You can request this in most countries, especially here in Canada. It’s cool that the Aussie government makes it more transparent and accessible though. The “other purposes” seems a bit sussy-baka, though.
There is no excuse for any country not to do this TBH. The math is really easy and uses already available information: take the year’s total federal spending for different things, specifically in the form of percentages of the year’s total tax revenue (hopefully the government has been keeping track of what they’ve been using the money for) and multiply by the total taxes paid by a specific person and you get exactly how much of their money went to what. This assumes every person’s tax revenue is treated the same which I’m pretty sure is at least mostly the case in every country.
If they release the national spending percentages (which they should) then it’d be pretty easy for individuals to calculate these themselves.
i’m assuming that “other purposes” are other categories that each are smaller than the ones listed. they are probably available on a website or something that gives the full list.
it would be nice if they had merged them together in wider but more informative categories though
Literally spun up Dashy for the first time yesterday. Linked up most of my stuff and so far so good. If I get time today I’m going to look at adding some widgets.
This was probably the most cynical move Reddit could have made. A big part of what made r/place special was that it was so rare. I have such good memories of the first one.
It’s also just incredibly boneheaded. The API changes happened three weeks ago. People have not forgotten, they are still removing/threatening mods even today, hell there are [almost 2000 subs still protesting] (https://reddark.untone.uk/). And now they give people a microphone during an incredibly public event that they coordinated with twitch?
The only thing those people are signalling, in my opinion, is that it doesn't take much to bait people into engaging with reddit to give them traffic, can't wait for an article about how metrics are going up so investors have nothing to worry about.
Investors aren’t idiots. Advertising is a major draw for investors if the subscription model isn’t great. A site that serves millions of views of fuckspez isn’t attractive to advertisers.
You might of had a point of investors being able to look the other way during tech bro funding time, but a lot of the free cash has dried up. Reddit has to convince Betty Crocker that their platform is a great place for cake recipes. If everything goes “ ¼ sick of butter, 2 eggs, 1 pound of fuckspez.” They’re going to have a really hard time driving that point.
This is why it seems all the social media platforms are flying apart at the seams here. Pretty much all of them were flying high on the free to low interest cash. Now that a lot of them have to justify things for every penny and nickel they want, they’re realizing they didn’t have a great model to begin with and are hoping users will snap in place with the new “paradigm”.
But that’s the thing. Employees snap because their check relies on it. A lot of users don’t snap the same for the reason that lot of them just use social media as an outlet. Which for the users that are using these platforms for a source of income/word of mouth, they’re just watching this conflagration in tears.
I have the sinking feeling that they don’t care if anything is sustainable. They just want the IPO to happen with the highest inflated numbers then run away as soon as possible, leaving the whole thing burning behind them. It’s not about marking Reddit successful again, it’s about getting rich fast.
I use familysearch.org. It’s free! I’m not sure what country you’re in, but I’ve found a lot of info on European, Italian, and some African ancestors through there.
They own all of them. They have a large stake in Ancestry too. Also, the Mormon church has investment funds that own a ton of things. It was a big deal recently because they lied to the SEC to hide the size of it from their members.
Beyond this, they will use the data in their fucked up rituals to “Baptize the dead”. They will take your ancestors names, and retroactively baptize them into their church without consent from the deceased or family.
I was raised LDS, though I had the good fortune to spot the BS as a teenager and haven't set foot in a church in almost 20 years. I did however, participate in the baptisms for the dead when I was like 16. The theology is bafflingly stupid and cheerfully inconsiderate (a lot like Mormons, LOL, amiright? I'll be here all week!).
At least when I did it, the notion is that everyone who died without a chance to honestly consider Mormon teachings is in a kind of low-intensity purgatory rather than straight-up Hell. In this place, they will still be pestered by missionaries, but for some reason it's critical that_ someone's_ body be physically baptized in their name. Mormons are taught that they should chug along collecting their relatives names so a random teenager in Boise who lied about whether they jerk off can get dunked in an industrial bathtub perched on top of mediocre statues of oxen. This checks the appropriate box on the deceased's spiritual resume, so if they accept the teachings in the afterlife, the pre-reqs to be fully Mormonized will have been met. The current rules are only to do [edit: submit] names of your actual relatives, but yeah... Familysearch says we're all related to "Thor Odinson" and Noah.
