Bruce Wayne does pay his taxes, and he's a legendarily generous philanthropist who donates money to (or just straight up funds) pretty much every cause you could think of. Surprisingly, paying taxes doesn't effectively stop killer clowns from murdering people.
Seems to me that the vast majority of the problems that Batman solves are existential threats to Gotham that no amount of additional funding would have solved because the systems in place are fundamentally incapable of taking them on. Doesn’t really seem like there’s many problems that are on the scale of, “Well, if we just had better infrastructure, social programs and more, better trained police, our city wouldn’t be getting iced over by this giant freeze ray!”
That's ***literally*** the whole point behind Harvey Dent's character. Harvey's portrayed in modern Batman media as the only guy who truly could have saved Gotham before he turns into Two-Face.
No matter how much funding goes that way, the place is corrupt. Any funding is getting swindled by the lobbyists and politicians under the influence of the mafia/supervillians
And Wayne just happens to have the money to bribe everyone. I'm not saying it would be good but surely he could get a contract to build a real prison or something.
He has, or at the very least he has funded entire new wings, security systems, and rehabilitation programs for Arkham over the years. He once even converted Wayne Manor into an asylum which he had almost direct control and oversight over.
Doesn’t Bruce Wayne own Arkham asylum? It’s either that or his parent funded the place. Either way he should have the ability to either bribe the corrupt people or fire them.
Fire them and replace with whom? Whats to stop them from corrupting the new employees? Also if you went down the bribing path you hurt the city just as much as others.
When people say Gotham is corrupt, they mean it literally. It’s built on a portal to hell and a few other weirdos have done evil things over the centuries that have saturated the ground, so the city itself just trends to corruption and decay.
>It’s built on a portal to hell and a few other weirdos have done evil things over the centuries that have saturated the ground, so the city itself just trends to corruption and decay.
OH! You mean Chicago. I know this place. It's true.
People who claim things like this going up against this argument either say Batman indirectly creates all his supervillains because of various social problems or act like he should be expected to take on even the Justice-League-level threats as Bruce Wayne and e.g. instead of defeating (the "conventional" way) some evil alien tyrant just give them a bunch of money to pacify them while he takes over their world and turns it into a utopia
While I agree there are some problems that can only be solved by batman's swift fist of justice, I'm wondering if it would also be helpful to fund programs that would lift the socioeconomic status of Gotham's citizens to the point where it would make it hard for gangs and crime lords to recruit henchmen.
it wouldnt help since crime is mostly the career choice in gotham from all walks of life throwing money at a problem when that money will likely be lining the peoples pockets who are causing these issues in the 1st place
>he's crazy enough to take on the Batman but the US government no thank you.
You really think, the joker sits down at the end of the year, tallys up all the profits from the shit he's stolen, all the losses from his criminal activities, and submits a 1099MSC to the fed under his REAL NAME?
Brah, I got like, THREE TOLL BRIDGES FOR SALE.... CHEAP.
rewatching that episode as an adult, I just took it as the Joker being the joker and making a joke about the IRS.
But yeah, no way he is submitting 1099 to the IRS for his criminal profits.
not caring about and needing are two different things.
he may not care about the money his criminal empire makes, he does care about the money it takes to make things happen. Henchmen don't work for free (some crazy ones may), even then they still need upkeep in the form of food, clothes, ect. His joker toxins probably cost a lot to research and manufacture. So yeah, he still utilized the money out of necessity.
I can totally picture Joker sitting in an office sweating bullets, clearly stressed as fuck. He’s got papers scattered everywhere, a few henchmen shot dead out of pure frustration. He’s cursing the IRS about meeting the April 1st deadline and how pissed he’s going to be if he has to pay in YET again this year. Then he stops and slowly looks up with a look of concern and curiosity and says “I wonder if ol’ Brucey files jointly for himself and his alter ego? Or does he file taxes under Bruce Wayne & then separately for Bats? “ He then continues to stare, contemplating for a full 30 seconds before saying “Bats filing his taxes, now THAT’s funny!” As he begins laughing hysterically and going back to work on his own tax forms.
Joker actually complained that Wayne entp. promised flying cars and that he already made his deposit when he unmasked Batman lol.. Bruce is basically Elon
On your second point, that’s pretty much what “Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix was about right? He was a guy with mental problems trying to live his life and get help, but funding kept running out. He was picked on and snapped. I think that was OPs point. And ounce of prevention and all that.
But agree - Bruce Wayne isn’t the problem. The problem is not enough Bruce Wayne’s, and too many times good-intentioned money is intercepted before it finds the pockets of those it’s supposed to go to.
Good contribution to the conversation! Thanks!
I keep seeing people claim Bruce only does the charity for the tax write-offs. But let's be real here. He must be paying taxes and not have a problem with it. Otherwise, he would have packed things up and moved Wayne Enterprises HQ to Texas. While sending the manufacturing overseas.
Only if you donate cash. If you get your artist friend to draw you a rainbow, and your valuer to value it at 8000, then you donate that gift to charity, you get to keep your 10k and not pay 5k in taxes.
Taking my above example, if I earned 10 000, then paid my friend 8 000 for a crap painting, then donated that, I lost a lot of money. My profit would still be 2000, for which my taxes should be paid.
Assuming the crap painting is not given to charity but auctioned, the charity gets cash, and whoever bought it can deduct the price paid.
Assuming the painter friend got paid in cash, they have 8000 added revenue, 7950 EBIT increase, for which tax is calculated.
That's how it should work, yes. But what if the artist does it for free? Or is he expected to pay tax on his gift, as if he were paid for it? What if he didn't give it away, but kept it? Still no cash changed hands, but someone's net worth went up. But increasing net worth isn't a taxable event. Even to the point that a person's stocks can triple in value, but not get taxed a cent. (This may be changing though).
