***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[mplsdunk]

Who in government ask you to pay more taxes and receive nothing positive in return

Because I want to know if you are arguing against a legitimate request, or some strawman you have invented

So please, give me some names

I’m responding to the people saying they wouldn’t ind an increase saying it’s ok if the money is well spent.

I’m saying we can work on spending the money better and not increase taxes on people who aren’t rich.

I’ve paid plenty in taxes and not received anything positive in return. Stadium tax comes to mind here, I’ve never even been in us bank stadium but I had to give it 10% of my bread.

 

[RustyShackleford]

black mirror robot dogs for everyone!

give em out like an episode of oprah. you get a robot dog! you get a robot dog!

This is too bad of a joke to make on such a serious subject

At least come up with a banger if you gonna do it

 

[osh kosh bosh]

This is too bad of a joke to make on such a serious subject

At least come up with a banger if you gonna do it

eh can't win em all.
I don't have anything serious to say on the subject.

 

[elpablo21]

DOA in the Senate

Manchin and Sinema win. I'm ready to the slaughter that will be in 2022

 

[RustyShackleford]

I’m responding to the people saying they wouldn’t ind an increase saying it’s ok if the money is well spent.

I’m saying we can work on spending the money better and not increase taxes on people who aren’t rich.

I’ve paid plenty in taxes and not received anything positive in return. Stadium tax comes to mind here, I’ve never even been in us bank stadium but I had to give it 10% of my bread.

So you no one. Gotcha

People in here want more of the increase in tax to fall on the rich and affluent. The people you claim were down with talk increases, I was one of them, said they want the increase in taxes to fund good public services. People can talk about fiscal responsibility (not deficit hawking but how so much of our tax dollars do to unneeded stuff) and funding social democracy at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive.

You literally can't have a strong sustainable social democracy without increasing taxes middle-class taxes increases. At some point, everyone on the left will have to face that fact. But no one is asking for anything crazy as far as increases anyway. America is in trouble if people think returning to the tax rates of the late 90s (a period in time with some of the best growth in real wages) is somehow an unreasonable ask.

Also...

You haven't received anything positive for your tax dollars? So you don't drive on paved roads, or went to the library, your community doesn't have a fire department, you have never flown on an airplane that landed safely, never eaten food that doesn't poison you, the air you breathe is still filled with lead, or daughter still gets big tobacco targeting her to destroy her lungs, do you get four and five-figure heating bills every winter, you got preexisting conditions protection from somewhere else, you didn't get a stimulus check, and everyone in your family gonna have to pay out of pocket for their covid vaccine

Or are you just cherry-picking examples that fit your argument and ignoring everything else that might undercut it?

 

[mplsdunk]

Yeah roads and all that come from taxes but then can the city stop sending bills for replacing street light bulbs and street sweeping my road?

you said you literally can’t have a social democracy with increasing taxes on the middle class... so we agree or was that a typo?

im always gonna side with what’s best for the people, I’m simply pissed about the lack of respect given to taxpayer money.

yeah, a lot of good comes from it but a whole lot of bs does too.

 

[Based Jesus]

LGBTQ Laws, Immigration Laws

it's almost like a very specific demographic that honestly won the election for this administration is being ignored & left the scraps

#Progress , boy would the ancestors be proud.

LGBTQ laws and Immigration laws benefit black people

 

[RustyShackleford]

LGBTQ laws and Immigration laws benefit black people

He doesn't give a damn about those black people

Secondly, no law has even been passed. The House Dems are just repassing bills because we are in a new legislative session

The George Floyd Bill is up for a vote next week

Dudes just got a hot take, and think they got a data point that backs them up. But in reality, they don't

 

[IATT]

 

[RustyShackleford]

Yeah roads and all that come from taxes but then can the city stop sending bills for replacing street light bulbs and street sweeping my road?

you said you literally can’t have a social democracy with increasing taxes on the middle class... so we agree or was that a typo?

im always gonna side with what’s best for the people, I’m simply pissed about the lack of respect given to taxpayer money.

yeah, a lot of good comes from it but a whole lot of bs does too.

Yeah, it was a typo. Tax increases have to be on the table if people want true social democracy

Secondly, it is reasonable to want the government to spend tax revenue in a responsible manner. And to review who benefits from the spending

But that discussion shouldn't be used to undercut requests for better public services funded by tax revenue.

Doing so indulges in a well-known conservative strategy to undercut public support for expanding the welfare state.

 

[mplsdunk]

Yeah, it was a typo. Tax increases have to be on the table if people want true social democracy

Secondly, it is reasonable to want the government to spend tax revenue in a responsible manner. And to review who benefits from the spending

But that discussion shouldn't be used to undercut requests for better public services funded by tax revenue.

Doing so indulges in a well-known conservative strategy to undercut public support for expanding the welfare state.

I’m all for anything the public needs being paid for with tax money.

I'm not for wasting it while we got people who need it, that’s all I’m saying.

I don’t want my tax dollars increased but I damn sure don’t want them increased while it’s being wasted.

if we didn’t have robot police dogs and **** an increase wouldn’t be so hard to stomach if it was going to the people.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I’m all for anything the public needs being paid for with tax money.

I'm not for wasting it while we got people who need it, that’s all I’m saying.

I don’t want my tax dollars increased but I damn sure don’t want them increased while it’s being wasted.

if we didn’t have robot police dogs and **** an increase wouldn’t be so hard to stomach if it was going to the people.

