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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   4314 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 23, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I never thought of it as a tax. It was pretty obviously (to me) a punitive fine designed to force you to purchase health insurance.

The government started giving a bunch of money to companies, and telling individuals they must do the same; I didn't give any money to any companies so the IRS made me give them money instead. Questions to determine the amount I had to pay were based on things like AGI, part of my tax calculation, and the resulting amounts were entered back into my tax calculation. If I increased my withholding, I had to write less of a check in April--but I only ever wrote one check, to the same people I'd always written checks to when paying my taxes.

Is there any other thing where one can be "fined" or punished for doing nothing? Aren't negative consequences usually to deter behavior, not compel it?

Is there any other thing where one can be "fined" or punished for doing nothing?

Of course there are. If you don't pay a parking ticket in time, you owe an additional fine. If you don't return a library book on time, you owe a fine to the library. And so on. It's perfectly possible (and common) to use negative consequences to compel behavior.

But in those cases, I've parked somewhere, or broken my contract with the library--there is a punishable action.

No, there is a lack of action you were supposed to take. It's the same thing as the Obamacare fine.

Your examples are actions one is duty-bound to take by the terms of the contract that was entered into, by parking in the spot or by checking out the book. Don't you see the difference?

"Breaking a contract" is an "action", and in either of these cases is directly comparable to petty theft of the equivalent funds--the library has a loss of the use of its book, or the city has loss of its parking space (or remuneration therefor). Someone who never did anything but sit at home, and consequently never used the streets or the library, would never be subject to those fines.

I mean, I see what you're saying. I just think you're drawing a spurious difference that isn't actually there. I don't expect you agree, but to me these things are not at all examples of positive actions being punished.

Would you agree that borrowing a library book is a type of contract one enters into with the library?

I would not.

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