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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 12:57:00 GMT -5
....see how you're Demonrat Gods also don't make any fucking sense? Dude people who couldn't afford healthcare were taken care of by medicaid expansion. The Republican Party absolutely flat refused any form of single payer healthcare, which is the only thing that makes sense. The Affordable Care Act was a compromise to get more people on insurance, as to the people who can't afford it, that is where the federal subsidies come via Medicaid expansion. This was funded 90% by the federal government, the Affordable Care Act started as Republican legislation in Massachusetts. Mitt Romney implemented that when he was governor. However Republican politicians are so evil that in many states they flat refused the medicaid expansion even tho it cost them basically nothing: www.rwjf.org/en/insights/our-research/2023/10/coverage-gains-if-10-states-were-to-expand-medicaid-eligibility.htmlThe voters have had to put Medicaid expansion on the ballots in stats where it wasn't initially expanded: www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/In Missouri even tho they voters voted in the expansion the governor initially said they wouldn't implement the expansion because the ballot measure didn't include a funding source: www.kff.org/policy-watch/status-of-medicaid-expansion-in-missouri-and-implications-for-coverage-and-cost/I'm really glad you brought up the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare". It has been the law of the land for 14 years now. The Republican Party has tried over 100 times to get rid of it, instantly throwing millions of people off of insurance consequences be damned. Thanks to people like John McCain that didn't happen. They do not care how many people that harms, or polling that says people like it. They just want to stop Obama from being able to say he accomplished anything while in the white house thats it. When asked point blank multiple times what they want to replace it with they say "uh.........we are looking at several things like um yeah........." They have no plan but to go back to the way it was before the Affordable Care act, where you could be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Yeah no thanks.
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 14:14:27 GMT -5
I've seen you and SJ bitch about the elite billionaires over and over. Well Republicans endgane is there is no government and people like Gates and Musk become the government. Why would you support that?
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Post by Emig5m on Feb 25, 2024 17:38:07 GMT -5
I've seen you and SJ bitch about the elite billionaires over and over. Well Republicans endgane is there is no government and people like Gates and Musk become the government. Why would you support that? I thought it was you guys who jerked off to Gates and the WEF? And I personally know of people who didn't qualify for medicaid, just made enough a year to put them over the yearly income limit who also were barely making ends meet and being forced to pay an insane never ending monthly health insurance payment month after month (plus co-payments) would of meant having to forgo paying rent and being homeless. So there was a middle area were people made just a tad too much to qualify for medicaid but also couldn't afford health insurance but then they got fined $1,600 for not being able to afford insurance, how does that make things "affordable"? Like I said, it's no different than fining a poor homeless person for not being able to afford a home and calling it the affordable home act and you know it. There's no other way around it. Facts are 100% facts. Maybe instead not fucking overcharging eight grand for a freaking 15 minute MRI process... You know they use that machine every single day and could cut the cost down to 1/8th and still make money hand over fist...
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 18:06:19 GMT -5
I thought it was you guys who jerked off to Gates and the WEF? Who are "you guys"? And I personally know of people who didn't qualify for medicaid, just made enough a year to put them over the yearly income limit who also were barely making ends meet and being forced to pay an insane never ending monthly health insurance payment month after month (plus co-payments) would of meant having to forgo paying rent and being homeless. So there was a middle area were people made just a tad too much to qualify for medicaid but also couldn't afford health insurance but then they got fined $1,600 for not being able to afford insurance, how does that make things "affordable"? Like I said, it's no different than fining a poor homeless person for not being able to afford a home and calling it the affordable home act and you know it. There's no other way around it. Facts are 100% facts. The point of ACA was getting more people on insurance and it did that, the logic being that if you get more people on health insurance the cost will go down. You said in another post people don't "need or want" health insurance. Thats idiotic, everyone needs health insurance, if they don't have it then the hospital is left holding the bill and pass the cost onto others. Everyone will need to go to the hospital eventually. As for knowing people who don't qualify for anything and are forced to pay $1,600 I'm calling bullshit on that, how are there co-pays if they never went to the doctor? Your "friend you know" obviously didn't try hard enough to get coverage or help with it. Maybe instead not fucking overcharging eight grand for a freaking 15 minute MRI process... You know they use that machine every single day and could cut the cost down to 1/8th and still make money hand over fist... See you are so close to getting it, healthcare is a scam in this country and the only real solution is single payer healthcare, yet the Republicans who you seem to think are the "good guys" have taken an over my dead body approach and will fight tooth and nail to ever stop that from happening. The ACA isn't perfect but its light years better then what we had before that. I have no doubt that if tomorrow the Republicans got the Supreme Court to overturn the ACA and your insurance went up you would blame the Democrats for it and blame "the elite" and Gates while cheering on the party that got Gates and the elite their biggest tax cut in history at your expense. Right wing conspiracies are not reality or politics.
