Comment by carlosjobim

> Pretty much everything a government can do is going to qualify as "oppression" if you use the term so broadly

Yes, and that's why great care and respect should be applied to how the government uses the tax money which they have raised from oppression.

Paying somebody to work for free for a giant corporation is not a justified use of that money. Those corporations should pay for their labour themselves.

I can't think of any worse oppression than taxes, bare forced labour. When it's done to pay for an army to defend ourselves against enemies, for the justice system to protect all citizens, or for healthcare to save lives, then that's palatable. As well as for a myriad of other things. But to pay a programmer so that he can make server infrastructure so that Amazon doesn't have to pay him? That's not palatable.