this post was submitted on 10 May 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism
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The same reason people running the company are trying to squish the yellow circle as much as possible.
But building a good community through the funding of public services via taxation is a moral/ethical good.
Striving to reduce labor costs to enrich yourself, especially to the detriment of that labor and to an excessive degree of wealth for yourself, is a moral/ethical evil.
Taxation, when run by and for the people who generate it, is a good thing that people should strive to support. It's a misunderstanding to not view taxation in a well working system (examining individual systems, not the whole in some binary fashion) as a cost efficiency for things you already want - childcare, education, healthcare, public transportation (busses, trams/railcars, trains, bicycle infrastructure), insurance, energy, food, research, protection, charity, infrastructure, etc.
This is where the argument always gets muddy. The whole point of government and taxes is that we all chip in to pay for things that benefit everyone, and the government administers it. In the US, especially now, this system has become so perverted that the job of the government has become funneling all that money to the richest people while convincing the general population that what's happening is to their benefit.
Which I understand and agree with. But to come to LateStageCapitalism and claim people who want to minimize taxes have the same motives as the people who want to minimize worker wages is I think too reductive for my taste.
I think the working man shoots himself in the foot when they push to minimize taxing. I think people need to hold taxation and public services in high esteem and it needs to be a pride for people. I think at the same time we have to be honest and outraged by how our tax dollars are spent (in the US at least.
The US being corrupt doesn't change the principle, it just changes how we address this specific instance. But the people who shake their fist at union dues are doing LateStageCapitalisms' work for the oligarchs, just the same as taxes. We should be pushing for more taxes on the wealthy, tax billionaires out of existence and cap millionaires at something reasonable and safe for democracy like let's say 5 million in assets.
Taxes can be a formidable tool against corporations and for the people.
100% agree. I blame entitled billionaires kids for just about all our problems and would love to see a 100% estate tax on any amount over say 10 million.
I'm Australian, living in Australia, but spent 10 years living in the US and have an American wife, and I'm constantly shocked by how little Americans accept for their taxes.
Here, I pay 2.5% of my income so that everyone can get health care when they need it. Not only am I fine with that, but I'd happily pay twice that if they throw in dental as well. But we also give billions in tax breaks to foreign mining companies to come and dig up our minerals and ship them overseas so that my kids and I get nothing from them.
I'm not anti tax, I'm more than happy to pay for healthcare, education, food, housing and more so that everyone has a decent standard of living. But I despise putting a single dollar in the pocket of anyone who is already independently wealthy.
When I actually looked at what was sucking up a third off my paycheck taxes was actually a fairly small portion. Most of it was paying united Healthcare to make me switch psychiatrists which I had to do twice because the first one (who I had to try first) was a telepsychiatrist who could immediately tell that I can't be managed that way. Whoever is going to claim responsibility for this clusterfuck needs to see me in person at least once a year plus a few times more I look particularly shitty. I could have told them that without having to risk somebody who doesn't know me getting me committed... twice in under a month!
Honest question: say it gets divided, who will decide on the right margin the company run with?
Who is the company?
We can pick Cooler Master for example
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Because basically nobody you know can even do their own taxes or read above an 8th grade level? Fucking nobody you ask has an answer to a best estimate of their "total economic value". Anyone who CAN give that estimate is outside the target audience of this post.
Should people be paid more? For sure yes. Do you think the target audience of this post can even accurately tell you the value of both gross income and AGI? Lol no.
The yellow vs green circle is what I've chosen to sell my time for. It's a choice.
The taxes portion is also a choice, but I only get to choose whether and how much to fund schools and hospitals and accessible healthcare on a 5 year ticket.
I'm only glad that the bundle i pick that goes status-quo on healthcare and schools is also the one that doesn't hate brown people or women AND has a chance of getting to run the show.
Sorry, I forgot what we were talking about. How does anarchy fund accessible healthcare again?
So are you actually interested in what anarchism looks like or just going for a gotcha because based on you calling it anarchy I'm guessing the second one.
Chose, so you weren't born into it but migrated into it? For lack of a better choice?
The late stage anarchy threat is over there. Here we criticize capitalism. Or are you looking for the apathics anonymous? Or the bootlickers forums?