My city can’t afford housing or transit but just spent $150 million building a stadium for live nation. Free taxpayer funded stadiums for corporations to profit from, yay!
I’d be happy paying taxes if they went to social works and infrastructure and whatnot, but yeah.
Now let’s talk about spending 60-80% of my remaining income on rent
Love my taxes going to committing genocide and protecting Israel
*and actively destroys/dismantles anything one could remotely be proud of having their tax money go to.
I’d gladly fund NASA and scientific research any day of the week, but nooooo gotta feed the poor poor billionaires.
My republican coworkers are complaining about NASA because they always flake when buying our products (we sell electronic stuff to defense related military contractors) because they don’t have enough budget.
Fucking idiots don’t realize that their political party doesn’t even want a NASA
but noooo gotta feed the poor
HUH?!
poor billionaires
Aaaahhhh.
:P
Yeah, I did the same thing at first. Did the half head tilt thing and didnt finish reading and was like, uhm, am I readinnn that right? Oh.
“You forgot your briefcase!”
- issuing currency
- collecting taxes
- suppressing evidence of child sex trafficking
One of these things is so outrageously unlike the others that it makes me kinda sus of whoever decided to put them all in the same list
They’re mad at #2 because #1 gives them all the money they need to do #3. So why do they need my money too?
All USD is printed. Taxes are the only thing that gives USD its value.
I have a problem with the meme playing footsie with the ideas that taxes are theft and money-printing is fraud.
These are common neo-metallist arguments. And in techie spaces like the fediverse, libertarians like to sneak them into the conversation while going “How do you do, fellow progressives?” before they start pitching NFTs.
*Corrupt Government
*Has the ability to print money out of thin air with no downside.
*Forces you pay taxes anyway making you technically complicit in its crimes.
*Uses Its infinite wealth and power to openly protect child predators instead of something good because it is a corrupt government. (The most recent thing in the news cycle)
Interesting how all these things line up together when you don’t abstract these things into nothingness. It makes me very sus of the person who decide to reword these so they don’t fit on the same list.
No disagreement on the corruption, coercion, or economic exploitation.
Nor that there’s a straight line from their ability to manipulate the economic and legal systems… directly to their ability to evade justice for the worst crimes imaginable.
My concern is:
Tech libertarians using a (nearly-) universally-acknowledged and reviled scourge as a pretense to post in progressive spaces and sneak in neo-metallist sentiments like “taxation is theft” and “money-printing is fraud”.
I’m not saying OP or even OOP is one, for sure. But the meme does advance their narrative.
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You really saw a random image of Xi making a
face and got upset enough from the sight of him to start comparing a chinese man a yellow bear. 
Just skip to using slurs next time loser your not slick.No I think slurs are awful, but its just laughably easy to annoy a lot of tankies by pointing out fairly well-evidenced, uncontroversial facts, so its a bit of a hobby of mine.
Speaking of which, here’s another well-evidenced, uncontroversial fact:
The Pooh Bear meme originated in China, amongst Chinese netizens, criticizing Xi.
Oh, shit, fuck, I guess that makes me uh, a cultural appropriator, yeah, fuck, damn, I’m such a bad loser person, that attack angle will work!
Pooh bear thing is a racist redditism so maybe just cut that part from your repertoire
The Pooh Bear meme originated in China, amongst Chinese netizens, criticizing Xi.
I think you should get a better argument becase racists take things that minorities were doing and ruin them all the time. E.g. how “woke” lost its meaning when white people started using it. Even if the first time Xi and Obama were compared to Winnie the Pooh and Tiger it was done by Chinese internet users (which, by the way, doesn’t even mean it wasn’t racist, there’s a lot of racist crap on the Chinese internet too) doesn’t mean that when Western internet users do the same thing they mean it the same way.
Another example is how the Dave Chappelle Show used to have an audience who appreciated the way Dave Chappelle made fun of racists by embodying caricatures, then it slowly started to build up an audience of racists that didn’t know the joke was on them. It got to the point that Chappelle stopped doing the show because the audience had gotten so white and so racist that when he talked about anything going on in the Black community, he felt the show’s fans were just weaponizing it against Black people (see his famous “there’s n words, and there’s n words” joke). Just because something starts out within a minority community and isn’t necessarily racist in origin, doesn’t mean that when white people pick it up and decontextualize it it’ll remain benign.
No I think slurs are awful
But racist caricatures are just fine and dandy for you. So you’re not just a racist, you’re a hypocrite who likes to pretend you’re not racist. Good to know.
but its just laughably easy to annoy a lot of tankies by pointing out fairly well-evidenced, uncontroversial facts,
What annoys “tankies” is typical white western chauvinist losers who mistake the western “culture” they’ve been brought up in and force-fed propaganda as “uncontroversial facts” that just happen to parrot US state department talking points. Yes, it gets very annoying to have to counter the same cringe bullshit that liberals who fancy themselves as radical say over and over, after being absolutely refuted over and over. You can only explain the basics to a smug 5-year-old so many times before it starts to wear on a person no matter how patient they are. Also, you should know that the people you’re calling “tankies” aren’t just ML’s but also anarchists who have taken the time to educate themselves (rather than “anarchists” who just adopt the term while still adhering to liberalism and carrying water for the systems of oppression they say they’re opposed to).
so its a bit of a hobby of mine.