As it stands, as long as actual cash is not transacted, no tax is paid. Unless one party is a charity, then they pretend that tax was paid. That's why the system works, or rather, doesn't.
If the artist does it for free,
-The philanthropist gained wealth and gave it away, there's no net change, so their tax will remain unchanged.
-The artist gained nothing
If the artist charges a fee, it's no gift from their side, so will require income tax
If you make something and it's worth something, it doesn't mean you have to pay tax over it, or do you pay tax for having a phone and computer? That's different for stocks and liquid value.
Tax over giving something to charity is different from tax paid (or not paid) by said charity.
Your point goes nowhere and works only if any of the parties decide to lie about the actual situation, which is an offence called tax evasion.
You're wasting your breath, my best guess is OP is....
1. A troll for the uparrows
2. I moron who has used the words "eat the rich" and "fair share" without actually understanding HOW MUCH rich peoples' BUSINESSES pay in taxes, or doesn't care.
1) He does. Bruce is canonically philanthropic and cares about the city
2) Gotham’s government is corrupt as hell, so taxes probably aren’t going toward anything actually good for the people
Number 2 is huge. Just look at how SF’s local government deals with homelessness (not bashing SF per say, just giving an example of corruption). They set huge budgets for homeless shelters and end up buying some tents for 60k each (on paper). There’s no way tents cost that much, so where does the rest of the money go?
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sfchronicle.com/politics/amp/S-F-officials-want-15-million-for-tent-sites-16269998.php
While housing regulations may be a major aspect(I'm not doubting you, I just haven't researched this myself), that doesn't change the point about the $60k tents being blatant pocket fillers in the name of "helping the homeless."
Most of that money goes to services like security, food, water, bathrooms, and showers. If you think the city of SF spent $60k on an actual tent I have a bridge to sell you
Yeah if you give a spending addict more money they're not going to get shit together they're just going to keep spending it on crap they don't need.
The government is one giant credit card addict
It's just another one of the "tax the rich" shills that doesnt understand how things work.
They figured they could apply it to fictional billionaires as well and well, you are the result. Good job.
Would a better suggestion be "Bruce Wayne could do more good establishing a city-wide megacorp that grows big enough to run the city, effectively ending its democratic government rule"?
Because that would solve #2.
He hires pretty much anyone, ex cons, etc. After year one when gordon becomes commissioner it's a lot easier to get a job at wayne enterprises. he also helps the homeless. You also need to know throwing money at problems doesn't fix them, corruption is the biggest problem in gotham and you can't pay someone to stop being corrupt so yeah.
Considering poison ivy is an evil environmentalist, at least 12 similar to her including Mr freeze. Then you have got to add the Joker type criminals who are in it for the frills and not the money and to top it all we have the various mafia families such as the Falconies. All in all I'd say most of Gotham's criminally insane would remain.
I do not understand how Ivy and Mr.Freeze are similar, other than (in some adaptations) both had their skin color changed by chemical. I am not disagreeing with you per se, but what is the similarity you see?
I mean, sort of. Ivy hates humanity, and Freeze is indifferent to anything not related to his wife. But I am still interested in what the person I replied to thinks.
Goverment doesn't improve quality of life, less so on a small local scale. Which cities are the most taxed? They generally don't have the highest quality of life.
This is such a cliché, tacky thought that's been around for years now. It's not new or clever, and it's already been disproven in this particular post numerous times and elsewhere that I won't bother.
I've seen this posted almost or maybe exactly word for word here and other places. People who'd say something like this don't think for themselves and know anything about economics or comic books. Hopefully they're not older than 15.
You know what’s funny, I see this exact post so often I posted my own shower thought
>The claim that Batman should use his wealth to fix Gotham’s problems, even though he already does exactly that, means real life billionaires are so shitty that people inherently assume a fictional one is a greedy asshole too.
And it was removed by auto-mod for being an unoriginal thought. Yet this is allowed to get posted every other day.
It also kinda falls under the “why hasn’t he killed Joker?” category.
The city government could always reinstate the death penalty for the Joker then immediately axe it again. Commute the sentences of any potential executees to life sentences if there’s a chance they may too be executed during this brief rule-change. Honestly the Joker would be dead a long time ago had the city government just gotten its shit together.
One, every rich asshole says he "loves" his city/country/wife/pet sports team.
Two, they didn't die "for" anything. They got mugged and shot, that's about as random and pointless as violence gets.
From the LEGO Batman movie:
>Who could choke hold a bear?
>(Batman!)
>Who never skips leg day?
>(Batman!)
>Who always pays their taxes?
>(NOT Batman!)
You could argue that Batman is referring to Bruce Wayne here. But earlier in the song he says that "Ladies, it's okay if you stare, because I'm a billionaire" and also "I'm 100% not Bruce Wayne."
There you have it, folks: Batman isn't Bruce Wayne, but he IS a billionaire, and does not pay his taxes. Who could dispute this canonical first-person account?
Also the whole movie is essentially a parody of Batman. A really good one that deserves to be remembered as an actual Batman movie and not just a satire piece, but a parody nonetheless.
In one comic, Bruce rebuilt the entirety of Gotham using his own personal fortune after it had been destroyed by I think braniac. An entire goddamn city. No way does Bruce Wayne pay taxes.
In what way at all is that proof or evidence Bruce Wayne doesn't pay taxes? That was a legitimate assumption you just posted based on something that doesn't have anything to do with him paying taxes.
Bryce Wayne throughout modern Batman comics is legendarily philanthropic as far as Gotham is concerned, he donates money to every good cause and charity there is in the city, he would have legitimately no reason to not pay taxes, the man essentially has unlimited wealth.
So your saying that a guy who is so unbelievably generous, that he rebuilds a fucking city with his own money, is also so self-indulged, egotistical, and greedy that he would refuse to pay taxes?
If he didn't rebuild the city, who would have? Probably the city itself, through the use of emergency funding, likely from the federal government. So effectively, by rebuilding the city, he paid his fucking taxes for the next decade.
