Would people prefer to pay no tax under a pure capitalism system ?

Yes, a big one would be roads. They'd soon turn to rubble and nobody would want to shell out for more, in case someone who hadn't paid took advantage.

I personally feel like the problem we are facing as a society right now is that people do not want to pay any tax. The same society that educated them and who they will turn to in their old age or ill health is where they do not want to contribute.
The vast numbers of people emigrating leaving an even smaller number of tax payers mean that we need a solution quickly.
A few posts touched on the Middle East. They have introduced VAT and road tolls - there is taxation there but in the form of stealth taxes. They also have little to no employment rights and a high cost of products whilst services are very cheap at the cost of a mass labour force that are paid very little. Those that emigrate are happy to continue allowing this to happen as it saves them money in their pocket. Not sure how society can continue functioning in a fair and just way.

Taxing on assets would simply give a big boost to the services dedicated to hiding assets.

Well there are different ways you can administer these things. You don’t have to have a US system. The reason most people resent paying taxes is not because they disagree with tax per se, they just have a (probably often accurate) perception that the money is being wasted. Maybe the government needs to have less of a monopoly on these services.

Another interesting option is tax on assets but no income tax at all. It encourages people to work more and to hoard less.

I was privately schooled. As was my husband and son. We have private healthcare too. You could say effectively we are paying tax twice.

I'm happy to do that.

Society is inequitable, like Kier Starmer I found myself in private education despite very poor parents and that stood me in good stead. I have a degree and a decent wage despite a childhood of hunger and insecurity.

I firmly believe in social mobility, I know the goal of many politicians is to keep an ill educated mass who are easy to manipulate, allowing them to firmly establish themselves as a ruling class.

To me a good and just society is the one that allows the brightest and best from any class to flourish. That takes care of its elderly, it's sick and it's weak. That holds education in high esteem. That rehabilitate it's offenders where possible. That does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, colour or appearance. That does not work people into an early grave.

I'm happy to pay a good chunk of tax so that we can all thrive. I just want that tax spent well and I want it to achieve Scandinavian levels of quality of life.

A zero tax society only benefits the selfish and the wealthy. It is utterly immoral for people to fly round in private jets whilst others starve.

It’s just as silly as anarchy.

Id be loaded if this happened tomorrow, but what if I lost my job, or got driven into by a drunk driver on the unmaintained roads and became disabled, what then?

Almost all things necessary for a stable healthy productive life aren’t actually profitable - Health care, Law enforcement, the ability to have wide ranging public transport to get to this employment, etc. So whose
providing those?

How will the capitalists make money without the infrastructure to get employees there, keep them healthy, transport and deliver their goods?

Are we suggesting that Amazon et al will start Maintaining all the public transportation infrastructure? I think not.
Or that they’ll build it all and then charge us to use them - well that’s not capitalism,
they want the roads for their businesses, not us.

Who enforces health and safety & employment legislation? The government can’t afford too in the courts it won’t have, so bye bye any workers rights or fairness! Farewell sick pay! Does anyone honestly think companies provide that because it’s right???? Do the years of history before the 20th century where no one did a thing until they were utterly forced to by law just go unnoticed? Consider for a moment the
Water companies current behaviour, and then consider the likely behaviour if It’s unregulated…….

Who are we allies or at war with? The resource providers for our merchant masters I assume, but what if they disagree?

Efforts purely on the basis of humanitarianism- gone, no profit and those of us that would like to try will be too busy earning our pittance, trying to pay to get to work and sustain ourselves on the unregulated prices charged, by literally everyone.

Pure Capitalism, a genius idea for the hard of thinking!

Taxation is not necessarily a component of capitalism. While it could be theoretically possible to run a capitalist economy without taxation, this doesn't make it any more or less capitalist than an economy with taxation. There are certain trade-offs within any economy, and one of them is balancing tax funded vs privately funded services.

That's what many people want. They don't want to pay taxes.

And for your own police force, fire brigade. Your own roads.

No tax at all would be anarchy. Low tax regimes still have public expenditure - defence, infrastructure etc. - but they have e.g. oil reserves to pay for this. People are only thinking about benefits and the NHS when they consider this kind of question, not all the background stuff that there’s no feasible way to provide except for centrally.

We spent millenia devising a system that took humans above the level of animals

In saying "you choose what you want to pay for" what that actually boils down to is "you choose what you can afford". Which leads to what we see in the US where low-income people have to choose between getting medical treatment or eating. And where the maternal mortality rate is four times higher than here.

But hey, if you want that kind of hellscape the US is only a few thousand miles away.

Absolutely not. It would be hell on earth.
Tax is inherently a good thing.

I think the knee jerk reaction would be, 'of course I'd rather pay no tax!' But there would be a lot of people who wouldn't immediately consider what this means for public services - paying for healthcare at point of use, paying for a garbage collection, paying for road maintenance, paying to enter a park because entry fees are needed to pay for the upkeep etc. It's arguable that we're in a partial system like this now...but it would be a big shock if this sort of total change were to happen. (Rather reminiscent of some people's reactions when they found out the impact of their vote in favour of Brexit...)

The basic package would include dying inside I think. But yes, you choose what you want to pay for. I would say that the most basic care would be anything life saving, perhaps under a certain age. So heart attacks or cancer. But some people would prefer not to pay for life-prolonging treatment aged 85 or for ‘nice to haves’ like IVF.

I'd probably do better under this system but I don't support it. I like that we have a society where everyone can get the healthcare they need and social supports are available. It might not be perfect but it's better than everyone for themselves.

I'd just be happy to pay a reasonable amount of tax considering what we get out the system.

Right now we are paying way too much tax for a broken (but necessary) social health care system, and a swiftly dwindling welfare safety net.

Our tax money is being used to line greedy people's pockets. We'd have way more than enough for our health care, benefits, roads, education etc if it weren't for that.

No taxes means no government. This means no border controls, so free for all immigration. No mandates on minimum salaries, or working conditions, no free education, no NHS. No government or NHS pensions. No free press. No Court system. No controls on how much utility companies can charge customers. Absolutely nothing for seniors. No protection/rescue for failing major companies. No trade deals or trade barriers. No rights whatsoever. It will be might is right.

I ordered that Libertarian Bear book just now, sounds like exactly my sense of humour, lol

And if someone who's only paid for basic healthcare suddenly develops a disease that exceeds their ability to pay, what then? We just watch them die on the street?

A large part of the reason why our tax system is so insanely complicated is that private enterprise goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying tax. Every time a new loophole is discovered and exploited, more tax legislation is needed to plug it. Private enterprise is not known for its altruism.

I think there should be a big reset. We should have a low level of taxation for the things the state absolutely has to pay for (ie that is the point of the state):

• defence
• law and order

I would also advocate huge state funding for children and education (ie sure start and schools) because society as a whole suffers so much if children are messed up and benefits so much from educating its people.

Everything else should be left to individuals, families, communities, charities and companies. You pay to use roads or trains. You save up for future illness. You look after your own old people. You pay social insurance for healthcare etc. People pick and choose what they want. If they only want basic healthcare they only pay for that.

Sounds grim as fuck.

as far as I can tell, the greatest prosperity eras (maximum average prosperity per person) have coincided with

'rules based order' (however imperfect)
high political and economic stability (however imperfect)
regulated private sector (however imperfect)
wealth redistribution (however imperfect)

I don't know how those things get achieved without taxation (however imperfect).

We'd go back to Victorian times. Institutions to house the poor and sick. Voluntary medical staff. Rich people who set up schools and hospitals for the poor. Slum areas with low mortality rates.