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Post by Emig5m on Feb 25, 2024 18:26:28 GMT -5
As for knowing people who don't qualify for anything and are forced to pay $1,600 I'm calling bullshit on that, how are there co-pays if they never went to the doctor? Your "friend you know" obviously didn't try hard enough to get coverage or help with it. Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam!
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 18:34:35 GMT -5
I've seen you and SJ bitch about the elite billionaires over and over. Well Republicans endgane is there is no government and people like Gates and Musk become the government. Why would you support that? Show me where I said that I wanted the billionaires running things. I'll be waiting. The Republicans don't want "no government." That's Libertarians you're thinking of. In fact, the more modern Republicans, Neocons (like Bush Jr and Trump), love big government and massive overspending + debt.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 18:45:13 GMT -5
As for knowing people who don't qualify for anything and are forced to pay $1,600 I'm calling bullshit on that, how are there co-pays if they never went to the doctor? Your "friend you know" obviously didn't try hard enough to get coverage or help with it. Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam! It's not just insurance. It's the overall cost of living here. I've talked about this before. The American dream is dead. If you want the dream, leave America.
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 18:57:14 GMT -5
Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam! It's not just insurance. It's the overall cost of living here. I've talked about this before. The American dream is dead. If you want the dream, leave America. Leave America and go to the Nordic countries or Canada, we aren't allowed to have what they have cuz "socialism omg"
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 18:59:48 GMT -5
As for knowing people who don't qualify for anything and are forced to pay $1,600 I'm calling bullshit on that, how are there co-pays if they never went to the doctor? Your "friend you know" obviously didn't try hard enough to get coverage or help with it. Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam! You will get no argument from me that health insurance sucks but as for your friend did they really try and get health insurance? Look over every rock? Check every program? Why didn't they just get a better job? That's right wingers answers to ever question when people complain about the current system?
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 19:09:55 GMT -5
It's not just insurance. It's the overall cost of living here. I've talked about this before. The American dream is dead. If you want the dream, leave America. Leave America and go to the Nordic countries or Canada, we aren't allowed to have what they have cuz "socialism omg" I like those places for the nature and scenery. However, I'd just be paying additional (high) tax in those countries for other peoples' healthcare, etc, when I already have good coverage and a 100% remote job. I was talking about places in Asia or South America where the cost of living is a fraction of the US. I could just use their cheap doctors for regular health checkups.. If I have to pay because my US insurance doesn't cover it in another country, so what, it's cheap in those places anyway. If they find anything serious, I just fly to US for treatment and use my S-tier insurance at the top rated hospital I work for. In Asia, hospitals tend to be inexpensive and top tier, so if it's something that requires ER and no time to fly, you're still good. In Latin American countries, the quality healthcare probably depends on the country and city. If you're near one of their modern cities, it's probably good.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 19:25:25 GMT -5
Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam! You will get no argument from me that health insurance sucks but as for your friend did they really try and get health insurance? Look over every rock? Check every program? Why didn't they just get a better job? That's right wingers answers to ever question when people complain about the current system? I believe his friend because tax brackets based on income are a thing here and income affects eligibility for insurances/benefits/whatever, which significantly advantage or disadvantage people. He probably could've avoided this by working it out with a tax professional. Contribute a little more to his 401k or donate $300 to charity, to put him in a more favorable bracket.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 19:44:53 GMT -5
Something to realize is that healthcare benefits doesn't equal the American dream. It's only part of it. If you want nice things - a nice home, new car every 4-5 years, go on nice vaca twice a year - that's no longer easily attainable in the US, not if you're making $80k/year (cuz after income taxes that's only about $50k/year, which doesn't even factor taking out all the other taxes - property, sales, etc and insurance).. you'd need closer to $130k/year (before taxes) to live middle-upper class life in the US. If you have a family/kids, even more than that.