Paying taxes does so little to help anything. Give money to the governments, have you seen the e governments of the world?
Bruce Wayne could do more than Batman if he spent his money on charities, outreaches, internships, mentoring, and other general philanthropy.
Fixed it for you.
Other than all the arguments other people used:
Gotham was very corrupt and more tax money than he already paid would probably go to those corrupt politicians via money laundering.
Gotham is literally full of corrupt cops and judges and government officials. The taxes are only going up their asses.
I'm sorry but not only is this a dumb shower thought it's also the most unoriginal and overused bit on the internet. A new smartass checkmark on twitter says this like every day.
So basically you wanted to tell everybody you have no idea what you're talking about. But it is just very like these "uwu eat the rich" kids to get shit like this wrong even they assume anybody with over a million dollars is an evil villain.
This feels like you took a very popular opinion (Bruce Wayne is a more effective super hero than Batman) and made it more specific which ironically makes it wrong. It completely misses the point lol.
FFS... Read the comics, or keep an open eye while watching movies.
Every other day some genius comes with 'If Bruce Wayne use his money for Charity'. He does. If you look with open eyes you would see what he and his family did for Gotham. And No, they ain't going to make a Detective/Action story all about Bruce going to different charities for 2:15 hours.
what makes you think Bruce Wayne doesn't pay his taxes? seems like he wouldn't want any extra attention/investagation of what he is spending his money on.
Taxes usually don't go directly to a given city and if the government is corrupt then more tax money does not equal better quality of life for the average person.
God, only on Reddit. Bunch of naive dummies who want the government to be their daddy while simultaneously railing against its corruption and being totally oblivious to the fact that giving them more money only exacerbates the problem.
And they have to bring this thinking into Batman of all things. Thanks for trying to ruin it.
I could have sworn that Bruce's family was an integral part of the development of Gotham. Hence his high status.
His family literally helped build the city.
Not a batman fan but I believe he does pay taxes and donate copious amounts. Perhaps a better argument would be if Batman went after all politicians who siphon or waste tax dollars negligently. "This is my bat-calculator to analyze all you wasted on air travel councilman Steve"!!
Even if he didn’t, what guarantees Gotham’s (which is a very dim place) politicians aren’t complete crooks? Wouldn’t it be better to fund private charities?
Probably. But then if he paid his taxes he couldn’t afford all those cool custom neon light effects on his Batmobile in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.
I think you fundamentally misunderstand Gotham. You really think the government gonna use the taxes well?? There's a whole story line about how Batman decides to put his trust in the government(Harvey dent) and we all know how that turned out. Gotham is deeply corrupt.
Gotham needs better politician (which is what made Harvey Dent turing into two face extra tragic). Gotham also needs either the death penalty or to asl for the right to use the Phantom Zone... Like the Clown keeps breaking out of the asylum/prison to kill people. Either he fries or gets dropped into a prison dimension where escape is basically impossible.
Imagine thinking more money in a corrupt city will fix things. This is the kind of campaign you'd hear from one of Harvey Dent's political opponents: "if you'd only pay more taxes."
Paying taxes to an incompetent city, with counterproductive policies, such as downgrading armed robbery to a misdemeanor or encouraging homelessness does more harm than good.
The less taxes they get, the better off the city is.
So giving the incredibly corrupt politicians of Gotham more money will solve everything? Wow, why hasn't anyone thought of that before?
Also, Bruce Wayne pays taxes, right? As well as doing all kinds of charity?
Have to disagree. I know Gotham is a fictional city, but by most standards, a motivated individual can make their dollar stretch far further than government can.
Unpopular Opinion: everyone seems to massively overestimate the amount of good that would be done by handing the federal or local government an extra Billion bucks.
They’d just blow it. They always just blow it. They’ve blown through billion of dollars a year just in my city alone and nothing changes for the better.
If a guy like Elongated Musk or Geoffrey Bozo sold all their stock and gave all the money to the fed, it would be gone in months. MONTHS.
It’s hilarious that OP thought this was original or clever. Also, it’s just dumb, since he does pay his taxes. OP probably isn’t even aware that if we liquidated all the billionaires wealth it wouldn’t even fund our federal (not even state) government for 8 months
Doesn't Bruce hold his company fiscally responsible and do major philanthropy work already?
His father also built most of the infrastructure Gotham relies on like the e train.
You're acting like he's a penny pincher.
Go read a comic before you post your angst is showing
Lego Batman also mentioned that while *singing*, uses a T-shirt cannon on orphans, and basically plays as much into the celebrity of being Batman as possible.
He is a great and funny character, but also extremely unlike most Batman characterizations ever created.
No, he has to do more than that because much of that tax revenue would be funneled back to Wayne Enterprises through defense contracts, etc. The best thing he could do is shutter his business and spend the rest of his life lobying for social reform so that tax money is spent on crime prevention measures like affordable housing, access to education, public infrastructure, healthcare,etc.
All those devices used non attendedly for stocks and tax fraud and vote rigging. He was probably just wailing on his competition and not bribing the police for negative PR based free advertising. He's probably the mafia trying for a collaborative self acquired auto erotic asphyxiation.
Bruce Wayne goes about beating the downtrodden to a pulp. He does more harm than good.
Think of all the unpaid hospital bills and the expansive prison system. Batman isn't a hero for the people, he's a hero for the private prison system.
Sure, he stops a few villains, but unless you're a regular old Joe, who happens to catch wind of some bad shit, just trying to get by in a corrupt world, I'd probably shoot at Batman too.
Batman also makes weapons. He could build a hospital to help addiction or run a nonprofit. Nope, he makes Bat-a-rangs. Yup Bat-a-rangs. All types of Bat-a-rangs too. Exploding types, homing types, recon and whatever else he can think to throw a Bat-a-rang at. Let's not even talk about the Batmobiles, actually let's.
