Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about a question from a baffled European.

Just like, it's sometimes hard for Americans to understand the internal political dynamics

in other countries.

Sometimes it's really hard to imagine how we in the United States appear to people in other countries.

We've got a question from a European that's worth going over.

Quote, question from baffled European.

In all the talk about balancing the U.S. budget, there's constant talk about cuts to this or that

service, but there's rarely talk about tax increases, whether general or targeted, except for the

Trump tariffs. They talk about running the country like a business, but in business, it's usually

better to increase sales before cutting costs.

I get that putting taxes up is unpopular, but some of the biggest growth the U.S. had experienced

was during the post-World War II period, with very high taxes.

Is it impossible for that to be the solution to the problem? Thanks for all the work you do.

Okay, so there's a number of things in the American national character that impact this.

The first is the beginning of the country. Opposition to taxes is our origin story. No taxation without

representation is taught to every school kid. So, deep down, Americans have an ingrained

opposition to them in all their forms. The next little piece is the myth of the rugged individualist.

There are large segments of the rugged individualist.

There are large segments of the American population who believes that the country was founded by solitary pioneers, quote, Taming the West.

They picture the lone cowboy traveling alone across the frontier towards the setting sun,

not the lengthy wagon trains and massive amounts of cooperation. Next is that the wealthy in the U.S. have used these two parts of the

...