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The US government has a problem with wasteful spending, not collecting enough money. Higher taxes will just mean more waste.

• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• tialaramex 5y ago
  > Higher taxes will just mean more waste. Nope. Even if 50% of US taxes are "wasted" on things manigandham doesn't care about, it doesn't follow that increasing taxes would simply all be diverted to things manigandham doesn't care about and thus "wasted".
  • da_big_ghey 5y ago
    There are two problem here, you are conflating them: 1. Government spend on stupid shit like welfare and all the stuff in Paul's Festivus report, 2. Government spend inefficiently paying lot of buraucrats between when dollars are taken in and when they leave goernment.
  • manigandham 5y ago
    That's not how ratios work. If 50% is wasted then 50% of new funds would still increase the overall amount. And waste is defined as money spent that doesn't reach any goals, or even make any progress towards them. It's a very common topic on HN about startups spending capital poorly, and likewise profligate spending can be found everywhere in (US) government. $2T in a decades-long war is a recent example, including the hundreds of billions in equipment and resources left behind. But surely, you knew what I meant. I wonder how much climate change progress could've been made with all that money. Feel free to donate more with your next tax payment if you want.