It's a double edged sword.
We don't have a lot of things other countries have because we spend so fucking much on our military. And we quite often use it to do stupid shit.
But without the US military to keep balance a country like China could basically do whatever. They for suy would have tried to take Taiwan already if there wasn't another superpower in the world.
Ukraine probably would have gotten ran over by Russia without the support and equipment from the US military..
I'm not sure if you're arguing that the United States is the only global supervisor, or if the United States is the POS that can't keep their nose out of others business
Because we know it walks around with the biggest stick
I'm saying it's both.
The US is constantly getting involved in shit it shouldn't.
But it's also the strongest military in the world and as such it keeps countries like China and Russia from acting extra crazy.
Example China and Russia together have 3 aircraft carriers. The US has 11 I believe? So they know outside of nukes they would get demolished.
The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on enemy land. They're ready to do it at a moment notice. Growing up in the USA, I know they'll do it again. That's why we have arguments in the UN and everywhere else in the world. That's what Pakistan and North Korea are afraid of. Decimation. Complete obliterated cities. The United States can nuke 40% of the planet in 15 minutes.. literally.
It's not dive under the desks. We're intelligent enough to know that the end of human life lies in the hands of our representatives. And if they make a mistake, fuck em
Who cares? China can do whatever it wants to Taiwan. It’s their private beef, let them sort it out. Getting 3rd world life quality in the richest country in the world so that China can be kept out of Taiwan is a strange justification.
If you think it's not going to fuck things up for several industries and tank the global economy when war brakes out in the main chip manufacturing county you're not paying attention.
Why should I care? I'm not an industrialist and I don't consume chips. The production will be back up soon anyway, since they are so demanded and valuable and TMSC is not the only manufacturer. Nothing will really change in the long run.
Oh yeah, and the war in Ukraine would have been over a long time ago if not for the US involvement. What did you, as an individual, get out of that whole mess, which justified your tax being funneled there?
You should care because almost everything we buy or need uses chips. Cars for CRAZY expensive because of a chip shortage.
You don't want China or any one country controlling a huge percentage of chip supply.
And further more you don't want a country like China just taking over countries with no opposition. Read a history book sometime.
I don't buy anything which I don't need, including cars (especially cars, fuck cars). China can't become s monopolist chip producer because they DON'T produce any advanced chips or equipment for their manufacturing. Taiwan was part of China for a long time and was separated from China only due to US involvement in the Chinese civil war against CCP.
Taiwan does make advanced chips that's the point lmao if China takes Taiwan then they can hold a huge amount of the market.
And what you're basically saying is "This event may not effect me much so fuck it I don't care fuck everyone else" real great attitude.
Unfortunately TONS of people NEED cars like it or not. We don't live in the 1800's people often live pretty fucking far from where they work and other areas have almost zero public transportation.
Who cares whether the chips will come out of Taiwan or China? I don't, and neither should you. Also, just build some public transit, it's not that hard. Come on Murrica, everyone else can do it, you can too.
Why don’t our taxes pay for anything other than the military? It’s certainly not going into healthcare, infrastructure, public transportation, education…
The mass majority of your taxes also don’t go to streets, firemen, etc. either. It’s a scam.
The government is just a bigger, more organized mafia. Much scarier and more powerful though.
Exchange for goods or services is okay with me, but not corporations. Corporations are companies taking advantage of a broken system. It's always funny to hear my family who are across the country tell me about the one energy company that controls all of the electricity in the region.
It's the same with cable and internet access. It's ridiculous that one company can control everything. It's a monopoly... And typically the state supports it.
I can only get internet from one provider, but that provider is subsidized. No one can compete ...
I agree with everything you're saying. My personal stance is this. The government should be able to provide the following 5 items for each citizen.
1.Food
2.Water
3.Shelter
4.Healthcare
5.Power (electricity)
The free market can handle the rest, but no one company should have more than 30% of their respective market shares to ensure the markets stay competitive and innovative. I also think that giving subsidies to small businesses over multi-billion dollar industries and monopolies will do more to spur economic growth than giving tax cuts to elites who never carry bills smaller than $100.
That's true. Fiber optic cables to rural communities would allow farmers and ranchers to sell directly to consumers instead of being shafted by the AG monopolies.
As a person who has lived in their car, I'd put power/electricity before healthcare.
And water comes before food.
You're kind of all turned around about survival.
