[insane_dreamer]

much of our current economic and social problems stem from efforts to collect _less_ takes from corporations and the wealthy. So yeah, collecting more taxes -- from those who can afford it -- would make a big difference.

[Redoubts]

Couldn't think of a more incorrect diagnosis if I tried. State government budgets have been ballooning for the last decade; but political leaders don't give a shit about tracking outcomes, only celebrating starting things and how much money they spend.

[insane_dreamer]

you haven't tried very hard

[bdangubic]

except that it wouldn’t. this is just another type of political shit that was put together by politicians here to fuck with us.

if your family is running a budget deficit, there are two ways to mitigate it

- make more money (drive uber and pizza (at the same time to make double money at night) or get a higher paying job

- stop spending so much fucking money

it seems politically, the left-leaning part of the countries and political party will make you believe that we just need to make more money, give that money to the Federal Government and all our problems will magically disappear.

the right-leaning part of the country and its politicians will make you believe that rich already pay a lot more than most (they do) and that taxing corporations makes no fucking sense (it doesn’t in general).

neither party actually gives a shit about the fact that country is drowning in debt which will eventually be its undoing (those who study history know this as absolute certainty), they are just looking for where more votes are there to be had

[sarchertech]

Families don’t print the currency they owe their debt in, they don’t owe the their debt to themselves, and they also aren’t the largest employer and consumer in their economy, so the comparison doesn’t work.

[bdangubic]

yes it does, if you understand middle school economics

[sarchertech]

Middle school economics is a simplified model that children can understand, but just like Newtonian physics, middle economics becomes less useful past a certain scale.

[_DeadFred_]

For the last 40 years Republicans have had an intentional policy of running up government debt in order to 'starve the beast' and prevent government from functioning, and in order to force through policy they couldn't via standard democratic means.

Yes, when one half of government intentionally choses to work against our country, and to STRUCTURALLY destroy our government via debt/financial distress, it results in debt and financial distress.

Complaining about anything other than Republicans INTENTIONAL POLICY OF DEBT when talking about US debt is nothing but an extension of that destructive policy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[bdangubic]

yup, all the while they convinced their voters that “the other side” is to blame - quite fascinating (also says a lot about the general level of intelligence of cohort supporting this for these last XX years)

[kjellsbells]

> make more money > stop spending so much fucking money

I'm all in favor of this but part 1 has been made politically toxic for decades, and part 2 only seems to be taken seriously when the Other Guys are in power.

For example, in the US I simply cant take the Republican party's fiscal opinions seriously when they bleat about the debt on the one hand and yet dont blink when asked to fund another foreign war.

[bdangubic]

republicans are much much bigger spenders than democrats by miles. they are “anti socialism” publicly but are 2nd largest socialist party on the planet (behind china).

[danaris]

"Socialism" isn't just "the government spending money".

In order to be socialism, it has to be spending money specifically to help the people, and broadly to reduce inequality.

Republicans do not do that, by any stretch of the imagination.

[bdangubic]

farmers would like a word

[thrance]

"Socialism is when the government gives tax breaks to the rich and destroys public institutions". And calling China "socialist" is rich when it's probably the most ruthlessly capitalistic nation on the planet, where worker unions are straight up illegal.

The West saw its golden age when redistributive taxation was maximum. We have to get back to that, or the country will continue to agonize under crumbling infrastructure and failing institutions.