[gxs]

I didn’t know this but it’s the kind of stuff our tax dollars pay for and ultimately why I’m so disgruntled about the high taxes we pay - especially in the middle class

No problem paying taxes - my entire gripe is with what what the moneys spent on

[wilg]

The US has below average middle class tax rates. But luckily we can just choose what our tax dollars are spent on through democracy! The main problem is nobody agrees about anything and lots of people are really dumb and can't handle the responsibility of electing competent people into government.

[mcdonje]

This is naïve. The US government is less democratic than advertised, and there are many factors for that. Not going to write a tome, but if you're going to point a finger at one group, it shouldn't be private citizens.

[wilg]

This is a common coping mechanism, but the US is quite democratic and almost any objection you have about corporate control or whatnot can be easily overridden by getting like 100,000 more people to agree with you.

[gxs]

Can you explain here without an LLM?

Really curious to hear more about this

Unless all of congress is included in that 100k, I’d love to hear a plausible scenario where this is actually achievable and not merely some clever edge case you found

[polshaw]

>Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...

especially note figure 1.

[the_real_cher]

Im not sure I agree that a two party system for 400 million people allows us to choose what our taxes are spent on.

[wilg]

It does exactly that.

[clickety_clack]

It would be a mistake to assume that people who don’t agree with you are really dumb.

[wilg]

True sometimes, but not always. It's unlikely dumb people are equally split between political parties.

[loeg]

No, no, almost everyone is really dumb, including the people who do agree with me.

[bmau5]

Would love to see someone vibecode an explorer for seeing how their jurisdiction spent their taxes. Denver has a decent explorer here: https://www.denvergov.org/transparency/checkbook#/home?year=...

[thesuitonym]

Why do you need to vibecode an explorer when financial analysis tools are a dime a dozen?