Jesus, it never ceases to amaze me when some fool literally announces how cringe they are yet think they’re being clever or cool for making the announcement.
The Pooh Bear meme originated in China, amongst Chinese netizens, criticizing Xi.
A racist meme appeared in an evil and authoritarian country that doesn’t tolerate the spread of open racism (so evil and authoritarian!) so they removed and blocked that meme on their web. This meme and the rumors about it being blocked were then picked up by racists in the freedomland country where racism reigns supreme (because people are so free there) and twisted into an absurd lie about a cartoon character being banned in the evil country (which never happened), and used as propaganda (based on a lie) to reinforce the common knowledge that everybody knows: the mean authoritarian country that addresses racism is so evil and authoritarian it bans cartoon characters! So now all the good freedom-enjoyers in freedomland like yourself get to use that racist meme and the lie it’s tied to to make oh so very cogent points about freedom and how bad it is to be authoritarian. You really owned the tankies here, wowzers!
And corruption obviously also exists in China, the CCP is basically constantly crusading against it.
Wow, it must suck to live in an evil authoritarian country that actively works to stamp out corruption instead of endlessly rewarding it like in freedomland USA.
“It’s a bit of a hobby of mine”
God I hope you huff so many of your own farts you literally choke to death. And I don’t even gaf about China tbh, you just seem like an insufferable waste of oxygen
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Please fuck off with this racist “pooh bear” shit. People like you are why people call most white western anarchists social fascists/chauvinists.
You really need to do better.
Why are you fucking people so obsessed with a country you have no way of influencing, you do not live there, and all you are doing is adding to the chorus of racist and fascist propaganda espoused by western intelligence and corporate news?
Work on fighting your government and let the people of China decide what to do about theirs (spoiler alert the vast majority quite like it there).
Also taxes in China are fundamentally different than taxes in the US in both use and because again printing infinite money. China does not do that.
Edit: I didn’t see the emoji load when I wrote this but my point stands. I would not be chuffed about my taxes going to build massive amounts of public housing and high speed rail in a country that has not fought an offensive war since Mao’s revolution. I’d rather be an anarchist in China running a rural collective farming outfit or some shit than trying to do the same thing in China than I would in the US who will murder me just for being a communist if it looked like we are getting too popular.
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A charitable interpretation of “printing money out of thin air” is how they bail out corporations and landlords. Why even save if the game is so obviously rigged?
-genocide
Okay but we all get that Douglas was the bad guy, right?
I’m pretty sure the bad guy was the fucked-up system that tortured him into his behavior. He’s a victim as much as any of the people he hurt.
Well…
Yeah, originally I was going to say I don’t agree at all with his character, but the progression is so great, leading up to the “I’m the bad guy?” moment.
He is bad guy, but he is not bad guy
He was pretty alright when he killed that nazi
I didn’t see that part ;)
Oh damn, I’ve never seen this thanks for linking.
Perhaps you would also enjoy Changing Lanes. (Trailer)
I just don’t get how this has a 6.5 score, it seems like at least a 7+. But maybe it’s the rose tinted glasses, we were kind of spoiled for good movies back in 2002 when it came out, and most of the votes are probably from back then.
I can hear Iron Maiden’s ‘Man on the Edge’ music.
That’s it, I’m walking directly home in a straight line
I don’t want to be your buddy, Rick. I just want a little breakfast…
Such a great scene.
D-FENS is so aspirational especially the part where he stands up to the brown people and foreigners and then
spoiler
tries to murder suicide his daughter on her birthday
1/3, huh? You must be a high-earning Californian or New Yorker. I don’t think anyone else pays that much.
Completely false
In California as a single person, with only the standard deductions and not deducting anything else (no health insurance or 401k) you would have to make 210k to pay 1/3 of your salary. If you pay $100 a month in health insurance premiums and put 5% into 401k then you have to make over 275k to pay 1/3 of your salary in income tax
top tax bracket in those states is somewhere in the 50% neighborhood
Top tax rate in California is 12.5%. and it marginal so only the portion you make above the cutoff is what’s taxed at that percent.
You also have to pay federal tax. And if you are in the top tax bracket you are earning somewhere between 700k and infinity money so what you are taxed on in that bracket can be almost nothing or it can asymptotically approach 100% of your earnings. In any case the top federal tax brackets is 37% and the top california tax bracket as you said is 12.5% which so happens to add up to 49.5%. Plus all the other stuff like social security and whatnot.
Those tax rates are marginal. That’s not the literal rate you pay.
Yes I know how taxes work. Do you know how much money some people make?