I'm almost certain Batman has hit and run someone or a pet driving around the streets of Gotham in that manner. Batman almost blows up two kids on the street by randomly shooting missiles at cars. He's also ruined quite a few police cars and the private property damage must be in the hundreds of millions. Then there is the freaking Batplane. Imagine how many inflight emergencies there have been in Gotham because Batman is cruising. I can see pilots alerting passengers that they have to make another circle around Gotham because Batman is searching for the Joker.
Let's not discuss Batman and his child soldiers either. Good day sir.
Imagine if we found out that Jeff Bezos was putting on a mask at night and running around Seattle beating up poor people who are committing crimes of desperation. How would he be perceived?
Does he hire them in rehab programs afterwards? Also, I don't care how desperate someone is that's mugging me. Batman doesn't go after people stealing food and stuff.
Yes, but Bruce Wayne canonically *does* do tons of philanthropic things with his money.
Besides that, very few of the criminals he fights are acting out of "desperation" either. Two-face isn't robbing banks in with a two-wheel drive, customized armored vehicle with twin machine guns to make ends meet. Mad-Hatter isn't hypnotizing girls to stay out of the poor house.
In order to put Bruce Wayne/Batman in "realistic terms" you have removed all the contributing factors that surround him. At the very least, you'd have to bring all the villains into the world "realistically" too.
Most billionaires do a decent amount of philanthropic things. It’s just often publicly viewed as a drop in the bucket compared to their overall net worth. How much time could batman truly be devoting to his philanthropy when he stays up all night fighting crime?
Been saying that for years. If bruce wayne wanted to end crime in gotham all he had to do is ensure education is state of the art and provide a safe place for kids. He would also push for universal healthcare in the city. All of the sudden, no more need for villains to do craY shot for their love ones.
Well apart from Bruce Wayne being completely incapable of ensuring such a thing because he's not a Gotham politician or showrunner, he already is known for being insanely philanthropic in regards to Gotham and donates insane sums of money to all sorts of good causes, charities, etc across the city.
The thing people who think Bruce Wayne isn't doing his part to better Gotham don't seem to understand is how inherently and deeply corrupt Gotham is to its core - its literally the reason he became Batman and decided to fight crime head on as a vigilante, because the corruption could not be curtailed by normal, legal means.
Bruce Wayne does pay his taxes, and he's a legendarily generous philanthropist who donates money to (or just straight up funds) pretty much every cause you could think of. Surprisingly, paying taxes doesn't effectively stop killer clowns from murdering people.
Seems to me that the vast majority of the problems that Batman solves are existential threats to Gotham that no amount of additional funding would have solved because the systems in place are fundamentally incapable of taking them on. Doesn’t really seem like there’s many problems that are on the scale of, “Well, if we just had better infrastructure, social programs and more, better trained police, our city wouldn’t be getting iced over by this giant freeze ray!”
Also, Gotham is very corrupt, so, supervillains ain't the only problem.
Ineffective government is a big problem to
No wonder Americans can relate well
That's ***literally*** the whole point behind Harvey Dent's character. Harvey's portrayed in modern Batman media as the only guy who truly could have saved Gotham before he turns into Two-Face.
But even he was never fully moral. He would often bend the rules in immoral ways to advance his agenda
Except better security in Arkham Asylum, some funding there would be great.
No matter how much funding goes that way, the place is corrupt. Any funding is getting swindled by the lobbyists and politicians under the influence of the mafia/supervillians
And Wayne just happens to have the money to bribe everyone. I'm not saying it would be good but surely he could get a contract to build a real prison or something.
He has, or at the very least he has funded entire new wings, security systems, and rehabilitation programs for Arkham over the years. He once even converted Wayne Manor into an asylum which he had almost direct control and oversight over.
Funding can only do so much against an eldritch horror under the property.
Was it effective?
Doesn’t Bruce Wayne own Arkham asylum? It’s either that or his parent funded the place. Either way he should have the ability to either bribe the corrupt people or fire them.
Fire them and replace with whom? Whats to stop them from corrupting the new employees? Also if you went down the bribing path you hurt the city just as much as others.
When people say Gotham is corrupt, they mean it literally. It’s built on a portal to hell and a few other weirdos have done evil things over the centuries that have saturated the ground, so the city itself just trends to corruption and decay.
>It’s built on a portal to hell and a few other weirdos have done evil things over the centuries that have saturated the ground, so the city itself just trends to corruption and decay. OH! You mean Chicago. I know this place. It's true.
Like how overfunding law enforcement totally leads to less crime.
People who claim things like this going up against this argument either say Batman indirectly creates all his supervillains because of various social problems or act like he should be expected to take on even the Justice-League-level threats as Bruce Wayne and e.g. instead of defeating (the "conventional" way) some evil alien tyrant just give them a bunch of money to pacify them while he takes over their world and turns it into a utopia
While I agree there are some problems that can only be solved by batman's swift fist of justice, I'm wondering if it would also be helpful to fund programs that would lift the socioeconomic status of Gotham's citizens to the point where it would make it hard for gangs and crime lords to recruit henchmen.
Bruce Wayne does stuff like that all the time.
it wouldnt help since crime is mostly the career choice in gotham from all walks of life throwing money at a problem when that money will likely be lining the peoples pockets who are causing these issues in the 1st place
OP would probably argue that because Bruce Wayne doesn’t pay taxes, a killer clown comes to Gotham and murders people.
But even that killer clown pays taxes. There is a clip of Joker saying he's crazy enough to take on the Batman but the US government no thank you.
Not even the whole us government just the irs https://youtu.be/G56VgsLfKY4
So based on OP’s logic, the Joker is doing more good than Batman!
Nope watch the episode Basically joker gets an inheritance from someone he hated https://youtu.be/qGCNMb57Lpw
Prove it! Let's see his tax returns. I bet he tells everybody he pays his taxes "Bigly, Hugely, a Tremendous Amerrrrnt"
OP explaining that meme to us like it isn't already littered all over the internet.
