this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
835 points (97.5% liked)
Memes
45680 readers
1398 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is the trap of marketing and communication. They donate for the image, to hide the image of the rich disconnected from the reality of the poorer.
I'm all for the rich to contribute to pay and help the people, but not through charity. The rich must be taxed, and these taxes serves to help with government jobs, so everyone has a word to say. With taxes, we help the poorer, we help in case of natural disasters, we found the researches, we give access to healthcare, we... With charity, we help the riches to keep an oppressive system of power over the poorest. It's a system to keep the huge gap between rich and poor.
The rich are taxed. They pay way more than you do. They pay way more than the non rich people combined. The top 10 rich people pay more taxes than all the non rich people. So don't come at me about taxes. Your tax contribution is basically nothing. Whereas they pay insane amounts.
In my country. You pay 40% tax if you earn over 100k a year. Which isn't even rich, but you basically give up nearly half your wage you work fkn hard for. So don't try pull the tax bullshit.
Do you honestly think someone who earns 100k a year works twice as hard as someone who earns 50k a year?
And if the 50k earner only pays 20% and the 100k earner pays 40%, they are still earning 50% more than the low earner. Even theoretically it's not particularly unfair.
The most shocking thing to me here is the tax rates. Everywhere I've lived, the lowest bracket of income tax rate is 20-30% rising to 50% for high earners. The fact that the highest earners in the US (literally multi-millionaires and billionaires) are only paying 25% is outrageous to me. The average income tax paid for the 1% bracket is $400k, meaning they are still going home with at least $1.2mil a year. Why are the bottom 50% even paying anything? It's obscene.
That's not the point of taxes. At least not in a civilised society. People who can't afford to contribute should be getting most value out of it.
You think the more taxes you pay the more value you should get out of them? Real "I pay cops wages so they work for me" and "I got mine, pull the ladder up" vibes.
And FYI I would not be in the bottom 50% here, so it's not some "freeloader trying to get myself a tax cut" opinion. I already pay a considerably higher percentage of income tax than your billionaires! I'm happy to pay taxes because they are for the good of the society I live in and because I have empathy for those in need, but that's evidently not the prevailing sentiment over there.
So here I will use doctors as an example.
To earn near or just over 100k a year you need to be a specialist surgeon for 10 years. That's not including the years it takes to become a surgeon anyway.
And so what? In this one hypothetical, the skilled experienced surgeon still gets more money to take home than the less skilled, less experienced worker.
Exactly this. Last year I paid so much in taxes that I almost had to cancel one of my ski trips to the Swiss alps and had to think really hard about whether to hold off on buying a new private jet (my old one is already several years old and it makes me feel embarrassed when my friends have a newer one than me).
Meanwhile, lazy poors walk around crying like I’m not paying enough when what do they pay? A few thousand dollars? Basically they pay the price of one dinner? Stop complaining, ingrates!