Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)

[Sassy Colombian]

@RAFUH , @Sassy Colombian Just in case you hadn’t seen it

Woohoo, best political news of the day! Thanks for sharing, LL. I had not heard.

 

[verreauxi]

 

[dholliday]

 

[LinekersLegs]

Ffs

 

[carolinablue232]

Ffs

It needs to be fixed on both sides. There are still incentives for providers to do more than necessary when collecting in a fee for service model which somehow still exists. A friend of mine is a director of revenue integrity for a system here and he’s pretty open with the fact that they maximize charges when they can, even though they know they won’t get the full amount they’re charging for. Then payers are incentivized to deter that by denying claims. When you get into urgent/emergent situations, it’s so so difficult that in my experience, payers tend to be more forgiving. Seems like United might be going the other way…Healthcare is still one of the most complex issues we have in this country.

 

[carolinablue232]

Flip side, the top 1% owns less than 40% of the wealth in this country but pays over 40% of the total federal income taxes. The mega rich can of course do more, but let’s not pretend the rich don’t pay at all, and taxing unrealized gains is a dangerous game. What happens if Tesla goes under and the shares become worthless? 99% won’t happen any time soon, but it could.

 

[dholliday]

Flip side, the top 1% owns less than 40% of the wealth in this country but pays over 40% of the total federal income taxes. The mega rich can of course do more, but let’s not pretend the rich don’t pay at all, and taxing unrealized gains is a dangerous game. What happens if Tesla goes under and the shares become worthless? 99% won’t happen any time soon, but it could.

it says they paid next-to-nothing in income tax.

Tesla won't go bankrupt if Elon has to pay more income tax.

 

[carolinablue232]

it says they paid next-to-nothing in income tax.

Tesla won't go bankrupt if Elon has to pay more income tax.

You’re looking at select individuals, not the full pie. See the graphic below. And I said they probably wouldn’t, but I also suspect the Electric Vehicle market is going to change drastically in the next 10 years. Taxing wealth is taxing unrealized gains. Close the loopholes, absolutely. But let’s also be clear on the full picture before just shouting “Tax the rich,” as a solution to all our problems.

 

[Prevenger17]

Ffs

Barbaric.

 

[dholliday]

You’re looking at select individuals, not the full pie. See the graphic below. And I said they probably wouldn’t, but I also suspect the Electric Vehicle market is going to change drastically in the next 10 years. Taxing wealth is taxing unrealized gains. Close the loopholes, absolutely. But let’s also be clear on the full picture before just shouting “Tax the rich,” as a solution to all our problems.

View attachment 130046

it's a good graph, but what about Musk, Bezos, Bloomberg etc only paying maximum 3% income tax? 'fair share' is relative when billionaires get to keep 97% of their net income (while owning their homes), while the working/middle-class get to keep around 80% while struggling to get on the housing market, with many wasting a third of their income on rents every month as they can't get on the property ladder.

It widens the divide.

i hope you're right about electric cars becoming the norm(ish). currently lots to develop on that front still, not least the energy-provision required to electrically power billions of vehicles worldwide. i'm not even sure we're capable of generating that much energy.

 

[carolinablue232]

it's a good graph, but what about Musk, Bezos, Bloomberg etc only paying maximum 3% income tax? 'fair share' is relative when billionaires get to keep 97% of their net income (while owning their homes), while the working/middle-class get to keep around 80% while struggling to get on the housing market, with many wasting a third of their income on rents every month as they can't get on the property ladder.

It widens the divide.

i hope you're right about electric cars becoming the norm(ish). currently lots to develop on that front still, not least the energy-provision required to electrically power billions of vehicles worldwide. i'm not even sure we're capable of generating that much energy.

My point is more about the whole rich paying their fair share rather than just individuals taking advantage of loopholes. 1% of the population makes 20% of the income but pays 40% of taxes. That to me is a “fair share,” but there is a massive narrative stating the top 1%ers are all scamming the system and not giving back.

If some mega rich individuals are taking advantage of the system, then close the loopholes which allow them to do so. However, we need to be careful when we decide how to do that because again, I think it’s somewhat risky to tax unrealized gains.

 

[dholliday]

 

[Sassy Colombian]

it's a good graph, but what about Musk, Bezos, Bloomberg etc only paying maximum 3% income tax? 'fair share' is relative when billionaires get to keep 97% of their net income (while owning their homes), while the working/middle-class get to keep around 80% while struggling to get on the housing market, with many wasting a third of their income on rents every month as they can't get on the property ladder.

It widens the divide.

i hope you're right about electric cars becoming the norm(ish). currently lots to develop on that front still, not least the energy-provision required to electrically power billions of vehicles worldwide. i'm not even sure we're capable of generating that much energy.

What about Trump and his family’s empire? He has gotten away with paying nothing for years. It is not Musk, Bezos and Bloomberg. Trump also made sure to slash the taxes of the super rich and corporations when he was in power.

 

[ste d' indica]

Texas Republican asks: can we fix the moon’s orbit to fight climate change?

‘I’d have to follow up with you on that one,’ says forestry official Jennifer Eberlien to bizarre question from Louie Gohmert

www.theguardian.com

Texas Republican asks: can we fix the moon’s orbit to fight climate change?​

‘I’d have to follow up with you on that one,’ says forestry official Jennifer Eberlien to bizarre question from Louie Gohmert

 

[dholliday]

Texas Republican asks: can we fix the moon’s orbit to fight climate change?

‘I’d have to follow up with you on that one,’ says forestry official Jennifer Eberlien to bizarre question from Louie Gohmert

www.theguardian.com

Texas Republican asks: can we fix the moon’s orbit to fight climate change?​

‘I’d have to follow up with you on that one,’ says forestry official Jennifer Eberlien to bizarre question from Louie Gohmert

that was a clumsy tactic to attempt to prove in-argument that the cause for climate-change are the orbits of the planetary bodies...i.e. we have zero influence over them, hence we may as well not try.