I feel that doesn’t hold when at least leaving is an option. One can’t avoid rulers altogether, but one who is free to go could better choose from among the least bad ones available. Russia’s is not that.
I would say that it changes the moral angle from “You’re actively participating in evil, you have a responsibility to stop” to “You have an opportunity to reduce the badness. Taking it would be admirable; not taking it is morally equivalent to not donating to charity.”
I haven’t looked into the Russian tax code in detail, but a cursory look at this list suggests that Russia is among the least bad, beaten mostly by a few small islands, the Gulf monarchies, and Somalia (which, of course, have other problems).
I do approve of ranking countries’ goodness/badness according to what fraction of your money they take from you… But in this context, I think you would then want to multiply by “the average amount of evil that the country does per tax dollar”. (Of course, there is no widely accepted objective metric for that.)
You are not responsible in the slightest for the actions of those who rule you.
They take your money, yes, but that makes you a victim, not an accomplice.
I feel that doesn’t hold when at least leaving is an option. One can’t avoid rulers altogether, but one who is free to go could better choose from among the least bad ones available. Russia’s is not that.
I would say that it changes the moral angle from “You’re actively participating in evil, you have a responsibility to stop” to “You have an opportunity to reduce the badness. Taking it would be admirable; not taking it is morally equivalent to not donating to charity.”
I haven’t looked into the Russian tax code in detail, but a cursory look at this list suggests that Russia is among the least bad, beaten mostly by a few small islands, the Gulf monarchies, and Somalia (which, of course, have other problems).
I do approve of ranking countries’ goodness/badness according to what fraction of your money they take from you… But in this context, I think you would then want to multiply by “the average amount of evil that the country does per tax dollar”. (Of course, there is no widely accepted objective metric for that.)