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Post by Emig5m on Feb 25, 2024 19:59:16 GMT -5
Nope. I 100% know of someone personally in my circle who went over the yearly income limit by a measly $300 to qualify for any government assisted healthcare and absolutely couldn't afford a never ending monthly health insurance payment and got stung with the Obama fine of $1,600 at tax time. So I ask again, how does that "help" and make things "affordable" by fining someone for something that they can't afford in the first place? My personal main problem with health insurance is that you pay all of that money per month which never ends like a car or house loan that you can never pay off till your death and you can't even A) Just choose to go to whoever doctor for facility that you want to go to because certain places only accept certain insurances and B) All of that never ending high monthly payments and you still have super high co-pay bills on top of that when you do try to use it. My neighbor said that he paid like $2200 a month for him and his wifes health insurance and still had to pay thousands out of pocket on top of that for medical visits. Guess what he was doing a couple month ago? Living in his car, lost his place. I still have mine and a butt load of cash in the bank and in fact take care of his one outdoor cat that he left behind when he had to abandoned his place. You think paying that $2200 a month for health insurance is worth being homeless over? Hell no...not for me. I'd be homeless too if I had to constantly pay $2k bill every month never ending and the fact that you still have to co-pay the bill and can't even choose where you want to go really burns my noodle! What a rip off scam! You will get no argument from me that health insurance sucks but as for your friend did they really try and get health insurance? Look over every rock? Check every program? Why didn't they just get a better job? That's right wingers answers to ever question when people complain about the current system? He had medicade the years before, got some overtime in, and literally went only $300 over the yearly wage limit to qualify. So by just getting some extra hours in, it backfired and actually financially hurt him. At my job its no wonder that we get a fair share of peeps coming in and asking to work under the table so that they don't actually do worse than someone not working at all who completely lives off of the system...
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 20:50:55 GMT -5
You will get no argument from me that health insurance sucks but as for your friend did they really try and get health insurance? Look over every rock? Check every program? Why didn't they just get a better job? That's right wingers answers to ever question when people complain about the current system? He had medicade the years before, got some overtime in, and literally went only $300 over the yearly wage limit to qualify. So by just getting some extra hours in, it backfired and actually financially hurt him. At my job its no wonder that we get a fair share of peeps coming in and asking to work under the table so that they don't actually do worse than someone not working at all who completely lives off of the system... Tax brackets are asinine. yeah, let's penalize people for making more money. That's so brilliant, it encourages ppl to work less hours or work under the table or sometimes even move out of the country. The IRS publishes the tax brackets every year, so you could calculate how many hours to work to stay under a specific bracket. Watch out for end-of-year pay raises or bonuses that could catch you off-guard. A flat tax would be more fair and not catch people off-guard, but we unfortunately have to work within the system.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 21:03:56 GMT -5
Although, the only bracket I'd keep is for those making under poverty level income (keep it 0%). Or even eliminate those below poverty jobs and replace them with UBI.
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 21:06:28 GMT -5
Tax brackets are asinine. yeah, let's penalize people for making more money. That's so brilliant, it encourages ppl to work less hours or work under the table or sometimes even move out of the country. Progressive Taxation makes sense but the Benefit Cliff for the very poor on benefits is awful.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 21:19:47 GMT -5
Tax brackets are asinine. yeah, let's penalize people for making more money. That's so brilliant, it encourages ppl to work less hours or work under the table or sometimes even move out of the country. Progressive Taxation makes sense but the Benefit Cliff for the very poor on benefits is awful. Not if you're the one getting the short end of it. If your income is just a tad over a certain bracket, you're royally screwed. If it's a tad under a bracket, then you benefit the most. Brackets are for people who suck at math. It goes to show u, the govt/IRS doesn't understand Linear Algebra. With a simple linear equation, you could gradually increase tax per $1 earned (so that it's still progressive), and do away with the grade school level bracket system.
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 25, 2024 22:11:52 GMT -5
Not if you're the one getting the short end of it. If your income is just a tad over a certain bracket, you're royally screwed. If it's a tad under a bracket, then you benefit the most. Show me where I said that I wanted the billionaires running things. I'll be waiting. Well that didn't take long did it? With no progressive taxation were are back to the Gilded Age where people sit on these massive piles of wealth that is never reduced via taxes and you have a new caste of billionaires with unlimited wealth and power. We are already partially there thanks to Reagan.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 23:13:41 GMT -5
Not if you're the one getting the short end of it. If your income is just a tad over a certain bracket, you're royally screwed. If it's a tad under a bracket, then you benefit the most. Show me where I said that I wanted the billionaires running things. I'll be waiting. Well that didn't take long did it? With no progressive taxation were are back to the Gilded Age where people sit on these massive piles of wealth that is never reduced via taxes and you have a new caste of billionaires with unlimited wealth and power. We are already partially there thanks to Reagan. lol This conversation about tax brackets doesn't apply to billionaires. Billionaires don't make most of their money through income, hence why they pay so little taxes. If you want billionaries to pay higher taxes, increase the corporate tax and the capital gains taxes. Obama decreased corporate taxes, btw.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 23:27:34 GMT -5
In fairness to Obama, politicians don't have the upper hand over billionaires. If I recall correctly, Obama decreased corporate taxes in response to Apple CEO Tim Cook threatening to move Apple accounts and IT jobs to the UK if our govt didn't lower the corporate tax. Obama had enough sense to accept lower corporate tax over 0 corporate tax (if Apple left the country), not to mention all the income taxes paid by Apple IT workers in the US that could've been lost.
