This isn't my world. I don't make the rules. — BitconnectCarlos
I'm entirely aware. I'm just a single guy with no kids in a medium cost of living area. I'm entirely familiar with my monthly expenses. Obviously if you're a single mom with 3-4 kids it's a completely different ball game. Children can absolutely drive someone into poverty; they're massively expensive. — BitconnectCarlos
You don't need to be a billionaire. Think much, much smaller. You don't even need a million to start feeling the effects. — BitconnectCarlos
With enough money you don't need to rely on an employer. — BitconnectCarlos
IMO. I favor placing my own financial future first and foremost into my own hands as opposed to hoping the government with its services can provide for me. — BitconnectCarlos
I know people with cancer that visited the USA for treatment as a last ditch effort, because it was the absolute best available. — Benkei
I think part of the problem is drug abuse and environmental toxins. IOW it's problems that exist upstream of pregnancy — frank
Medicaid is pretty generous and it starts as soon as a woman knows she's pregnant. Why do say "lack of access"? — frank
There's a difference between the quality of healthcare available and the number of people that can afford it. If people don't take out insurance and can't afford healthcare out of pocket then that's not my problem. That the majority of americans make stupid choices by not getting insurance, or waiting with it until they have a pre-existing condition, doesn't mean I should pay for those bad decisions; your statistics are therefore meaningless. I might pay more for my insurance but I have access to the best healthcare the world has to offer. — Benkei
That really depends on what metric. Most high tech? USA. Most patents filed? USA. — Benkei
Having money is absolutely an end in itself. Money can provide security and freedom. Any working adult should be able to recognize this. — BitconnectCarlos
These are all insurable events that don't require government involvement. I've got insurance except for becoming jobless but with my skill set that will be when hell freezes over. Why should I pay taxes for those people who go destitute because they failed to take out insurance? Where's the fairness in that?
1. If the trickle-down effect worked at all (which is what I think your first idea there is alluding to) then America would already have solved poverty and have a flourishing middle class, because we do have most of the money globally. While wages have gone up for the 1% however and they have received countless tax cuts, for decades the wages of workers have been stagnant and their costs of living have gone up.
— Artemis
Imagine how much worse things would be if a lot of money would've been wasted on taxes and ineffectual government programs? That wages are stagnant are a reality of supply and demand. With the loose immigration, sanctuary cities and whatnot it is no wonder that workers wages are stagnating as supply continues to increase. Close the borders, stop doling out green cards and this will solve itself.
But then there's also just the average day math. You have health insurance, but how much does it cost you over a year or a lifetime? How much would you have to pay in taxes for the same thing but better (because you'd be guaranteed coverage)? You'll pay less overall with universal healthcare, because you're not paying the salaries of millionaire and billionaire corporate execs.
— Artemis
No country covers all types of care, or care at any price. So guaranteed coverage is really a lie. Government tends to be far less efficient in allocating resources and the US litigious society makes healthcare expensive due to insurance cost and administrative overhead.
Furthermore, the best healthcare in the world is available in the US, because hospitals compete with each other driving up quality. Countries with universal healthcare have fixed maximum rates for medical personnel because otherwise their system would be as expensive as the USA and this stifles innovation. — Benkei
Your money goes somewhere, certainly, but someone else gets to decide exactly where. For all you know you could be funding children in cages. — NOS4A2
Theoretically, it would matter to someone who wants to know what sorts of things her hard-earned dollars are funding. — NOS4A2
Theoretically, it would matter to someone who wants to know what sorts of things her hard-earned dollars are funding. — NOS4A2
This may be true but I doubt you can track your own dollars to their final destination, for instance whether you are funding healthcare or the droning of children oversees. — NOS4A2
But absent any sort of audit of where the tax money goes — NOS4A2
OK. I'm curious so I'll try to play devil's advocate to the best of my ability — Benkei
Let's say I think lower corporate taxes will benefit the economy because it will mean shareholders will invest profits to increase productivity and therefore employment. I also think lower income taxes should be passed. I don't really care how that's financed. As far as I'm concerned those can be financed through debt, printing money, slashing healthcare or lowering defense spending. My personal situation can be assumed to be as follows: I have a mortgage on my house with a fixed rate for the next 5 years that my wife and I can easily pay for an amount of about 65% of the value of my house, 100k USD income, a decent pension scheme, 8000 USD in savings and health insurance. — Benkei
But this is a blatant straw man. I — NOS4A2
Why won’t you lay out why X is not in my best interest but Y is? Are you opting out of the conversation, and thus a lost cause? — NOS4A2
That’s not true. I just don’t get how it is against my interests to vote for lower taxes when I am interested in paying less taxes. — NOS4A2
Because it’s my money, not theirs. — NOS4A2
I don’t get how it is against my interests to vote for lower taxes when I am interested in paying less taxes — NOS4A2
If hh could magically change Hitler into a good person, would you be destroying the previous Hitler, and would that be right — Echarmion
wer taxes are better, not just wrong but also irrational? — Benkei
I'd probably stop caring about healthcare around 100 kUSD as well. — Benkei
The point remains that you will fundamentally misunderstand, and in the process alienate, the people you so desparately want to convince to prioritise other (mutual) interests. — Benkei
Why is it irrational? If I make 1 million USD a year then social security isn't an issue and it isn't irrational. — Benkei
they don't think it's as important as wanting to overturn Roe vs. Wade. It's not ignorant, stupid or irrational to do so. — Benkei
So, can we pay off moral debt? Are we moral simply by having our moral acts (and all the good they do) outweigh the immoral acts (and all the bad they do)? — DingoJones
For instance, anti-abortion and lower taxes. — Benkei
It's not infallible, — unenlightened
It’s a common argument to pretend welfare states are socialist, and to pretend tax-payer funded services are the same. But it was Bismarck, a conservative anti-socialist, who instituted the first social health insurance system. And he arguably did it in spite of socialism. — NOS4A2