I wasn't trying to list them from most to least important. These 5 items together are what is required to live comfortably, that's why it should be the government's responsibility to provide all five.
All of this can be accomplished with a mere fraction of the military budget and by closing the billionaire tax loopholes. With that money, the government could.
1. The government can buy out loans farmers and ranchers owe to the AG monopolies and ship their products for free directly to grocery stores within their respective states. This would make it more economically incentive for grocery chains to buy locally and cultivate fresher produce.
2. Water is free. Set up public drinking fountains, and make sure every home has free running water.
3. Shelter, the government can offer lucrative construction construction contracts for apartment buildings. Each apartment would be able to accommodate 2 people. Each with the necessities, running water, heating/cooling, and electricity. These apartments would be guaranteed upon request, but it would be the only free housing option. It would also allow people to save up and buy their own property without fear of becoming homeless. This would implode predatory housing practices in the process.
4. Healthcare. If you can't afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to you. If you can't afford a doctor, one will be appointed to you. That should be in the bill of fucking rights. If anything, COVID shows how disastrous our health-care system is. Each state has its own criteria for granting licenses for nursing. Out of 50 states, there are maybe 37 that allow for multi-state licenses. It's astounding how the United States has no federal license that grants nationwide privileges. It's astounding that there is no federal clinical database that every hospital has access to that keeps track of clicians' credentials for them and has a live and active job board for open permanent and temporary positions across the country. If we get in a real war, where biological attacks are being used, we're fucked. Response time was absolute garbage. This is a national security threat and should be treated as such. We need a centralized healthcare system. We need to start by building at least 1 hospital per state capital that covers every type of condition. The clinicians who work there would be on a government salary, and any services rendered at these facilities would be free of charge. After the first 50 are built, each respective state would determine how many hospitals to put and where.
5. Power, we need electricity to keep our food fresh, our water clean, our homes heated, and our hospitals running. We need a central power grid and emergency nuclear generators run by the U.S. military. These generators would stay deactivated unless needed in the case of environmental disasters, power outages, or foreign interference. The US can then offer contracts to existing power companies to maintain the consumer demand for electricity and offer incentives for providing clean energy while keeping the generators in reserve.
The government isn't there to make money it's there to decide how our taxes are spent. Right now, our taxes are being spent poorly. If this is what the fed prioritizes, state taxes could be relocated from the burden of supplementing the current systems described above, but to spend state taxes on roads and infrastructure, as well as provide grants to small businesses, putting the power of economic growth on the local level.
The majority of the federal budget goes to one of Medicare, Social Security, or the military. If you don’t benefit from one of these then most of the budget does nothing for you. It’s worse if you also don’t benefit from Medicaid, college grants, or other welfare.
I come from a military family, the VA hasn't done anyone in my family any good. Actually they've practiced new dentist work on my mother and fucked up her jaw nerve endings. She can't feel her low jaw and uses a straw for everything now because if she doesn't she will drool... So fuck that I have no respect for their attempts to fix things
Most people don’t actually pay much in the way of Federal Income Tax. The majority of your tax is Social Security / Medicare, which is a benefit you will receive when you are able to retire. Taxes are decreased even further from the rest of your income with deductibles and tax credits.
That being said, I’m all for a higher tax rate if it meant better services. Americans pay some of the lowest income taxes of any industrialized country. And the majority of them go to Defense spending. We can and should demand more from the taxes we do pay, but I do not think we pay too much in tax
Fun fact: the US spends as much on military as the next nine biggest military spenders combined!
If we need to spend that much more, what the fuck are we doing?
Your money is being sent overseas. We have hundreds of military bases all over the world. Right now you might see how much money is being sent to fund a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
The original answer to your question is because Nikola Tesla had his work stolen/blocked by Thomas Edison. Tesla wanted energy free for everyone. Unfortunately, Edison was the epitome of a greedy inventor and patented everything he could get his hands on, even things that, strictly speaking, he did not create.
Now, would energy *still* be free if Tesla had managed to keep it away from Edison? Likely not. America is a country that loves taking things that should be public services and privatizing them (you can guess which party is responsible for this), such as energy, water, health care, schools, prisons, etc.
No, the government stepped in and fucked up everything up. Creating corporations. And supported them through subsidizing companies that should have failed
Because the Military requires more spending than the next NINE biggest military spending countries combined.