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Post by sj on Feb 25, 2024 23:36:54 GMT -5
What I like about the prospect of increasing capital gains tax is that it should disincentivize speculative buying of shares to some extent and investors play the stock market more conservatively, decreasing the chances of a bubble & crash.
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Post by Emig5m on Feb 26, 2024 3:13:14 GMT -5
What I like about the prospect of increasing capital gains tax is that it should disincentivize speculative buying of shares to some extent and investors play the stock market more conservatively, decreasing the chances of a bubble & crash. What about small guys like me risking investing with their entire savings and if I get lucky and make a little extra the government is supposed to get all my gains from the risk that I took and time that I spent playing the waiting game but if I lose all of my money I don't get compensated for my loses? So if I win, the government wins, but if I lose, the government has no risk involved. So it's like a game of heads and tails where heads they win, tails I lose. Still doesn't resemble the definition of being fair to me. I don't think minor firmware updates to an antiquated and outdated system is the answer. A complete re-envisioning of the entire human society is needed. There's just too much left open to corruption and unfairness in our current system no matter which way you try to make small adjustments where you have people slaving for nothing in one country for the gains of other countries and the people in power getting away with whatever they want on everyone else's dime and pointless wars which waste billions of dollars but yet while we're playing with billions of dollars to kill people we're worried about punishing someone with a $1600 fine just because they couldn't afford health insurance. Huh. The system is a complete and utter sham... It's like playing monopoly when you were kids and you kinda made up and changed the rules as you go.... When someone ran out of money, we just changed the rules mid-game and gave them some more money from the bank just so that they could remain in the game like how IRL money can just be printed out of thin air for those in power but we have to actually work for it and they still get to take some of your money that you work for? If that isn't a complete sham, nothing is....
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 26, 2024 10:21:49 GMT -5
with a $1600 fine just because they couldn't afford health insurance You are really fixated on the ACA $1,600 fine. The whole point of the fine is to motivate more people to get on health insurance and hopefully keep costs low. I am a fan of single payer healthcare so I think insurance sucks too but I see the logic. They saw how it worked in MA getting people on insurance. So lets pretend there is a reality where the ACA didn't pass and we didn't nothing at all to reform healthcare. They could still deny you coverage based off pre-existing conditions, children could no longer stay on their parents insurance till they were 26, drug rehabs wouldn't be covered along with many other changes. Also 40 million people wouldn't have coverage that have it now: aspe.hhs.gov/reports/current-health-coverage-under-affordable-care-act:So you think all of that should not exist because "a guy you know" got a $1,600 fine? 40 million people got coverage but fuck them, think about your friend! Like SJ said I am sure the "guy you know" could have figure something out. You seem to really like right wing conspiracy stuff and from my experience whenever someone complains about how hard it is to make it in modern society the right wingers just say "Did you try getting a job you bum? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!". Why aren't you saying that about the "guy you know" there are other jobs out there that do have health coverage. Do you hate unions as well? Growing up in red state that paradoxically has some pretty amazing unions people like yourself who are into right wing conspiracy stuff absolutely detest unions with every fiber of their being. If "they guy you know" was in a union chances are he would be covered: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ebs2.pdf
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 10:26:49 GMT -5
Emig5m,
It's far worse than that even. The super rich get to borrow more money for ultra-low interest rates and then gamble that borrowed money on the markets. The government facilitates this by printing more & more money each year and, when it causes bank & corporate failures, govt bails them out on the taxpayer dime.
Point of fact, the tax system isn't progressive like ForReal thinks it is. If it were, captial gains taxes would be the progressive tax and billionaires would be paying a fair share.
See how he attacked the idea of flat income tax, thinking that would somehow decrease taxes paid by billionaires (based on false premise that billionaires make money through income) and also thought that i was implying that billionaires should rule.. I've never in my life said that. If billionaires paid the same % (overall - income, capital gains, property, etc) taxes as the lower classes, their taxes would actually go up. Shows where his head is at. Programmed like a good little NPC to support the current system (which supports billionaires) without even realizing it.
