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by Clubber 722 days ago
>and would be willing to let infrastructure and society rot in order to make a few more dollars.

In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the government spent $6.13 trillion.

The federal government spent $44.8 billion on infrastructure in 2023 and transferred an additional $81.5 billion to states.

That's a hair over 2%. Certainly you can imagine people wanting to cut the budget in other places.
1 comments
azinman2 722 days ago
Until you start looking at what those other places are.

Tax money is spent in all kinds of ways that touch so many lives that it's literally too much for any one person to comprehend. You can make arguments, but it will affect people in material ways that they'll have counterarguments for.

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Clubber 722 days ago
>it will affect people in material ways

I agree, but this is false.

>>it’s because most people who declare “less taxes are good for the economy” don’t want to pay taxes at all and would be willing to let infrastructure and society rot in order to make a few more dollars.

Just because someone wants the government to spend less, doesn't mean they don't want to pay their taxes or want to see the infrastructure go to hell. That's a disingenuous argument. Also, “less taxes are good for the economy,” is unarguably true, so he's making two incorrect assumptions in once sentence.

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mistrial9 722 days ago
> “less taxes are good for the economy,” is unarguably true

no, but there have to be a lot of variables involved to find new balance points.. it is certainly a political situation

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azinman2 722 days ago
> Also, “less taxes are good for the economy,” is unarguably true

This isn’t unarguably true. Right now we’re running a very large public debt because we spend more than we collect, so if you collected it in taxes you’d slow down inflation. That would be good for the economy. You also see a lot of strategic reallocation of funds through taxes, moving things from possibly inefficient places to places that generate far more growth. China has been doing this very well over the last decade (and sometimes not so well, but net positive) - lots of state back efforts which have tipped industries in China’s favor. This has been great for their economy and soft power. The US did that with Covid vaccines by assuming the risk— something the private market literally could not and would not do.

Taxes and government spending are complex subjects and do not follow universal rules.

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Clubber 722 days ago
>This isn’t unarguably true. Right now we’re running a very large public debt because we spend more than we collect, so if you collected it in taxes you’d slow down inflation.

We would also slow down the economy. Higher taxes = less spending = less GDP. The inverse is also true.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/tax_cuts.asp#:~:tex....

Can you give me an example of where raising taxes increased economic growth and lowering taxes didn't increase economic growth?

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