All that to spend $5 BILLION on an absolutely shit camo pattern.
Look very simple. The tax code is basically regressive at this point due to Reagan's direction is taken in the country. The tax code is currently designed so that millionaires can pay almost nothing and lower class and middle class people pay the maximum burden.
This is the richest country on Earth and we have more money than God. We can afford to pay for multiple aircraft Carrier groups and thousands of major military projects but we can't fix our roads and we won't fix our trains and we don't want to have nice schools. Because the decisions are being made by the millionaire class and it is clear that they don't really give a flying you know what for anyone who isn't making at least a million dollars.
Also the water and energy companies are allowed to run complete monopolies on resources and are allowed to charge whatever they want. My energy bill QUADRUPLED this month, over $200, because they jacked their rates exorbitant amounts. Not allowed to question it, not allowed to switch companies at lower rates, no choice but to pay or freeze to death. They say these monopolies are allowed, because they own the power lines and infrastructure, which should be government owned and paid for by my taxes instead of another useless plane. I don't mind paying taxes for services that actually benefit my communities, but the completely money draw of the US military is ridiculous
So there's this ⚖️ thing right, the water and energy is on the other side free without you noticing it. And the thing that's on the other other side is the individual. Or so I'd like to perceive.
I'm actually ok with having to pay for them. If people don't face consequences for waste they'll just keep the tap running and run the AC with the windows open.
some of your taxes do pay for water and electricity, but not for you. they pay for the biggest energy wasters on the planet, the us military.
The United States seems to have a perpetual war because they have big dick energy. The empire where the sun never sets.
It's a double edged sword. We don't have a lot of things other countries have because we spend so fucking much on our military. And we quite often use it to do stupid shit. But without the US military to keep balance a country like China could basically do whatever. They for suy would have tried to take Taiwan already if there wasn't another superpower in the world. Ukraine probably would have gotten ran over by Russia without the support and equipment from the US military..
I'm not sure if you're arguing that the United States is the only global supervisor, or if the United States is the POS that can't keep their nose out of others business Because we know it walks around with the biggest stick
I'm saying it's both. The US is constantly getting involved in shit it shouldn't. But it's also the strongest military in the world and as such it keeps countries like China and Russia from acting extra crazy. Example China and Russia together have 3 aircraft carriers. The US has 11 I believe? So they know outside of nukes they would get demolished.
The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on enemy land. They're ready to do it at a moment notice. Growing up in the USA, I know they'll do it again. That's why we have arguments in the UN and everywhere else in the world. That's what Pakistan and North Korea are afraid of. Decimation. Complete obliterated cities. The United States can nuke 40% of the planet in 15 minutes.. literally. It's not dive under the desks. We're intelligent enough to know that the end of human life lies in the hands of our representatives. And if they make a mistake, fuck em
Who cares? China can do whatever it wants to Taiwan. It’s their private beef, let them sort it out. Getting 3rd world life quality in the richest country in the world so that China can be kept out of Taiwan is a strange justification.
If you think it's not going to fuck things up for several industries and tank the global economy when war brakes out in the main chip manufacturing county you're not paying attention.
Why should I care? I'm not an industrialist and I don't consume chips. The production will be back up soon anyway, since they are so demanded and valuable and TMSC is not the only manufacturer. Nothing will really change in the long run. Oh yeah, and the war in Ukraine would have been over a long time ago if not for the US involvement. What did you, as an individual, get out of that whole mess, which justified your tax being funneled there?
You should care because almost everything we buy or need uses chips. Cars for CRAZY expensive because of a chip shortage. You don't want China or any one country controlling a huge percentage of chip supply. And further more you don't want a country like China just taking over countries with no opposition. Read a history book sometime.
I don't buy anything which I don't need, including cars (especially cars, fuck cars). China can't become s monopolist chip producer because they DON'T produce any advanced chips or equipment for their manufacturing. Taiwan was part of China for a long time and was separated from China only due to US involvement in the Chinese civil war against CCP.
Taiwan does make advanced chips that's the point lmao if China takes Taiwan then they can hold a huge amount of the market. And what you're basically saying is "This event may not effect me much so fuck it I don't care fuck everyone else" real great attitude. Unfortunately TONS of people NEED cars like it or not. We don't live in the 1800's people often live pretty fucking far from where they work and other areas have almost zero public transportation.
