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Tax who? The Elite class, who have captured the regulatory bodies? Or, well, everyone else, are, frankly, fuckin' broke, and in student debt on top of that?
by acct1771 8y ago
Tax who?
The Elite class, who have captured the regulatory bodies?
Or, well, everyone else, are, frankly, fuckin' broke, and in student debt on top of that?
- mooreds 8y agoWell, we have an overall tax rate of about 26%, which is much less than most comparable countries, so I think we have some room to maneuver: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxe...
- snowwrestler 8y agoWhat is your theory, that huge portions of the population will go destitute and starving but do nothing about it? No, at some point people won't take it anymore. At that point you get political change. It has happened many times before in the U.S. Where do you think Social Security came from in the first place?
- ianmcgowan 8y agoIt's a reassuring thought "at some point people won't take it anymore". But the front page of hacker news today is filled with articles about cheap food, the financial crisis, student loans and absurd housing costs. It feels like an arms race between two groups - one trying to sound alarms about the direction we're headed (Bernie) and another that thinks Brave New World is a pretty good model to shoot for. I don't think the latter is an organized conspiracy, just that there are structural tendencies that make producing and marketing soma (literally with food and drugs, figuratively with social media) more lucrative than, say, teaching high school or nursing. It might be better if there were an Illuminati in charge of things - they presumably would be trying to steer between the extremes of another French revolution and a descent into a 1984 world (which seems depressing even for those in charge).