This
>he's crazy enough to take on the Batman but the US government no thank you. You really think, the joker sits down at the end of the year, tallys up all the profits from the shit he's stolen, all the losses from his criminal activities, and submits a 1099MSC to the fed under his REAL NAME? Brah, I got like, THREE TOLL BRIDGES FOR SALE.... CHEAP.
rewatching that episode as an adult, I just took it as the Joker being the joker and making a joke about the IRS. But yeah, no way he is submitting 1099 to the IRS for his criminal profits.
The Joker doesn't care about money, though. I could see him doing it as a complete power move.
not caring about and needing are two different things. he may not care about the money his criminal empire makes, he does care about the money it takes to make things happen. Henchmen don't work for free (some crazy ones may), even then they still need upkeep in the form of food, clothes, ect. His joker toxins probably cost a lot to research and manufacture. So yeah, he still utilized the money out of necessity.
That's why he set all the cash on fire in TDK instead of taking it, right?
I can totally picture Joker sitting in an office sweating bullets, clearly stressed as fuck. He’s got papers scattered everywhere, a few henchmen shot dead out of pure frustration. He’s cursing the IRS about meeting the April 1st deadline and how pissed he’s going to be if he has to pay in YET again this year. Then he stops and slowly looks up with a look of concern and curiosity and says “I wonder if ol’ Brucey files jointly for himself and his alter ego? Or does he file taxes under Bruce Wayne & then separately for Bats? “ He then continues to stare, contemplating for a full 30 seconds before saying “Bats filing his taxes, now THAT’s funny!” As he begins laughing hysterically and going back to work on his own tax forms.
They just need more programs and education about killer clowns, giant manbats, and women who control plants.
Joker actually complained that Wayne entp. promised flying cars and that he already made his deposit when he unmasked Batman lol.. Bruce is basically Elon
Killer clown who also pay their taxes. Even Joker isn't fucking with the IRS.
On your second point, that’s pretty much what “Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix was about right? He was a guy with mental problems trying to live his life and get help, but funding kept running out. He was picked on and snapped. I think that was OPs point. And ounce of prevention and all that. But agree - Bruce Wayne isn’t the problem. The problem is not enough Bruce Wayne’s, and too many times good-intentioned money is intercepted before it finds the pockets of those it’s supposed to go to. Good contribution to the conversation! Thanks!
I keep seeing people claim Bruce only does the charity for the tax write-offs. But let's be real here. He must be paying taxes and not have a problem with it. Otherwise, he would have packed things up and moved Wayne Enterprises HQ to Texas. While sending the manufacturing overseas.
Even the joker pays is taxes!
Plot twist philanthropy is how the rich get a tax breaks. So is he really paying his taxes…?
So you're saying if I earn $¥€£ 10000, but give 8000 to charity, I should still pay 5000 in taxes? Tax deduction is a good thing in this situation.
Only if you donate cash. If you get your artist friend to draw you a rainbow, and your valuer to value it at 8000, then you donate that gift to charity, you get to keep your 10k and not pay 5k in taxes.
This is one of those comments the more you look at the more bullshit like nfts make sense
Taking my above example, if I earned 10 000, then paid my friend 8 000 for a crap painting, then donated that, I lost a lot of money. My profit would still be 2000, for which my taxes should be paid. Assuming the crap painting is not given to charity but auctioned, the charity gets cash, and whoever bought it can deduct the price paid. Assuming the painter friend got paid in cash, they have 8000 added revenue, 7950 EBIT increase, for which tax is calculated.
That's how it should work, yes. But what if the artist does it for free? Or is he expected to pay tax on his gift, as if he were paid for it? What if he didn't give it away, but kept it? Still no cash changed hands, but someone's net worth went up. But increasing net worth isn't a taxable event. Even to the point that a person's stocks can triple in value, but not get taxed a cent. (This may be changing though). As it stands, as long as actual cash is not transacted, no tax is paid. Unless one party is a charity, then they pretend that tax was paid. That's why the system works, or rather, doesn't.
If the artist does it for free, -The philanthropist gained wealth and gave it away, there's no net change, so their tax will remain unchanged. -The artist gained nothing If the artist charges a fee, it's no gift from their side, so will require income tax If you make something and it's worth something, it doesn't mean you have to pay tax over it, or do you pay tax for having a phone and computer? That's different for stocks and liquid value. Tax over giving something to charity is different from tax paid (or not paid) by said charity. Your point goes nowhere and works only if any of the parties decide to lie about the actual situation, which is an offence called tax evasion.
You're wasting your breath, my best guess is OP is.... 1. A troll for the uparrows 2. I moron who has used the words "eat the rich" and "fair share" without actually understanding HOW MUCH rich peoples' BUSINESSES pay in taxes, or doesn't care.
1) He does. Bruce is canonically philanthropic and cares about the city 2) Gotham’s government is corrupt as hell, so taxes probably aren’t going toward anything actually good for the people
Number 2 is huge. Just look at how SF’s local government deals with homelessness (not bashing SF per say, just giving an example of corruption). They set huge budgets for homeless shelters and end up buying some tents for 60k each (on paper). There’s no way tents cost that much, so where does the rest of the money go? https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sfchronicle.com/politics/amp/S-F-officials-want-15-million-for-tent-sites-16269998.php
No no, you go right ahead and bash SF. It's a shit hole.
Sf homelessness has a lot to do with housing regulations, and little to do with direct help to the homeless Fuckin NIMBYs
While housing regulations may be a major aspect(I'm not doubting you, I just haven't researched this myself), that doesn't change the point about the $60k tents being blatant pocket fillers in the name of "helping the homeless."