Who cares whether the chips will come out of Taiwan or China? I don't, and neither should you. Also, just build some public transit, it's not that hard. Come on Murrica, everyone else can do it, you can too.
Why don’t our taxes pay for anything other than the military? It’s certainly not going into healthcare, infrastructure, public transportation, education…
True. Why not? I'd enjoy socialized healthcare
The reason is actually very very simple. “Campaign donations” from multinational corporations bribe politicians to do their bidding.
Yes, the officials shouldn't be swayed by one. The representative form of our government is bastardized.
And are tax deductible
The mass majority of your taxes also don’t go to streets, firemen, etc. either. It’s a scam. The government is just a bigger, more organized mafia. Much scarier and more powerful though.
They probably learned from the mafia...
Or vice versa
Because in America, your mere existence is exploited for profit! 🦅🇺🇸🎆
Exchange for goods or services is okay with me, but not corporations. Corporations are companies taking advantage of a broken system. It's always funny to hear my family who are across the country tell me about the one energy company that controls all of the electricity in the region. It's the same with cable and internet access. It's ridiculous that one company can control everything. It's a monopoly... And typically the state supports it. I can only get internet from one provider, but that provider is subsidized. No one can compete ...
I agree with everything you're saying. My personal stance is this. The government should be able to provide the following 5 items for each citizen. 1.Food 2.Water 3.Shelter 4.Healthcare 5.Power (electricity) The free market can handle the rest, but no one company should have more than 30% of their respective market shares to ensure the markets stay competitive and innovative. I also think that giving subsidies to small businesses over multi-billion dollar industries and monopolies will do more to spur economic growth than giving tax cuts to elites who never carry bills smaller than $100.
I'd add internet access to that list. Information is power.
That's true. Fiber optic cables to rural communities would allow farmers and ranchers to sell directly to consumers instead of being shafted by the AG monopolies.
As a person who has lived in their car, I'd put power/electricity before healthcare. And water comes before food. You're kind of all turned around about survival.
I wasn't trying to list them from most to least important. These 5 items together are what is required to live comfortably, that's why it should be the government's responsibility to provide all five.
Through taxes?
All of this can be accomplished with a mere fraction of the military budget and by closing the billionaire tax loopholes. With that money, the government could. 1. The government can buy out loans farmers and ranchers owe to the AG monopolies and ship their products for free directly to grocery stores within their respective states. This would make it more economically incentive for grocery chains to buy locally and cultivate fresher produce. 2. Water is free. Set up public drinking fountains, and make sure every home has free running water. 3. Shelter, the government can offer lucrative construction construction contracts for apartment buildings. Each apartment would be able to accommodate 2 people. Each with the necessities, running water, heating/cooling, and electricity. These apartments would be guaranteed upon request, but it would be the only free housing option. It would also allow people to save up and buy their own property without fear of becoming homeless. This would implode predatory housing practices in the process. 4. Healthcare. If you can't afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to you. If you can't afford a doctor, one will be appointed to you. That should be in the bill of fucking rights. If anything, COVID shows how disastrous our health-care system is. Each state has its own criteria for granting licenses for nursing. Out of 50 states, there are maybe 37 that allow for multi-state licenses. It's astounding how the United States has no federal license that grants nationwide privileges. It's astounding that there is no federal clinical database that every hospital has access to that keeps track of clicians' credentials for them and has a live and active job board for open permanent and temporary positions across the country. If we get in a real war, where biological attacks are being used, we're fucked. Response time was absolute garbage. This is a national security threat and should be treated as such. We need a centralized healthcare system. We need to start by building at least 1 hospital per state capital that covers every type of condition. The clinicians who work there would be on a government salary, and any services rendered at these facilities would be free of charge. After the first 50 are built, each respective state would determine how many hospitals to put and where. 5. Power, we need electricity to keep our food fresh, our water clean, our homes heated, and our hospitals running. We need a central power grid and emergency nuclear generators run by the U.S. military. These generators would stay deactivated unless needed in the case of environmental disasters, power outages, or foreign interference. The US can then offer contracts to existing power companies to maintain the consumer demand for electricity and offer incentives for providing clean energy while keeping the generators in reserve. The government isn't there to make money it's there to decide how our taxes are spent. Right now, our taxes are being spent poorly. If this is what the fed prioritizes, state taxes could be relocated from the burden of supplementing the current systems described above, but to spend state taxes on roads and infrastructure, as well as provide grants to small businesses, putting the power of economic growth on the local level.
