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[–] 64 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Why 40%? The value of his labor that's being redirected to the pockets of wealthy CEOs is much higher than that.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Because it said pay and not value?

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  • [+] -8 points 2 days ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Woosh indeed. Mind explaining the punchline?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    I'm well aware of what OP's intent was. My comment was highlighting the inherent absurdity of complaining about taxes, which are by no definition "theft" and which are actually used to enrich your fellow man (no, I don't need to hear about military spending or whatever other government outlay you personally object to; even in the US there are still tax funded programs that benefit the average person, despite the Republicans best efforts), rather than directing your anger at the far greater amount of our productivity that is literally stolen from us by the super wealthy.

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  • [–] -4 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Taxes are not "used to enrich your fellow man". They are used to limit the amount of money in circulation. A financially sovereign state can issue however much money it wants - money is not a limited resource for such a state.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Do you know what happens to countries and economies that just "print more money"?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    Yes (which depends on the way an economy is organised, by the way). But that just means that there are factors that influence how much currency a financially sovereign state wants to issue, rather than that they can't issue that currency.

    Again, what actually can be used for improving the conditions of one's fellow workers are budgets dedicated to relevant policies, rather than taxes that simply reduce the amount of money in circulation.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    I think you're arguing in favor of some other philosophy and not disagreeing with their central point. It's implied that the tax revenue is spent on nice things, not that the taxes themselves are the benefit. They're not talking about inflation.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    Saying "tax revenue is spent on..." is misleading. Taxes are used to take currency out of circulation (roughly speaking, destroy the currency). A financially sovereign state can issue however much money it wants, i.e. it can form whatever budgets it wants. Money is not a limited resource for them. The fact that it will not want arbitrary budgets is a different manner.

    They’re not talking about inflation.

    I covered a more broad case than inflation, but if they were not talking about it, then their comment makes no sense.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    It sounds like you're proselytizing MMT

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    I am not. That's just how states literally work.

    If you think that financially sovereign states have some limited supply and can run out of money, you are welcome to explain what would prevent them from simply issuing more money in that situation.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    Nobody is talking about running out of money but you

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Not sure where this hostility is coming from, but if you want to say that tax revenue is spent on something, rather than that that something is prepared a budget for and money is issued according to the budget, but then angrily retort that I am the one talking about money running out is silly.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    So many layers of tax, each bleeding a worker who would otherwise be able to contribute more to the other workers.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    Taxes are how you contribute to other workers. The notion that taxes are "stolen" is libertarian bullshit preached by the people who want to drive us back into feudalism.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago (1 child)

    BBQ parties and helping them move are how you contribute to other workers.

    Sales taxes are how you still cant afford bratwurst.

    And when they say your taxes go to healthcare, you think it goes to doctors and nurses. Actually most of it goes to brian thompson types.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago

    Taxes are how you contribute to other workers

    ...in a system where politicians actually represent their constituents instead of their corporate donors.

    preached by the people who want to drive us back into feudalism.

    Even feudal lords demanded tribute. That's basically what taxation is in a system where the government is this blatantly corrupt.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    So the orange one paying to prevent wind farm construction is contributing to the workers? 🤔

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago

    No matter what, you will always be able to name a government expenditure you personally disagree with. It is ridiculously childish to conclude from that fact that government spending as a whole should not exist.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    No, but the alternative is not some no-tax, every-person-for-themselves anarchy.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Please do yourself and others a favor and don't conflate libertarians with actual anarchism.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    whilst modern anarchism certainly has a lot of good points to make, anarchism in general also covers some pretty horrendous ways of structuring society…

    anarchism is, at its core, is just absense of government and rulers

    The word "anarchy" was first defined by Ancient Greek philosophy, which understood it to be a corrupted form of direct democracy, where a majority of people exclusively pursue their own interests

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy

    that original definition pretty well covers “everyone for themselves anarchy”

    you can argue “yes but no serious anarchist”, but the word at its core doesn’t just mean the serious and thought out structures

    it is what it is: anarchy can mean chaos, it’s just that when discussing with people who are discussing the implementation of anarchy, it’s widely agreed that chaos is not the goal and thus other systems are put in place

    it is frustrating that the modern version of the word has become synonymous with only the kind of anarchism that’s generally agreed is not the way any of this should be implemented… but anarchism still covers those shit takes

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  • That's certainly... true enough from a prescriptivist perspective. However the layman likely doesn't care about all that, and frankly neither do I. Anarcho-capitalism (US libertarianism, read: feudalism) is about as true to "modern anarchism" as Nazism (fascism) is to socialism.

    Anyway, I find your "contribution" kinda unhelpful and kinda masturbatory, so... goodbye

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    It is extremely frustrating that anarchism had been deliberately stigmatized and demonized through all forms of media for decades. Like someone in a movie describing a riot as "total anarchy."

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