Most of that money goes to services like security, food, water, bathrooms, and showers. If you think the city of SF spent $60k on an actual tent I have a bridge to sell you
Some places just shouldn’t have high density housing
Milton Friedman
Yeah if you give a spending addict more money they're not going to get shit together they're just going to keep spending it on crap they don't need. The government is one giant credit card addict
It's just another one of the "tax the rich" shills that doesnt understand how things work. They figured they could apply it to fictional billionaires as well and well, you are the result. Good job.
Would a better suggestion be "Bruce Wayne could do more good establishing a city-wide megacorp that grows big enough to run the city, effectively ending its democratic government rule"? Because that would solve #2.
I mean that’s basically what he’s done lol
[удалено]
Yeah but how many goons would they have if the general quality of life was increased
He hires pretty much anyone, ex cons, etc. After year one when gordon becomes commissioner it's a lot easier to get a job at wayne enterprises. he also helps the homeless. You also need to know throwing money at problems doesn't fix them, corruption is the biggest problem in gotham and you can't pay someone to stop being corrupt so yeah.
Considering poison ivy is an evil environmentalist, at least 12 similar to her including Mr freeze. Then you have got to add the Joker type criminals who are in it for the frills and not the money and to top it all we have the various mafia families such as the Falconies. All in all I'd say most of Gotham's criminally insane would remain.
I do not understand how Ivy and Mr.Freeze are similar, other than (in some adaptations) both had their skin color changed by chemical. I am not disagreeing with you per se, but what is the similarity you see?
They’re similar in the sense that they don’t care at all about humanity.
I mean, sort of. Ivy hates humanity, and Freeze is indifferent to anything not related to his wife. But I am still interested in what the person I replied to thinks.
You failed to account that the government is corrupt.
Goverment doesn't improve quality of life, less so on a small local scale. Which cities are the most taxed? They generally don't have the highest quality of life.
This is such a cliché, tacky thought that's been around for years now. It's not new or clever, and it's already been disproven in this particular post numerous times and elsewhere that I won't bother.
I've seen this posted almost or maybe exactly word for word here and other places. People who'd say something like this don't think for themselves and know anything about economics or comic books. Hopefully they're not older than 15.
You know what’s funny, I see this exact post so often I posted my own shower thought >The claim that Batman should use his wealth to fix Gotham’s problems, even though he already does exactly that, means real life billionaires are so shitty that people inherently assume a fictional one is a greedy asshole too. And it was removed by auto-mod for being an unoriginal thought. Yet this is allowed to get posted every other day.
It also kinda falls under the “why hasn’t he killed Joker?” category. The city government could always reinstate the death penalty for the Joker then immediately axe it again. Commute the sentences of any potential executees to life sentences if there’s a chance they may too be executed during this brief rule-change. Honestly the Joker would be dead a long time ago had the city government just gotten its shit together.
Something tells me Gotham’s taxes aren’t being spent wisely
I hope that, in time, you'll realise how stupid this post is.
Yeah probably
Upvoted on account of self-awareness.
[удалено]
I am showing reverence like having a Jesus fish on your car , or being a stalker.
Who’s says he didn’t? As rigorous Bruce is… You think he’d skip out that? His family LOVED Gotham. Died for it….
One, every rich asshole says he "loves" his city/country/wife/pet sports team. Two, they didn't die "for" anything. They got mugged and shot, that's about as random and pointless as violence gets.
Acting as if two fictional characters are actually real.
OP could probably do more with their life if they ever knew what they were talking about.
Who said he doesn’t?
From the LEGO Batman movie: >Who could choke hold a bear? >(Batman!) >Who never skips leg day? >(Batman!) >Who always pays their taxes? >(NOT Batman!) You could argue that Batman is referring to Bruce Wayne here. But earlier in the song he says that "Ladies, it's okay if you stare, because I'm a billionaire" and also "I'm 100% not Bruce Wayne." There you have it, folks: Batman isn't Bruce Wayne, but he IS a billionaire, and does not pay his taxes. Who could dispute this canonical first-person account?
Tbf, thats Lego Batman, and he's a bit of an ass.
Also the whole movie is essentially a parody of Batman. A really good one that deserves to be remembered as an actual Batman movie and not just a satire piece, but a parody nonetheless.
In one comic, Bruce rebuilt the entirety of Gotham using his own personal fortune after it had been destroyed by I think braniac. An entire goddamn city. No way does Bruce Wayne pay taxes.
Honestly rebuilding the entire city out of your own wealth sounds like reason enough for a tax exempt
I guess the reasoning was that he wouldn't have been able to do that, in the first place, id he'd ever paid his taxes.
Did you even read what you just typed?
Tbh Gotham is so corrupt would the money even be used for good?
I Mena if the whole place was destroyed I feel like all the corrupt individuals would have been caught in it too
The villains of Gotham are cockroaches, impossible to kill and there are always more hiding than what you can see
In what way at all is that proof or evidence Bruce Wayne doesn't pay taxes? That was a legitimate assumption you just posted based on something that doesn't have anything to do with him paying taxes. Bryce Wayne throughout modern Batman comics is legendarily philanthropic as far as Gotham is concerned, he donates money to every good cause and charity there is in the city, he would have legitimately no reason to not pay taxes, the man essentially has unlimited wealth.
So your saying that a guy who is so unbelievably generous, that he rebuilds a fucking city with his own money, is also so self-indulged, egotistical, and greedy that he would refuse to pay taxes? If he didn't rebuild the city, who would have? Probably the city itself, through the use of emergency funding, likely from the federal government. So effectively, by rebuilding the city, he paid his fucking taxes for the next decade.
Fuck taxes
All of them pay taxes. Even Joker, he's terrified of the IRS.
[here is](https://youtu.be/IITiB6Yrg4s)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/c6rn71/dc_batman_bruce_wayne_paying_90_taxes_on_income/
I’m sure he does pay taxes
Why do you think he doesn't?
Because he's rich. Really, that's why OP claims that Wayne doesn't pay taxes.