Again, no one is asking for taxes to increases and people get nothing in return

I get where you are coming from but we shouldn't treat increases in government spending as something that will inevitably lead to waste

A conservative could sound just like you, but have a completely different idea of helping "people who need it"

 

[mplsdunk]

Again, no one is asking for taxes to increases and people get nothing in return

what pissed me off was people comparing us to European countries.

we are on two totally different planets, look at our police, prisons, military and social services. Even stuff like public transit

I can imagine a 50% tax here is just gonna put tanks on the streets on every block but I’m still gonna have 150 homeless dudes living in the park down the street from me.

 

[rexanglorum]

I see the Boston Dynamics bots got a new paint job.

Years from now, the current executives will cash out and make a documentary about how sorry they are and how they "couldn't predict" that their technology would end up ****ing up the world for the rest of us.

Sometimes, the way I feel about science is the same way I feel about religion: love the teachings, but not the people who practice it.

The level of professional class solidarity is very high and as we keep moving into a place, where the only people whose basic needs can be met will be inheritors of capital and members of the professional class, the solidarity will only get stronger.

As Capital hoards more and more and tge working class has to make due with less and less, it will increasingly delegate to its high level managers, executives, the task of judiciously allocating misery onto the working class. The slow violence of deprivation meted out via spreadsheet. There will develop more and more works of fiction and non fiction, made for and about the manager of capital, who had either no choice or no knowledge of the damage that collaborating with law enforcement, cutting of electricity, depriving a community of water, converting employees to contractors, breaking up unionization efforts, imposing high deductible plans etc would wrought.

Media will focus on how hard it is to be an executive and how executives are good people who had no choice but to do the terrible things that they do. And in a sense, this media won’t be wrong because if you’re an executive who acts with any semblance of humanity, capital will remove you and replace you with someone who will distribute barbarism to the degree that it benefits shareholders.

 

[RustyShackleford]

what pissed me off was people comparing us to European countries.

we are on two totally different planets, look at our police, prisons, military and social services. Even stuff like public transit

I can imagine a 50% tax here is just gonna put tanks on the streets on every block but I’m still gonna have 150 homeless dudes living in the park down the street from me.

Conservatives want those things but they are not in favor of increasing middle-class taxes

Progressives want to increase middle-class taxes but don't want those things

So are you pissed about a threat that is actually real? Or one that is imagined?

Because that is where you are losing me.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Also, I am kinda taken aback that people will be out in these streets buying oatmeal cookies without raisins, yet think they can call out anyone in regards to wasteful spending

Just saying

 

[mplsdunk]

Conservatives want those things but they are not in favor of increasing middle-class taxes

Progressives want to increase middle-class taxes but don't want those things

So are you pissed about a threat that is actually real? Or one that is imagined?

this is gonna go way off course but...

A little of both I guess. I don’t trust the government man, I think you know that.

 

[RustyShackleford]

this is gonna go way off course but...

A little of both I guess. I don’t trust the government man, I think you know that.

I know, that is why I told Jeff to keep an eye on you and keep you off 4chan

No offense brah, but I worry. You are a young white dude from the Midwest that distrusts the government. Dem militia dudes got you high on their draft boards.

That why I say on you.

 

[Based Jesus]

Also, I am kinda taken aback that people will be out in these streets buying oatmeal cookies without raisins, yet think they can call out anyone in regards to wasteful spending

Just saying

Oatmeal cookies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Oatmeal raisin cookies and it's not even close to being close b

 

[mplsdunk]

I know, that is why I told Jeff to keep an eye on you and keep you off 4chan

No offense brah, but I worry. You are a young white dude from the Midwest that distrusts the government. Dem militia dudes got you high on the draft boards.

That why I say on you.

no I don’t mean on some conspiracy ****.

like stuff I have seen first hand.

could be the classmate I had in 6th grade that was kicked in the head by mpd, pepper sprayed and left for her dad to take her to the hospital in front of the whole class and the police officer was back the next day in school like nothing happened.

could be my boy who is now suicidal daily because he was forced to mow down men, women and children in Afghanistan for no reason.

**** like that, I’m not talking about pizzagate and 5G bruh.

I’m not joining any damn militia

 

[rexanglorum]

When we look at how low rates are for the capitalist class and how low rates are for corporations and how there’s over a trillion in unpaid taxes tgat rich people were supposed to pay, I can understand how anyone who works for a living can feel like taxation is yet another weapon used by the rich and corporations against the workers.

That feeling only gets amplified as people claiming EITC are increasingly likely to get audited. The feeling becomes even stronger when we see how much America lavishes on arms merchants under the guise of “defense” and how much goes to cops while everyone else has to make due with less and less.

At the same time, if we had the robust social democracy that most of us want, middle class taxes would go up somewhat. With little or no out of pocket expenses for healthcare, education and childcare, those households would come out ahead but they’d have to pay more in taxes.

 

[mplsdunk]

I just want to end homelessness, free healthcare, amazing education, strong unions and ******* BULLET TRAINS everywhere!

cut what you gotta cut to make that happen, thanks.

 

[aepps20]

mplsdunk has worked a 25 hour shift in da mines. RustyShackleford has worked a 0 hour shift in da Soros academy for libs. I know who I trust on policy and it ain't Meth.

 

[mplsdunk]

I miss the mines

been working serving libs vegan food and Kale lately.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I just want to end homelessness, free healthcare, amazing education, strong unions and ****ing BULLET TRAINS everywhere!

cut what you gotta cut to make that happen, thanks.