hmmm...The discussion of taxation is a loaded one. The thing to remember is that the only way for governments to bring in money is via taxation. Without the collection of taxes governments would cease to exist. I believe that government (on a small scale) serves a legitimate purpose... However the balance between satisfactory and all out greed is a fine one.

People think that corporations are greedy when they increase their profit margins to what they believe the market can bare... But what about governments? Is 30% taxation to much? What about 40% taxation? 50%? At what point does it become greed? This is something I have been thinking and discussing with my business group... Greed is a VERY hard thing to determine because it is an individual thing that relates to ones context. What is ambition, helping a lot of people and mitigating risk via profit motive is greed to another... Greed is a VERY hard thing to define...

I think that when you are paying for something it helps to get an itemized list of what your getting for your hard earned money... This, I believe, is where the idea of taxation begins to break down and feel more like a slave system especially when it is the government that issues the money in the first place via quantitative easing...

Perhaps it is time for a new version of freedom to be born... Rather than democracy by representation... perhaps it should be democracy by itemized consensus. I envision a world where people vote directly on the things they care about... and they do so by voluntarily directing money towards those policies. (Even if we still had a fixed tax rate at least we could determine where we would like that money to be spent and how.) This could be done with programmable money like Etherium where we vote on the things we care about and the money that is directed goes to the people (government, contractors, etc.) required to make that thing a reality. As soon as the government agent complies and completes to the satisfaction of the people who payed for the service the money would automatically be released to them for a job well done.

This sort of sounds like how Steemit works doesn't it? lol!

Does anyone else have anything they would like to add?

And by the way! @anahilarski Thank you for bringing up this discussion... This is something that is painful for so many people and it's definitely important for people to begin discussing these very real issues. I hope that your dad gets the surgery he needs very soon... I feel your pain because I know that nothing is more important than health. I know that the options money could buy would likely change the situation...

I'm wishing you and your father the very best in health and wealth!