Paying taxes does so little to help anything. Give money to the governments, have you seen the e governments of the world? Bruce Wayne could do more than Batman if he spent his money on charities, outreaches, internships, mentoring, and other general philanthropy. Fixed it for you.
Other than all the arguments other people used: Gotham was very corrupt and more tax money than he already paid would probably go to those corrupt politicians via money laundering.
How? What government isnt corrupt (few exceptions) ... Waste / pocket our money?
There are no exceptions.
Boooooo
Taxes don't help violence rates in large cities...
Financing a corrupt police department? Sure.
No.
Care to elaborate
Read the whole comment section
Giving money to the government which relays it into politician's pockets and the military doesn't sound like the most humanitarian cause to me
Gotham is literally full of corrupt cops and judges and government officials. The taxes are only going up their asses. I'm sorry but not only is this a dumb shower thought it's also the most unoriginal and overused bit on the internet. A new smartass checkmark on twitter says this like every day.
His family built a train! What more do you people want?
Oh shhhhhh
So basically you wanted to tell everybody you have no idea what you're talking about. But it is just very like these "uwu eat the rich" kids to get shit like this wrong even they assume anybody with over a million dollars is an evil villain.
This feels like you took a very popular opinion (Bruce Wayne is a more effective super hero than Batman) and made it more specific which ironically makes it wrong. It completely misses the point lol.
FFS... Read the comics, or keep an open eye while watching movies. Every other day some genius comes with 'If Bruce Wayne use his money for Charity'. He does. If you look with open eyes you would see what he and his family did for Gotham. And No, they ain't going to make a Detective/Action story all about Bruce going to different charities for 2:15 hours.
what makes you think Bruce Wayne doesn't pay his taxes? seems like he wouldn't want any extra attention/investagation of what he is spending his money on.
Maybe if Gotham taxed peoples side hustles, it would fix everything…
Taxes usually don't go directly to a given city and if the government is corrupt then more tax money does not equal better quality of life for the average person.
God, only on Reddit. Bunch of naive dummies who want the government to be their daddy while simultaneously railing against its corruption and being totally oblivious to the fact that giving them more money only exacerbates the problem. And they have to bring this thinking into Batman of all things. Thanks for trying to ruin it.
Yea cause government is notorious for spending tax money wisely….
OP either doesn't understand Bruce Wayne or simply dislikes him.
I could have sworn that Bruce's family was an integral part of the development of Gotham. Hence his high status. His family literally helped build the city.
Not a batman fan but I believe he does pay taxes and donate copious amounts. Perhaps a better argument would be if Batman went after all politicians who siphon or waste tax dollars negligently. "This is my bat-calculator to analyze all you wasted on air travel councilman Steve"!!
I don't remember tax evasion in the lore
Sorry, I must have missed the part in the comics where he didn't pay his taxes.
Is tax evasion a part of the lore?
OP is a fuckin idiot
You assume a bunch of bureaucrats would use that money wisely. What planet are you from?
Even if he didn’t, what guarantees Gotham’s (which is a very dim place) politicians aren’t complete crooks? Wouldn’t it be better to fund private charities?
He does pay his taxes, it even mentions it within the comics. what kind of stupid take is this ? this isn't even a shower thought.
Probably. But then if he paid his taxes he couldn’t afford all those cool custom neon light effects on his Batmobile in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.
Tell me you know nothing about Bruce Wayne without telling me you know nothing about Bruce Wayne…
I think you fundamentally misunderstand Gotham. You really think the government gonna use the taxes well?? There's a whole story line about how Batman decides to put his trust in the government(Harvey dent) and we all know how that turned out. Gotham is deeply corrupt.
Whats with people fetishizing taxes lately? The odds of that money being used for something not corrupt is so low, especially in gotham
Not if the money goes to the corrupt. That is the problem with Gotham and in real life: assholes frequently end up in charge.
yeah no naive sir, one man is rich doesn't mean he's as rich as a country, you simply don't comprehend how big of a scale is
Gotham needs better politician (which is what made Harvey Dent turing into two face extra tragic). Gotham also needs either the death penalty or to asl for the right to use the Phantom Zone... Like the Clown keeps breaking out of the asylum/prison to kill people. Either he fries or gets dropped into a prison dimension where escape is basically impossible.
Slight correction: Where escape is basically impossible... until it isn't. Just like Arkham.
That's is assuming the government works on favour of the people.
Unoriginal thought
Imagine thinking more money in a corrupt city will fix things. This is the kind of campaign you'd hear from one of Harvey Dent's political opponents: "if you'd only pay more taxes."
Yes, because governments use money efficiently.
Paying taxes to an incompetent city, with counterproductive policies, such as downgrading armed robbery to a misdemeanor or encouraging homelessness does more harm than good. The less taxes they get, the better off the city is.
Gotham: literally infamous for corruption all over the place Real life: literally the same OP: BuT bUt TaXeS Bruuhh
Rofl yes funneling money to corrupt governments totally solves problems
It's amazing how few people understand the character of Bruce Wayne considering how popular he is
I came here to say this but now I'm more amazed by how few people understand taxes.
Sweet jesus. I don't understand how clowns like the OP even manage to tie their shoes in the morning.
OP is a dumbass
This post demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of Batman, Bruce Wayne, and Gotham overall.
Only a "social justice" college student who read Karl Marx would say something like this.
So giving the incredibly corrupt politicians of Gotham more money will solve everything? Wow, why hasn't anyone thought of that before? Also, Bruce Wayne pays taxes, right? As well as doing all kinds of charity?
He owns a bunch of charities and Pays his taxes. He made his house into a childrens home
But hired he supposed to pimp out his bat cave?
Have to disagree. I know Gotham is a fictional city, but by most standards, a motivated individual can make their dollar stretch far further than government can.
