Today on my bus to work I was sitting reading my book and opposite me was a senior couple who were unemployed and were going to the hospital, they had hospital papers and weren’t lying about it. Then a ticket inspector walks in and checks everyone. Turns out their unemployment card had expired 11 days prior and they hadn’t yet renewed it so the inspector started writing them a ticket. I protested with the couple telling the inspector to make an exception since the couple is obviously wronged here. The other people on the bus though were either silent or they took the side of the inspector, except very few voices that said something supporting the couple. Some bourgeois looking lady told me that I don’t know because I’m young and haven’t paid taxes. After I told her that I’m on my way to work right this moment she changed her tune and said that I haven’t been on the inspector’s place and I stopped dealing with her then. Some other people were ironic after the couple left saying that “it’s not even a long distance to walk” while the couple was on the bus before me and we had passed tens of stops already. This really opened my eyes to what society around me really is, I want to believe that most people were sympathetic but too cowardly to also step up but I don’t know. I’m really frustrated even hours later and I’ve lost a lot of hope on people after this event. Communists and real leftists in general are the only people that give me hope for change.
Just as a side note to debunk this “You’ll understand when you start paying taxes” nonsense - virtually everything you purchase is subject to tax.
Just because someone might not be paying income tax currently doesn’t mean that they aren’t contributing to tax revenue.
Even for the things that technically aren’t taxed, say if your country has provisions for necessary foodstuffs to be exempt from tax at the point of purchase for example, how do you think that loaf of bread is manufactured, transported, stocked on the shelf and sold at the register?
If you answered “By a very long supply chain with a variety of inputs, such as electricity and petroleum and labour, most of which incur their own taxation” then you understand how tax exemption at the point of purchase doesn’t mean that it’s tax-free - there’s almost certainly tax being skimmed off the top at every step of the commodity’s journey.
So yeah, you do pay taxes and people who accuse you of not being a taxpayer are economically illiterate and they deserve to be ridiculed.