Of course, if it turned out the Mormons were right, there are some weird knock-on effects. First, why would Earthly missionary efforts be desirable at all? You're just giving people the chance to potentially doom themselves while they are still subject to bad influences. Second, why is there no accommodation for people whose names are not recorded? Fuck them, right? Third, what on God's green Kolob is the point of pretending there is a "choice." I have likely fucked myself, being a dirty quitter (My wife once overheard her parents' Mormon neighbors describe me as an "apostate"), but if it turns out the Mormons are right, I am gonna feel pretty fuckin' dumb, and similarly, barring some "The Good Place" shenanigans, literally 100% of the people who are given the chance to accept the "Gospel" after they're already dead will accept.
Personally, I think the LDS emphasis on genealogy was mostly a way to collect intel to assert control, inflate membership in the early days, create a shared sense of history and connection in Utah where literally none of the members had deep family roots and so many had abandoned their own families for this weird culty church. Then, finally, it gives nosy grandmas a way to do God's work while pursuing their hobbies. Like so many things in religion generally and Mormonism specifically, it kind of got out of hand.
The current rules are only to do names of your actual relatives
Huh, that wasn’t the case the one time I was forced by my parents to do it. I didn’t have any names so they just assigned me random names. But I wouldn’t know how it is now.
literally 100% of the people who are given the chance to accept the "Gospel" after they're already dead will accept
Lol I literally had the same exact thought when all of this was explained to me. It makes no sense. But that’s par for the course for the entire religion sooooo……
What I meant was they are only supposed to put their own relatives into the system. By the time you get to the assembly line, I agree it's still 99% going to be randos.
Latter-day Saints believe that the deceased may choose to accept or reject baptisms for the dead. There is no "forcing dead people to join the church" going on.
What they believe is irrelevant. It’s disrespectful to the beliefs of the deceased and their loved ones. Do you realize how insulting this would be to a Jewish person? It’s spitting in the face of their own beliefs.
Those who understand the spirit in which vicarious baptism are performed by Latter-day Saints understand that it is a respectful, reverent process that is motivated purely by love. It is not spitting in the face of anyone's beliefs.
"Dear Angel of the Lord, I am afraid that having died and been sent to spirit prison to be ministered to by the souls of righteous Nephites, I am still not convinced. I am sure that Catholic heaven is just on the other side of those pearly gates, and I formally request a transfer."
Do you not understand how patently absurd this is for a faith that makes claims of exclusive truth? It's PR nonsense so that most outside people will shake their heads and back off, and members won't feel like they're doing something disrespectful and disturbing.
I'm saying that the church claims to be the one true church with unique access to the entirety of the Gospel. I am further saying that Baptism for the Dead is described as something that the deceased person can choose to accept or reject.
I am then saying that the "choice" to accept truths presented to you after you have died and find you now exist on a supernatural plane in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was "correct" is no meaningful choice whatsoever. Presenting it as such is to obfuscate the fact that the Church will continue to heed its own counsel as to what is "a respectful, reverent process that is motivated purely by love," and that the non-believers need to STFU so the Mormons can get on with the extremely important business of saving souls, but only those whose names were written down somewhere, because apparently the Lord is a stickler for paperwork.
Nope! They send occasional emails when they find new records or a past relative’s birthday, but I have not received any spammy ones from the Mormons or asked to join their cult.
“It’s free!” Is alarming and inappropriately cheerful.
These sites are sociopathic data harvesters, and if your relatives have any sense they’ll give you shit for exposing them to it as well. If it’s free, it’s probably even worse.
Take your rudeness over to r/exmormon or have a chat with anyone who’s got personal security concerns (I mean, don’t actually because you seem like a bit of a dick).
You are 100% exposing your family. It’s great for you that you don’t care about them, but don’t pretend otherwise.
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