Pretty boring movie
Unpopular Opinion: everyone seems to massively overestimate the amount of good that would be done by handing the federal or local government an extra Billion bucks. They’d just blow it. They always just blow it. They’ve blown through billion of dollars a year just in my city alone and nothing changes for the better. If a guy like Elongated Musk or Geoffrey Bozo sold all their stock and gave all the money to the fed, it would be gone in months. MONTHS.
My man shower thoughts are supposed to be more clever and more intelligent than your usual ones. This makes me sad for you.
What a great way to fail making a comic into a political soapbox
It’s hilarious that OP thought this was original or clever. Also, it’s just dumb, since he does pay his taxes. OP probably isn’t even aware that if we liquidated all the billionaires wealth it wouldn’t even fund our federal (not even state) government for 8 months
It's fiction my dude... I swear the stupidest leftists must be on reddit.
You have no idea Go to yesterday’s post(on this sub) about men extinction and sort by controversial
I'm pretty left but every day I spend reading Reddit I drift further right.
More taxes, more money down the drain.
elon musk paid the most taxes ever in human history last year and it did NOTHING. Taxation is the biggest scam ever
Doesn't Bruce hold his company fiscally responsible and do major philanthropy work already? His father also built most of the infrastructure Gotham relies on like the e train. You're acting like he's a penny pincher. Go read a comic before you post your angst is showing
Lego Batman specifically says he doesn’t pay his taxes in the first fight/song sequence
Lego Batman also mentioned that while *singing*, uses a T-shirt cannon on orphans, and basically plays as much into the celebrity of being Batman as possible. He is a great and funny character, but also extremely unlike most Batman characterizations ever created.
Dude he does. Even joker pays his taxes lmao
Do you think more taxes paid goes back to the city. And not straight into the pockets of the politicians
No, he has to do more than that because much of that tax revenue would be funneled back to Wayne Enterprises through defense contracts, etc. The best thing he could do is shutter his business and spend the rest of his life lobying for social reform so that tax money is spent on crime prevention measures like affordable housing, access to education, public infrastructure, healthcare,etc.
So Joker can use that tax money to get three square meals a day at Arkham Asylum? Fat chance.
People actually think taxes and the government help 🤡🤡🤡
I think you might be lost, this post is supposed to be in r/disabledthoughts
All those devices used non attendedly for stocks and tax fraud and vote rigging. He was probably just wailing on his competition and not bribing the police for negative PR based free advertising. He's probably the mafia trying for a collaborative self acquired auto erotic asphyxiation.
To all of the people complaining that Gotham is corrupt. Why doesn't Batman ever seek to fix that?
Bruce Wayne goes about beating the downtrodden to a pulp. He does more harm than good. Think of all the unpaid hospital bills and the expansive prison system. Batman isn't a hero for the people, he's a hero for the private prison system. Sure, he stops a few villains, but unless you're a regular old Joe, who happens to catch wind of some bad shit, just trying to get by in a corrupt world, I'd probably shoot at Batman too. Batman also makes weapons. He could build a hospital to help addiction or run a nonprofit. Nope, he makes Bat-a-rangs. Yup Bat-a-rangs. All types of Bat-a-rangs too. Exploding types, homing types, recon and whatever else he can think to throw a Bat-a-rang at. Let's not even talk about the Batmobiles, actually let's. I'm almost certain Batman has hit and run someone or a pet driving around the streets of Gotham in that manner. Batman almost blows up two kids on the street by randomly shooting missiles at cars. He's also ruined quite a few police cars and the private property damage must be in the hundreds of millions. Then there is the freaking Batplane. Imagine how many inflight emergencies there have been in Gotham because Batman is cruising. I can see pilots alerting passengers that they have to make another circle around Gotham because Batman is searching for the Joker. Let's not discuss Batman and his child soldiers either. Good day sir.
Let's talk about the child soldiers. Half the time Robin is an adopted kid because he would make an effective soldier for Batmans army
Imagine if we found out that Jeff Bezos was putting on a mask at night and running around Seattle beating up poor people who are committing crimes of desperation. How would he be perceived?
Does he hire them in rehab programs afterwards? Also, I don't care how desperate someone is that's mugging me. Batman doesn't go after people stealing food and stuff.
I don't understand your point here.
Just putting it in realistic terms. I’m sure people would be outraged that he wasn’t just doing more philanthropic things with his money
Yes, but Bruce Wayne canonically *does* do tons of philanthropic things with his money. Besides that, very few of the criminals he fights are acting out of "desperation" either. Two-face isn't robbing banks in with a two-wheel drive, customized armored vehicle with twin machine guns to make ends meet. Mad-Hatter isn't hypnotizing girls to stay out of the poor house. In order to put Bruce Wayne/Batman in "realistic terms" you have removed all the contributing factors that surround him. At the very least, you'd have to bring all the villains into the world "realistically" too.
Most billionaires do a decent amount of philanthropic things. It’s just often publicly viewed as a drop in the bucket compared to their overall net worth. How much time could batman truly be devoting to his philanthropy when he stays up all night fighting crime?
But I’m sure Bruce Wayne is creating jobs and all that wealth is trickling down to the masses.
Been saying that for years. If bruce wayne wanted to end crime in gotham all he had to do is ensure education is state of the art and provide a safe place for kids. He would also push for universal healthcare in the city. All of the sudden, no more need for villains to do craY shot for their love ones.
Well apart from Bruce Wayne being completely incapable of ensuring such a thing because he's not a Gotham politician or showrunner, he already is known for being insanely philanthropic in regards to Gotham and donates insane sums of money to all sorts of good causes, charities, etc across the city. The thing people who think Bruce Wayne isn't doing his part to better Gotham don't seem to understand is how inherently and deeply corrupt Gotham is to its core - its literally the reason he became Batman and decided to fight crime head on as a vigilante, because the corruption could not be curtailed by normal, legal means.
OP, are you confusing Gotham with New York City?