such as firemen and (hopefully non-corrupt) policemen.

@Indigo_Surprise
 
Yeah, that’s the core arguement I just can’t wrap my head around. What do these people think, that you ought to let the free market handle things like maintenance of infrastructure, or emergency services?

Can we not have real world politics with our ponies?

@Ebalosus
 
Oh come on now, that is just dumb. Should we install a giant ‘Tip’ jar at the local precinct for everyone to put their share in? What about the fire station? Transit department?
 
The central body exists to take in the contributions and easily allocate them to where they need to go.
 
I can’t believe this even needs to be stated.
 
Also, to counter another point. If someone is injured and unconscious, but they opted to not pay their ‘Emergency Healthcare Tax’, how would you suggest emergency healthcare services check that? In the minutes they are verifying if they are allowed to help this person, they could be dying.
 
With the good and bad of both worlds, a uniform system is the only way that has any efficiency whatsoever.
 
-Lumino

@LuminoZero
 
I think you’re confusing libertarians with objectivists. I would hardly ascribe libertarianism as a movement, since that would be absurd as saying that «insert party here» is a movement.