Not paying tax...but living in Saudi Arabia

[Brady1981]

I've been living in Jeddah for a little over a year. It's obviously a very intolerant and strangulating society to live in for a lot of people, though i don't very much count myself among them. I'm obviously very aware of the consequences of reaching beyond my legal rights, but at the same time I feel that i have enough liberty to...well to be libertarian. As Stef says, we are the source of our own freedom, and being in Saudi Arabia doesn't stop me from rationalising the truths of my own existence. But living in Saudi Arabia does provide the benefit of not stealing any of my money. I don't pay any tax, and while there's no doubt someone's got a gun to my head somewhere along the line (perhaps someone on the board would like to point that out to me!), i guess what i'm trying to say is to what extent is living in Saudi Arabia, (where no-one is stealing from me), better than living in my home country of England, where of course, I have the predicament that Stef so eloquently talks about on his podcasts. And i'm talking from a libertarian standpoint. I'm not living in Jeddah because i'm a muslim

[LanceD]

Even without paying taxes directly you're still feeding the economy and helping to prop up the state. So if that's okay with you keep on doin it.

 

I mean I'm paying taxes to feed the US police state and all of the killing our government does around the world. So who am I to judge you? The Islamic states are pretty despicable but no other country compares to us when it comes to negative impact on the world.

 

I guess it's just a pick your poison kind of thing.

[FreedomPhilosophy]

I think this is totally a personal preference thing, and you need not take any responsibility for the sins of the masters.

[Mike Fleming]

It's funny how places like Saudi are denigrated by many in the West but that in some respects, at least, they can be easier to live in than Western countries sometimes.

 

What the Saudi's obviously need is democracy.  Then they will have a large public service, heavy taxes, tons of regulations and a generally stagnating economy which needs regular stimulus injections to create credit bubbles to keep the appearance of everything being economically sound.  True freedom!!  

[JustinFournier]

I lived in Jeddah for a year, and in my experience, there was nothing I can point out at the moment that was not accessible there, that is accessible here in Vancouver, BC Canada that I needed. The climate was better, the food was better, not to mention the Red Sea vs the cold green Pacific. If I could do it over again knowing now what I didn't know then, I would have stayed a lot longer, made more money and used that money to escape the "moving home then back to the regular grind" routine I'm stuck in now. Coming back was the worst thing that could have happened at the time in almost every measurable way. As crazy as it sounds to a lot of people here, I was a lot more free there than I am here in Canada.

 

You get my vote for staying.