Military Industrial Complex

    by coachlife

    33 Comments

    1. They’re taking the money from the wrong end.

      This creates a society where the people getting more are hoarding money while the people getting too little end up spending money they don’t have.

      If you are a conservative voter, you voted for this exact system to never change or progress.

    2. Journeys_End71 on

      Anyone who ever complains about their tax money going to fund Sesame Street, remind them that $1 Trillion goes to fund the Defense department and that doesn’t include the money spent on Veterans Benefits, nor the money spent on the Intelligence budget, nor the interest on debt we racked up paying for wars by (checks notes) cutting taxes on corporations and the rich.

    3. KynarethNoBaka on

      Also a misunderstanding.

      The national debt of a currency issuing government, denominated in only its own currency, is just the savings of everyone who uses that currency.

      If the govt got rid of that “debt” by taxes, it would do literally nothing to its policy-space, except in the ways that suddenly annihilating everyone’s savings in dollars would change govt policy. If it did so through spending cuts, it’d suddenly have to explain why everyone not a billionaire is suddenly living in the 500s, in the ruins of a dead empire where nothing works anymore, except for the cyberpunk hell city states with none of the charm of fictional cyberpunk.

      It’s just a stupid thing to be worried about. All problems related to the national debt as it is have to do with distribution of wealth. All problems that can occur from increasing it are likewise determined by how, for what, for whom it’s increased. There is literally zero factually valid reason to reduce it. Literally zero. Again, no reason based in facts.

      By all means you absolutely should tax 100% of wealth in excess of a lifetime’s income at the median wage. But that’s to limit inequality, not to fund things. They can, do, and should spend more money into existence than they tax out. So when zapping all that oligarch money, they should at the same time spend even more on meeting or surpassing the standard set by all other countries in the cost of living side of things.

    4. For starters, it doesn’t take 40% of anyone’s income. Most taxpayers pay somewhere around an effective 13-15% of their salaries in federal income taxes. So revenue is much lower than it could be.

      Then there’s spending. There are three things we spend lots of money on: the military and weapons; Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare; and Social Security. There’s only one of the three that can be cut – the military/defense budget. The lobbying from the military industrial complex is overwhelming, and that’s so far inhibiting change. But EVERYBODY is affected by Medicare and Medicaid and other federal health care plans (the VA, Tricare, etc) and that directly translates I to votes. When something eventually gives, it’ll be the MI complex.

    5. Oh dear… a country can run debt like this because uhm… countries are structured differently than people or corporations. For example, a country has these certain financial engines at its disposal like collecting taxes, issuing bonds, printing notes… that sort of thing. People who compare a country being in debt with an individual being in debt haven’t taken a basic economics course.

    6. Give tax dollars to the rich so they don’t fail, the rich takes that money and invests it overseas… government then has to borrow the same money from overseas to function… cycle continues

    7. Ok_Animal_2709 on

      40% is also nonsense. Most people’s effective tax rate is way lower than the highest marginal tax rate of 35%

    8. Im_A_Chuckster on

      No, only 40% from poor people. They take like a tenth of a tenth of a percent from everyone that makes over a billion a year

    9. I think you’d find that 40% off of the top 10%, coupled with an adequately funded and staffed IRS would see that $38t get cut down considerably.

    10. The actual answer is federal spending is depositors into private sector accounts. The government debt is the money circulating in all
      Our accounts, jobs, groceries, rents, production … all of it.

    11. America has the highest concentration of billionaires and billion dollar corporations and they pay $0 in taxes while accepting free subsidies.

    12. I’m a millionaire living off my investments, I can assure you the government has never come close to taking 40% of my earnings.

      If they did that I might have continued working past my 40s.

    13. It takes 40% of literally nobody.

      Ken Griffin went to Congress to beg and plead to still just get 21% taken. He won.

    14. NotClayDabbler on

      Trump spending like a drunk being one. Why is it the deficit goes down when dems get two terms? Goes right back up under a Republican. Answer…stop voting in Republicans?

    15. They’re giving it to rich corporations and spending it on vacations and private jets for themselves.

    16. BraveLittleTowster on

      Because it doesn’t take 40% of everyone money. The highest marginal rate is 37% and virtually no one pays that. Most people pay almost no federal income tax aside from FICA, and that goes right back out to pay for Medicare and social security. 

      People think they’re taxed to death, but we’re in one of the lowest tax environments since the early 1900s. The government is on debt because we keep cutting taxes without cutting spending.

    17. OzarksExplorer on

      Ask an adult how taxes work Taya. And speak with a tax professional if you’re paying %40

    18. john-reddit-man on

      Who the fuck is having 40% of there income taxed? People need learn how a progressive income tax works

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