[purple_ferret]

Elon literally said they would be 'deleted' for being 'far left,' specifically for working on direct file.

Yet, people still seem baffled by what's going on and refuse to accept the maliciousness behind his and Trump's actions. He came out against a public technology service!

It's like Bill Gates being confused about USAID being dismantled and being willfully ignorant that the people dismantling it believe he's part of some sort of global health conspiracy along with Soros.

It's easy to see why they're successful. Their 'opposition' does nothing but roll over.

[colechristensen]

There are things that I at least understand, but who is opposed to direct tax filing and … why?

[mmcwilliams]

Keeping a bad process that no one likes is politically expedient for people who want there to be negative sentiments towards the IRS.

[pbronez]

Same reason there is opposition to municipal ISPs. The theory is the public sector should stay away from anything the private sector could theoretically provide. It assumes the private sector will deliver better goods at lower prices due to market pressures.

[slater]

Intuit and their lobbyists, because.. you guessed it! Money.

[smallmancontrov]

Rich people, because... you guessed it! Money.

(Direct File doesn't directly affect them, but the push towards automated tax collection strikes at the heart of their games.)

[duskwuff]

> the push towards automated tax collection strikes at the heart of their games

I don't think that's even it. The goal is to make taxes seem scary and complicated to the public, to build a consensus that taxes should be eliminated or simplified - which inevitably plays out in ways which will largely, if not entirely, benefit the wealthy. And in this light, the reason the wealthy are opposed to Direct File is obvious: having it available reduces the pain that people (and particularly the working class) will feel from having to file taxes, making it harder to drum up popular support for "reform".

[smallmancontrov]

Good point, that's definitely part of it.

Tax fraud is just top of mind because the other day I had to endure a smug rich asshole brag about it over dinner and I wasn't in a position to push back, so I'm venting a bit.

[nsxwolf]

So not right wingers? I don’t know many right wingers that enjoy filing tax returns.

[acdha]

These are related: the rich backers of right-wing media have for decades pushed the idea that taxes are this scary, hard process where one mistake can ruin your life. That is not, and has never been, true (the average person audited by the IRS roughly breaks even because they usually weren’t claiming every possible deduction) but it’s in their interest to promote that belief because it supports lowering the rates they pay and the consequences people suffer for cheating (rich people do this in much larger amounts because most of us don’t have the flexibility to engage in creative accounting or enough inventive to do so).

Intuit wants everyone to think it’s so scary that you need to pay them, and the company is run by rich people who would want to pay less in taxes no matter what industry they’re in.

The combination is how you get people arguing for their boss to get a tax cut even if they personally will pay more, because as long as the IRS is a fabled bogeyman they have been told that’s the price of freedom. It took the better part of the 20th century and billions of dollars in funding to teach the point where enough people believed it, but they were patient.

[namuol]

Intuit

[preisschild]

So people hate the IRS and politicians can defund the IRS for tech bros and their companies.

[danans]

> It's like Bill Gates being confused about USAID being dismantled and being willfully ignorant that the people dismantling it believe he's part of some sort of global health conspiracy along with Soros.

I really find this kind of seemingly performative "confusion" at what's happening by high profile people (politicians, media, etc) irritating. As if they don't know. It's similar to how they use every euphemism for the word "lie", i.e. "misrepresentation", "mischaracterization", etc, rather than call a lie a lie.