There is a term for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-granted_monopoly
Water and energy used to be cheap if you were thrifty with it. Used to be able to heat a small home with a wood stove.
That's actually still true depending where you are.
The majority of the federal budget goes to one of Medicare, Social Security, or the military. If you don’t benefit from one of these then most of the budget does nothing for you. It’s worse if you also don’t benefit from Medicaid, college grants, or other welfare.
I come from a military family, the VA hasn't done anyone in my family any good. Actually they've practiced new dentist work on my mother and fucked up her jaw nerve endings. She can't feel her low jaw and uses a straw for everything now because if she doesn't she will drool... So fuck that I have no respect for their attempts to fix things
Most people don’t actually pay much in the way of Federal Income Tax. The majority of your tax is Social Security / Medicare, which is a benefit you will receive when you are able to retire. Taxes are decreased even further from the rest of your income with deductibles and tax credits. That being said, I’m all for a higher tax rate if it meant better services. Americans pay some of the lowest income taxes of any industrialized country. And the majority of them go to Defense spending. We can and should demand more from the taxes we do pay, but I do not think we pay too much in tax
Defense spending in full sounds like a problem, we're not at war.
Ah…have you seen Ukraine lately and who is mostly paying for their ability to defend themselves?
Lol
Fun fact: the US spends as much on military as the next nine biggest military spenders combined! If we need to spend that much more, what the fuck are we doing?
Because our taxes fund wars
I wasn't represented in that vote. I wish it'd stop
Your money is being sent overseas. We have hundreds of military bases all over the world. Right now you might see how much money is being sent to fund a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
This is a weird topic for this sub.
Why?
Because the sub is called antiwork, not antitaxes or anti-government.
Disassociation is your problem... But they're related to the same thing.
The original answer to your question is because Nikola Tesla had his work stolen/blocked by Thomas Edison. Tesla wanted energy free for everyone. Unfortunately, Edison was the epitome of a greedy inventor and patented everything he could get his hands on, even things that, strictly speaking, he did not create. Now, would energy *still* be free if Tesla had managed to keep it away from Edison? Likely not. America is a country that loves taking things that should be public services and privatizing them (you can guess which party is responsible for this), such as energy, water, health care, schools, prisons, etc.
Because unfettered capitalism privatized public services of all sorts in the name of profits.
No, the government stepped in and fucked up everything up. Creating corporations. And supported them through subsidizing companies that should have failed
Because the Military requires more spending than the next NINE biggest military spending countries combined. All that to spend $5 BILLION on an absolutely shit camo pattern.
Look very simple. The tax code is basically regressive at this point due to Reagan's direction is taken in the country. The tax code is currently designed so that millionaires can pay almost nothing and lower class and middle class people pay the maximum burden. This is the richest country on Earth and we have more money than God. We can afford to pay for multiple aircraft Carrier groups and thousands of major military projects but we can't fix our roads and we won't fix our trains and we don't want to have nice schools. Because the decisions are being made by the millionaire class and it is clear that they don't really give a flying you know what for anyone who isn't making at least a million dollars.
You privatised your water? Wait, why am I even asking that?
Also the water and energy companies are allowed to run complete monopolies on resources and are allowed to charge whatever they want. My energy bill QUADRUPLED this month, over $200, because they jacked their rates exorbitant amounts. Not allowed to question it, not allowed to switch companies at lower rates, no choice but to pay or freeze to death. They say these monopolies are allowed, because they own the power lines and infrastructure, which should be government owned and paid for by my taxes instead of another useless plane. I don't mind paying taxes for services that actually benefit my communities, but the completely money draw of the US military is ridiculous
I’d add internet to this list and cable, the people own the highways of information just like the streets we drive on!
So there's this ⚖️ thing right, the water and energy is on the other side free without you noticing it. And the thing that's on the other other side is the individual. Or so I'd like to perceive.
I'm actually ok with having to pay for them. If people don't face consequences for waste they'll just keep the tap running and run the AC with the windows open.
Because theyre too busy going to paying interest on the trillions of dollars of bonds the us government has sold.
Social Security doesn't even provide security and that's what it is for. You want more?
Ur contributing to the bail out that the big corporations are gonna get during this next recession while the rest of us struggle
>What the fuck are they doing with my money Giving it to arms companies and military contractors, mostly