• Platomus@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I just hate that more of it goes to causing conflicts in nations thousands of miles away, instead of providing affordable healthcare for people who are paying the taxes.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It really depends. Ukraine right now for example is fighting for it’s existence and greatly appreciates our weapons. And many new systems may never be used other than as a deterrent for nations like China against getting any ideas about Tiwan. But US has definitely had useless and unjust wars, sometimes kinda colonial.

    • SimplyATable@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I do wish they used it more effectively, but asking the government for sane spending habits isn’t gonna do much

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes, and also the various apparatuses of media they use to make this system appear not only good but the only possible system and trying any alternatives or even tweaking it slightly would lead to chaos and calamity. But primarily the 10% dictating the rules to preserve their own position

        • novibe@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          This framing of being the “rich” versus the plebs is not really accurate.

          It’s the wealth owners versus the workers. People who own for a living and people who work for a living. That’s it.

          In that lens, the real enemy is the top 0.1% of society. And the swathes of workers that are alienated enough to defend their masters.

          • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            there is the petite bourgeoisie (am referring to medium, not small buisnesses) who work and own. There is managers who work for a living but still have some power and advantages of the owning class

            • novibe@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              The managerial class are just privileged work dogs. They aren’t anywhere closer to the true owner class than you and me.

              They do defend the current power structures, as they benefit them more than the other workers they manage.

              But also do cops. And politicians.

              They are wrong, as dismantling the current system would also benefit them. It would benefit every single person alive. Even the true owner class.

              They are alienated from humanity, which alienates them from they own humanity. We are alienated from ourselves and our communities.

              Capitalism is a mindless beast that wants to commodify and digitise reality as a whole. Even create new realities to expand. It doesn’t care about people. Workers or owners.

              A new system based on humanity, on life, would benefit every single living being on Earth. Capitalism destroys life. It doesn’t care about “class”.

              • Piers@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                They are wrong, as dismantling the current system would also benefit them. It would benefit every single person alive. Even the true owner class.

                One huge lie that helps sustain the current system is the idea that the wealth class are acting in their own best interests. They may often mistakenly think that they are but their lives would be better and their minds calmer if things worked differently. We all understand intuitively that children do not perfectly understand the impact their actions will have on their own wellbeing and that they require guidance to avoid falling into harm and to grow to have the skills to make better judgements for themselves. What we miss is that we often tend to think that those better judgement skills magically snap into place in adulthood and are perfectly evenly functional across all situations for all people. A moment’s reflection makes it very clear that cannot possibly be true. All of us do foolish things that direct us away from our own best interests to some degree and frequency and we can often clearly see when others do so but are blind to it. This is just as true of some idiot billionaire ruining their own home as it is for anyone else. They are no more infallible than any of us.

      • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Lmao! I mostly agree except for parks, America is pretty good at protecting nature and public space compared to the rest of the world.

        Teddy Roosevelt was a real one.

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Yes it’s my fault even though these same politicians have gerrymandered voting maps and use death threats and harassment to ensure they run unopposed.

          • PercyM
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            1 year ago

            In deleware didn’t they run a bill to let corporations vote? I have to look into this. Right now I’m in a position where I could probably leave the country. Instead I’ll probably stay and help my friends who need it.

    • necrxfagivs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s it. I’m not mad I pay taxes. That money goes to (mostly) good things.

      I’m mad I generate surplus value for my boss. That money goes to his new car and swimming pool.

      • Piers@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        They do. Just look at how much money the US government throws at Musk’s various projects for a start.

        A deeper insight that is worth developing is that the amount of money a person requires to be able to live a vaguely secure and stable life is the minimum baseline cost of hiring that person as a full-time employee. As a result any time a government is required to step in to provide financial support to an individual in full-time employment in order for them to get by, that is the government paying that person’s wages for the company for the economic benefit of that company that person works for and is exactly equivalent to if that business was paying the full cost to secure that employee and then was just randomly being handed money from the government. Financial benefits from the state to employed people is just a handout to those people’s employers but structured to look like social support so people don’t get uppity and demand wealth owners spend less on yachts and more on paying the actual cost of the labour that produces the wealth in the first place.

  • PercyM
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    1 year ago

    I’m fine with the taxes as it goes to good things. The corperations stealing money from workers I’m not fine with. I make great income so I’ll be voting with my money.