Our taxes fund more public health dollars per capita than almost anywhere else in the world. Medicare and Medicaid spending is higher than DOD budget, and that’s before you include medical research funded by NIH and DOD or VA spending.
The issue is that our prices are out of control because of regulatory capture and downstream inability of the government to negotiate lower prices.
What we need are price controls.
nice military
is it? they’re never home, so we don’t really know
Huge swaths of Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, Hawai’i, and even North America’s own Indigenous peoples can all affirm that the US military is indeed very nice and only ever acts in self defense.
Literally, in that most soldiers at “home” are homeless…
And can’t afford the therapy that they need after the horrors the regime put them through.
I walked out in '03 when Bush ran the green screen and I put it together he was flat out lying. I ain’t “serving” that one when there’s no protection for anyone but the oil billionaires feasting in the des(s)ert of our deaths. I also had just discovered the 9/11 was completely fraudulent and that even AC predicted it. Sure, vague poetic shit but Back to the Future hit that shit with a bullseye spelled out a hundred times. Don’t mind the pictorial art painted over the Cross of the dollar. I got refs if you’re curious about any of that. Glad I’m not one of them and I feel zero regret at all for my choice.
Strangely enough, it was an american economist that coined:
“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Notice that taxes don’t have the same vile vitrol against them outside of America? They get something for their money.
We also have a constant drumbeat about how taxes are evil coming from politicians and pundits that represent half the political spectrum, all because they’ve discovered it’s a good way to turn people against the other half.
One of my theories is that not only is it about how these taxes get used (as in the OP), but also in the US you have these constant reminders, it’s not added to your restaurant bills or supermarket prices until the end, you have to calculate it yourself all the time and that keeps it front of mind. I never used to even think about tax until I started my own business (since now I don’t have to pay it for business expenses). When something costs 100€ it costs 100€, you don’t think about the fact 20 of them are tax because you, as a consumer, pay 100 and that’s that. Same with salary, it gets taken at the source and once a year you just need to verify, and usually you get some money back making it a positive experience.
Yeah I never understand why tax is not included in the sales price, just seems arbitrary to exclude that. It is definitely been uncomfortable, back in the days when I used to use cash, and I would have just enough for like a burger or something,
Only to realize that I had enough for the price on the menu but I didn’t have enough for the tax. It’s just annoying
We don’t pay taxes to the UK so it’s not all bad.
The irony is that western free nations owe their safety to America’s military, and by extension this sacrifice of the American people, if you follow the post’s logic
Name three nations the US has couped to replace their democratically elected leader with a corrupt autocrat that sold gladly his people to US interest in exchange of power.
[Slaps hood]
This baby can bomb soooo many third world countries
I’m not getting the symbolism in relation to the post but this gif is great regardless.
That are the reasons why I like paying taxes. Because a functioning society is a great thing.
It’s not even a nice military though! Failed audit after failed audit showing billions of dollars not accounted for. When you enlist, one of the trainings you get is how to sign up for WIC, because they don’t even pay you enough to feed a family (at first) if you lay down your life. This country is a joke from the outside, and a nightmare to live in.
I would have joked that at least everyone can join the military but they said I was too fat to join back when I was 19 when I was only 25lbs overweight. Isn’t it your job to whip my fat ass into shape? What the fuck am I paying you for?!
I’ve seen how veterans are treated. There’s no way I’d join the military even if I didn’t find it ethically unacceptable.
Aye, but you’ll eat those words when the North Koreans are parachuting into Glasgow.
Although the first thing they’ll say is “fuck me, this is worse than Pyongyang”.
Edgy take. Which is a shame, because the rest of the Western world is overreliant on the US military.
I mean if the 1% paid their share of taxes proportionate to their income we could live in a utopia :)… But nah… That one polical side that should not be named will continue making the poor poorer and pocketing the money for themselves.
The US brings in 78% of what it spends. Period. So our taxes don’t pay for what we get.
In fact, income tax is only a little more than 1/2 of the revenue.
So whatever. Lets stop pretending we have to be fiscally responsible in the US. We haven’t passed a budget since 2008. It’s just spending bills and continuing resolutions.
Give us healthcare. Don’t bark about having the money. Just do it.
I don’t like paying taxes, but holy hell not having the things they’re supposed to pay for sucks. You ever use a toll road or get caught in an intentional speed trap? Holy hell it sucks. And also we’re only kinda sure our food is safe and our medicine works. But the cops have tanks and the beef and gas are subsidized
Toll roads are a kind of tax.
I mean toll roads make sense, I’m not sure why we’re expected to pay to use public transport but not roads, when roads are far more expensive to maintain and us driving literally causes them to be damaged.
If roads and parking are free then public transit should be free. Otherwise toll roads are fine by me, although they’re technically a regressive charge in the US and Canada since you’re kind of forced to use a car in most areas… I mean car dependence itself is a giant regressive charge so that’s just one part of it.
But assuming we had actual functional transportation infrastructure, toll roads would actually be preferrable near more densely populated areas since it makes you think twice about using your car instead of taking a train or biking.
Canada doesn’t have tolls. And, at least in BC, good transportation.