And what are we even arguing about? I said the top tax bracket is in the 50% neighborhood and youve been trying to pedantically incorrect me.
Oh actually i guess youre a different redditor
You’re right. I’ve been trying to correct you. It seems like you’re wrong.
And now your going to die wearing that stupid little hat
If you were part of the billionaire class, you’d be paying less. Sucker.
Is tax 33% in the USA? or are you not referring to the USA?
I’ve been self employed so I pay all my own taxes, it’s more like 25%.
Federal taxes plus state taxes plus property taxes (if you own any) plus vehicle taxes (usually in the form of plates and fuel taxes) plus sales taxes (on anything you buy) plus who-knows-what all else.
It adds up to a good chunk of the average working person’s paycheck.
Edit: Forgot to add county and local taxes. For example, Cook county Illinois adds substantial sales taxes and gas taxes on top of state sales and and federal gas taxes.
Hot take: I think any involuntary expense forced on you by your government is, essentially, a tax regardless of whether it goes into government or corporate coffers, and should be included in the discussion.
Health insurance being the major example, given that’s paid for by taxes in civilized countries. Arguably, the insurance, gas, and maintenance on a car that many of us would happily trade for a functional public transportation system.
TBH Ima put Social Security in the tax section too as I doubt people under 50 are gonna collect on it.
Hi, disabled under 50 yo person here, my only income is SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance.
Don’t worry, us disabled folks are entirely used to our existence being entirely forgotten about.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. I didn’t forget and I’m not worried, I chose to not bring it up because it’s a shitty comment thread not a research paper. Generally, SSDI is not really worth bringing up on if it is taxes or not and I’d personally argue that tying someone’s ability to live disabled to their previous work is needlessly cruel.
You said you doubt people under 50 collect on Social Security.
… Disabled people do.
Generally, SSDI is not really worth bringing up on if it is taxes or not…
Hey I mean yeah, sure, unless its your only source of income!
Not like I’ll become homeless and die within 3 to 6 months if taxes going toward SSDI suddenly get reclassified or rerouted or totally removed!
Not like that’s the case for about 6.3 million Americans under the age of 65 whose only income is SSDI!
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/
sigh
…and I’d personally argue that tying someone’s ability to live disabled to their previous work is needlessly cruel.
At least we agree on that.
I’m still not sure what you’re trying to say here. I have agreed with everything you have said, you’re just really annoying about having to self insert yourself into a comment thread like you have to be the center of attention. Tell me, what happens if people under 50 now can never pull from social security for retirement? They will also face 3-6 months before homelessness and death. You immediately made it about how it’s not a tax because you’re one of those who gets to use it as opposed to pay in and never claim.
I never once argued for the removal of SSDI, I only ever brought up how tens or hundreds of millions could face very harsh retirements. For the average American worker, social security is deducted from their pay and they might never see what you now rely on.
Federal Tax Rates in the US 2024-25 run from 10% to 37%.
I am guessing that not too many pay over 30% then? Also that this is in brackets, so that only the amount over certain point is taxed higher?
I am still surprised that taxes can be so high, and people require so little for it!
If you earn $50-200k, they you’re in the 22-24% federal tax bracket, but probably pay 15-20% Federal income tax. Plus 7.65% payroll tax (also federal). Plus 5-10% state tax. Some cities have an income tax. But yeah: 25-35% total tax burden is pretty common for middle income people.
Part of the problem is that we, the people, don’t get to determine the requirements. Our elected representatives do, and wouldn’t you know it - corporations pay them off to siphon money to the richest among us and give us nothing in return. Legalized bribery is the bread and butter of American politics, it’s why things are so incredibly corrupt here and why we’re living in an oligarchy, not a democracy.
Then after retirement and benefits it’s anywhere from 20% to 50%. I’m at about 25% just with tax, 36% with benefits and retirement.
Depending on if your deductions are calculated correctly (you have to negotiate that with your job) you might end up getting a refund layer or have to pay, so in reality my rate is more like 30% overall. People with more expensive insurance or less tax credits and or other things on top of that are going to have it worse off.
I make half what I would need to be able to afford buying a home in my area and be able to make mortgage payments and still have money left
Most people are either sheep, or have given up the fight. That is why anything that requires great change either doesn’t happen, or happens only when something impactful affects them personally. ‘Look over there…Netflix!’
There are also State taxes that aren’t normally differentiated from when complaining about tax rates even though they go to different places. In some states it’s pretty much the same things.
Federal income tax rates for individuals are categorized into seven brackets: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%
10%: Applies to the lowest income bracket. 12%: Applicable just above the 10% bracket, capturing more of the median incomes. 22%, 24%: These middle brackets cover a broad range, reflecting moderate to higher-income levels. 32%, 35%: Affect those with substantially higher earnings before hitting the peak rate. 37%: The top rate, reserved for the highest earners. It’s important to note that these rates apply to different portions of your income rather than the entire amount. This means that if you fall into the 24% bracket, only income within that range is taxed at 24%.
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