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Post by ForRealTho on Feb 26, 2024 10:33:31 GMT -5
See how he attacked the idea of flat income tax The "Flat Tax" is just a way for wealthy people to weasel out of paying higher taxes. I remember back in the 1990s reading a good article on how right wing think tanks pushed the flat tax hard because progressive taxation wouldn't exist at all, and how if a hard flat tax of 15% was implemented how that would reduce government revenue by billions of dollars mostly from the wealthy. Known how the Nordic Countries pay for their societies? Progressive taxation. Not a flat tax. If billionaires are weaseling their way out of paying taxes I am ofc 100% against that. The Musks and Zuckerburgs of the world can pay more instead of doing things like buying Twitter and pulling a Prince and changing the name for no good reason lol
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 10:38:18 GMT -5
I'm not stoked about Crypto investing because govt could regulate it any minute, to stifle it from competing with the $. But she is a self-made millionaire and she has some sage advice about fiat currency being a scam (to make the rich, richer).
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 11:13:47 GMT -5
See how he attacked the idea of flat income tax The "Flat Tax" is just a way for wealthy people to weasel out of paying higher taxes. I remember back in the 1990s reading a good article on how right wing think tanks pushed the flat tax hard because progressive taxation wouldn't exist at all, and how if a hard flat tax of 15% was implemented how that would reduce government revenue by billions of dollars mostly from the wealthy. Known how the Nordic Countries pay for their societies? Progressive taxation. Not a flat tax.If billionaires are weaseling their way out of paying taxes I am ofc 100% against that. The Musks and Zuckerburgs of the world can pay more instead of doing things like buying Twitter and pulling a Prince and changing the name for no good reason lol Do you mean progressive taxes for corporations & billionaires? It'd be interesting to see how that works with economies that aren't based around energy exports. Norway, for example, is an oil-exporting country. Not much billionaires can do to offshore oil since the stuff exists in a fixed place underground until drilled, so they're stuck paying whatever tax their govt demands. Some other Euro countries, ones that are not resource rich, have lower corporate taxes than the US. Ireland and Poland, which many US companies outsource their IT to (for the lower taxes and cheaper labor).
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 12:55:06 GMT -5
Nordic countries rank higher than most others in many areas. It's easy to say we should just mirror them. It's almost like saying I'm gonna be an astronaut and thinking a snap of fingers (like Thanos) can make it happen.
Do any of those Nordic countries have nearly a trillion $ annual defense budget, trillion+ $ annual trade deficit, $30+ trillions in Federal debt, trillions of consumer debt, opioid crisis w/ youth dropping like flies, millions being added to welfare rolls due to mass illegal immigration, more diverse economy (most of which have ability to outsource their supply chains and workforce, the few that haven't done so already, escaping paying corporate taxes in the US), etc? That last one's the nail in the coffin for mirroring a predominantly oil-exporting nation. We can't simply, overnight, require US companies to drop their foreign suppliers, becoming an isolated/anti-globalization economy, without wrecking the economy. However, I'd argue the US economy is already a house of cards economy, but they have ways of stacking the deck (mainly, propping up the petrodollar through endless wars) - making the collapse more of a slow-burn (up to now, anyway).
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 17:21:21 GMT -5
I've seen you and SJ bitch about the elite billionaires over and over. Well Republicans endgane is there is no government and people like Gates and Musk become the government. Why would you support that? I thought it was you guys who jerked off to Gates and the WEF? And I personally know of people who didn't qualify for medicaid, just made enough a year to put them over the yearly income limit who also were barely making ends meet and being forced to pay an insane never ending monthly health insurance payment month after month (plus co-payments) would of meant having to forgo paying rent and being homeless. So there was a middle area were people made just a tad too much to qualify for medicaid but also couldn't afford health insurance but then they got fined $1,600 for not being able to afford insurance, how does that make things "affordable"? Like I said, it's no different than fining a poor homeless person for not being able to afford a home and calling it the affordable home act and you know it. There's no other way around it. Facts are 100% facts. Maybe instead not fucking overcharging eight grand for a freaking 15 minute MRI process... You know they use that machine every single day and could cut the cost down to 1/8th and still make money hand over fist... Regarding that Musk bit. The House China committee are morons or CCP shills if they are being serious.
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Post by sj on Feb 26, 2024 17:45:52 GMT -5
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