That’s the only good thing i guess. I heard that the law is against ppl and they can treat humans like cattle as long as its for your safety (lets set covid as an example). What a shitty place to live.
I strongly believe that this should be the standard everywhere. Unfortunately most governments won’t tell you this, because a few of them are busy building golden temples for their authoritarian leaders, and blowing half of it on cocaine while pretending it’s the immigrants’ faults
This is a poor take, a few to vote is not the easy to go about this. Even owing taxes shouldn’t bar someone from voting as voting is about being represented and everyone deserves representation. Even hardened criminals.
Not only this, I think this should be selectable by taxpayers before they pay taxes so they can customize the amount that goes to each category. This would be the true democratic way of doing it. So, for example, based on your salary you need to pay 20k in taxes. You’d then select how much you want to go into Transportation, Healthcare, defense, education, etc.
This would quickly force the government agencies to work for their money.
This wouldn’t be truely democratic. It would rather be just like donations. Government spending works, because it’s all out into the same basket. If it weren’t, then rich taxpayers would move the movey to projects they want - and as would have very little old-age welfare, because they don’t pay much taxes anymk6and every group in society would put the money into their projects.
This is but one of many sites which show a breakdown of where our money in the US goes. Having one that breaks down each person’s personal contribution would be especially interesting, but a percent is a percent so if 20% of our money collectively goes to X, then 20% of what your paid as an individual will also go to X.
sometimes accessibility and user experience is more important than "its available if you look for it.: 99% of people don’t really have time, they have families, jobs, some leisure, cooking, paying bills, visiting family. etc. etc. So it should be easy and the FACT that it isn’t easy is purposeful whereas the Australian system is purposefully easy.
I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but again, it IS easy. It took me less than 10 seconds to find the link I provided. Sure, make it even easier still by including it with every tax return, but let’s not kid ourselves - this shit is incredibly easy but average taxpayers just don’t want to bother.
I would argue average taxpayers don’t know it exists and a ton of them, particularly older ones have a very hard time with technology. I’ve had to show my mother in law how to get a url from her phone to her desk top, I’ve explained what the read mode means in Firefox, and numerous other things. Easy for you doesn’t mean easy for everyone.
Health wouldn’t be on there at all because fuck em
Defense would be spelled correctly and be so large that it would need to be on its own section, because the chart scale would distort things so badly that everything else would look like a sliver above zero
Education would be smaller than your immigration
Welfare, depending on the administration, would likely be some derogatory categorization for each group just to piss off their base
“other” would be the best biggest thing after Defense and provide no details, because it would be corporate subsidies and that would look bad
Health wouldn’t be on there at all because fuck em
The US actually does spend an incredible amount of money on healthcare compared to other countries. Nearly $2 trillion in the budget for FY 2023 alone. Medicare and Medicaid comprising the majority of that spending.
The US spends about twice as much per person for healthcare out of taxes than comparably rich nations do.
The problem isn’t the budget, it’s the cost. Healthcare is way too damn expensive in the US compared to elsewhere.
But remember, having all these private companies run the system is good, actually! The alternative is communism despite every other capitalist country in the world using the alternative!
This is very easy to find with a simple google search. Here’s the year-to-date spending for 2023:
$1.01T social security
$673B health
$636B medicare
$623B income security
$610B defense
$494B net interest
$220B veteran benefits & services
$201B education, training, employment, and social services
$89B transportation
$74B community and regional development
$179B other
Not only is it pretty common for a democracy to be pretty open about how they spend their tax budget, it’s really common for these figures to be discussed when attacking America 🙄
I mean, we spend more on defense than the next several nations combined and we haven’t won a war in 80 years.
We spend more on healthcare than every other nation and it’s still the most expensive healthcare system in the world.
We spend hundreds of billions on a welfare system that forces people on it to keep working until the day they die.
We throw out billions in kickbacks and “incentives” to billion dollar companies.
I could go on with the numerous, seemingly never ending problems with the US, but the point is that our system is indeed bad and dumb. Nothing we have works, and all of it is extremely over funded and under delivering. At this point, tearing it all up and starting again seems like the easier way to fix things, and getting to that point is never good
Social security is SELF-FUNDING, and even still lends money to the general fund. Yes, this a list of all government spending, but it isn’t what your FICA payment goes towards. Military spending is #1 for that.
Basically if you wiggle in a fluid you push that fluid around you. The scallop moved via muscles it has, and shoves water down and away from its destination, which pushes it towards it.
It moves by opening and closing rapidly, to suck in and force out water.
Another way to say that is “You don’t have to be graceful to swim”, and scallops certainly fit that bill.
Oh ha ha, here I thought it looked like those gangly things were appendages it was using to run across the ocean floor, but I guess it’s just seaweed stuck to the shell?
As yet, social security is still a SELF-FUNDING program that lends money to the general fund. I’m gen-x, not a boomer. Stop buying into generational warfare. We have more in common with working class boomers than with gen Z tech bros.
As someone who has spent a lot of their time around wanna be gen z tech bros, 99% of people have more in common with a damn antelope than gen z tech bros, especially the fanatically devoted ones. Those guys make some Jonestown people look like they aren’t weren’t in a cult
It’s also had negative cash flow for the last decade despite exponentially growing future obligations, and is currently trending towards insolvency by 2033. That’s what happens when you detach expenditures from taxes. So while boomers are simultaneously enjoying low taxes and reaping the benefits of social security, the fund will run out of money before it can have any chance of paying out for millennials. It’s not like the social security taxes I’m paying now are being “set aside” for me - they’re going directly into the welfare checks for my parents.
and what’s wrong with “social services” having a negative cash flow? It’s to help people in need, that’s the entire purpose of taxes, to help the community/country. why do people think that any government systems should be positive cash flow like it’s a business? LOL
Pretty sure they aren’t upset at the government not turning a profit or taking care of people.
social security is still a SELF-FUNDING program
[Insolvency is] what happens when you detach expenditures from taxes.
So while boomers are simultaneously enjoying low taxes and reaping the benefits of social security, the fund will run out of money before it can have any chance of paying out for millennials.
It’s not like the social security taxes I’m paying now are being “set aside” for me
I think something like this would make U.S. citizens feel better about taxes in general, since it can sometimes feel like you’re throwing a large portion of your hard-earned money away.
The data to create this is essentially public with budget bills right? It would just take building a percentage tree and categorizing them appropriately. I might look into how complex this would be to build.
its basically just proportioning out the nations budget against the amount of tax paid,assuming you had access to how much was spent where by category, it would be a peice of piss to make
Most in Australia don’t read where the money goes. Taxes aren’t too bad (IMO) and the system is so easy that once you submit you don’t really go back to see where it went. Or maybe I live in a bubble.
Mind you the largest chunk of that is the elderly with the unemployed being one of the smallest ones. I’m very much in favour of both by the way.
If you think your taxes are too high then it’s not because too much is going to welfare; it’s because too much is going to tax breaks (which won’t show up on a chart like this) for fossil fuel companies and the wealthy.
mildlyinteresting
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