The reason for paying taxes is that the government provides services, and if you don't pay your taxes you are a freeloader. Personally, I have no objection to paying taxes. I do have objections to the way they are spent. (Wars, and creating a non-level playing field that favors the rich, are my two biggest objections.) However, the REAL reason for paying taxes is a risk-benefit analysis: If you don't pay you risk going to prison. (Actually, in the U.S. you do not go to prison for refusing to pay. You go to prison for failing to file a tax return if you owe tax, or for filing a return with false information.) I mean that I don't think Big Brother gives a rat's nice person what brand of toilet paper I buy, and while they might collect the information electronically, they don't have the manpower to actually look at my file. :rockon:
The man with a gun and badge asking probing questions about purchases was not asking about toilet paper. When DW acquires OTC medications in Canada, she no longer uses plastic.
Just about the only thing I use greenbacks for anymore are tips. Maybe the person I'm tipping doesn't want to pay tax, and I leave it up to him/her. Oh, and taxi rides. In the hurry and hassle of travel cash is easier than plastic. As for buying OTC meds in Canada, there's no law against that. Now, if she's smuggling the meds back to the U.S., then we have a situation similar to taxes: it's a risk-benefit equation. I don't take the risk. I declare everything. Even when I went to Cuba I declared everything I brought back. My dad & step-mom had a friend who was a smuggler. He never smuggled contraband. He smuggled to avoid import duties. He supplemented his income that way. He felt the risk was worth the benefit. I would not. But he never got caught.
