this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Military numbers seem grossly undervalued

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

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

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

Oh dang, missed the part of this monthly.

[–] MiraculousMM@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

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

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

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[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago (1 children)

Yet somehow most Americans think they are a democracy

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month 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 1 month ago

exactly ,

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

while Active Income has no Represenative at all...

[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago

No, harder. Much, much harder.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month 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.

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[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (9 children)

The bolsheviks managed to, as have other revolutionary groups.

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[–] FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] zante@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah I can’t figure it out. All those gun rights. You’d think they’d do more with them

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[–] ThomasMuentzner@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

USians spent 4.5 TRILLION dollars on healthcare in 2022.

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago

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

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.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago

The tax formally known as β€œinheritance tax”.

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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.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)
[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The people are in debt... to themselves

[–] protist@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 1 month ago
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[–] TheBroodian@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago

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

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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.

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[–] Tofu_Lewis@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month 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.

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[–] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

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

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