this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
129 points (92.2% liked)

Asklemmy

43941 readers
745 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Military numbers seem grossly undervalued

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

$83 billion per month is almost $1 trillion per year. That sounds about right.

[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh dang, missed the part of this monthly.

[–] MiraculousMM@hexbear.net 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Right I thought the average size of a congress approved defense budget was just under a trillion lol

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We don't know their dark money shush fund income or expenditure, and guess who's never passed an audit?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The US has a problem of representation. Specifically and especially since the Citizens United decision, corporate interests can easily flow money towards politicians to make them do just about anything they want. This exacerbated an existing problem with the corporate tax rate and has now brought it into laughably low territory.

That's all an oversimplification of course, but it's not that Americans haven't "figured it out". It is far more complicated than that.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. I'm getting quite tired of people posting the most fucking obvious takes about problems in the US, then going "why haven't americans fixed this? are they stupid?", when we have exceedingly small control over the actions of our shitass policy makers.

It's some real "everyone is dumb except for me" energy.

[–] VeganicTankie@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yet somehow most Americans think they are a democracy

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Someone defending the US few weeks ago said: "decisions are made by those who show up and vote".

No, decisions are made by those who hold economic and political power. That is NOT the citizenry of capitalist dictatorships. Having elections also serves a lot of ideological functions like:

  • Building consent / subservience for the capitalist dictatorship.
  • Creating the illusion of democracy.
  • Being an entertaining and distracting theatre piece.
  • Serving as a platform for capitalist ideas and talking points, making everything else seem "illegitimate"
  • Being used as a tool of western chauvinism, labeling any other system (even substantive people's democracies) as "undemocratic".
[–] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

exactly ,

Passiv Income has 100% of the Delegates and the 2 Major partys ,

while Active Income has no Represenative at all...

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

USians spent 4.5 TRILLION dollars on healthcare in 2022.

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 12 points 2 months ago

Or 375 billion/month, given the month scale in the above image

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

It was really bothering me that I was pronouncing this β€œYOO ESS-EEANNS” in my head every time I saw people using it. I just realized it can definitely also be β€œYOO-ZHIANS.” Which is obviously far superior.

[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Oh, we've known. There just isn't anything we can do about it.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Like we did with Occupy Wall Street or are doing now for Palestine?

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago

No, harder. Much, much harder.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

OWS crumbled in ways right out of various leaked three letter agency guides to disrupting grass roots movements.

I'd love to see it get another try, with how news sources have become far more decentralized. Less opportunity for major news orgs to kill the momentum.

Full disclosure, the destruction of OWS is pretty much the one thing I allow myself to go "full tinfoil hat" over.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 2 months ago

Covid protests and jan6... There is a always some fed running this things even ifntheu start organically.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not American, but generally exploite people can't afford to miss work.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago (9 children)

The bolsheviks managed to, as have other revolutionary groups.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Imagine if americans were as excited to shoot politicians as they get about shooting kids in school

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

buissness is getting squezed . also the current minority...

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago

Most have, increasingly so, they just lack strong orgs. As Imperialism decays, more will be forced to grapple with reality.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Estate taxes is woefully small. There should be a 100% death tax on all assets after $1M, excluding a single home.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

The tax formally known as β€œinheritance tax”.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] davel@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)
[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The people are in debt... to themselves

[–] protist@mander.xyz 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And as long as people have confidence in our currency, the debt we owe to ourselves really doesn't matter

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 2 months ago
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] TheBroodian@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That National Defense slice looking like it could be decimated, also

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago

It isn't cheap being "leader of the free world".

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

TBF taxes on billionaires would go under individual taxes. And corporate taxes are relatively easy to fudge because corporations aren't real except on paper.

[–] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

TBF you should really put more effort into "figuring it out" because you did not figure it out ..

i will give you a hint:

who is getting represented ?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's a technical detail people might not have been aware of, and I've pointed it out. I'm going to disengage rather than defend a viewpoint I don't even necessarily hold.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

An astounding amount of our government goes towards taking care of old people, yet it still feels like there is basically no safety net for them.

[–] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

I’d like to see one of these for the UK tax system

[–] Tofu_Lewis@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The poorest Americans are constantly fighting with the bureaucracy to get assistance, this is by design to make them hate it.

Any addition to the expansion of the state will be met with hostility.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί