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Tachanka , (edited )
@Tachanka@hexbear.net avatar

the modern monetary theorists point out that taxes is how the demand for national currency as a commodity in and of itself is created. At least in a country with currency sovereignty, a fiat currency, and a debt that is denominated in its own currency (like the US). Basically, imagine if you actually managed to live the “yeoman farmer” dream. Imagine you actually got to own some land (paid off the mortgage) and started subsistence farming on it. Well you now have a huge economic incentive to stop participating in the economy, not have a job, feed yourself, and just fuck off and enjoy the rest of your life until you die. Good for you, bad for the nation. So you get property taxed. Well now you can’t just live off of your subsistence. You have to go get a job and earn dollars and participate in the economy at least enough to pay your property taxes. There’s no actual escape from needing participate in the economy and earn dollars, even if you try to pull off the libertarian meme of getting your own land and growing your own food and paying off your mortgage.

28:27 of this video explains what I’m rambling about

Of course the caveat here is that the real way to get around all this is to just become a capitalist exploiter, so that other people’s work earns you enough money to live off of. But by definition most people can’t become an exploiter, because exploitation is a pyramid scheme that requires more people at the bottom than at the top.

Addfwyn ,

Cancelling the US subscription is really hard, they actually charge you a premium for the cancellation service. I have been working on it for a while, but the customer service is just atrocious.

argv_minus_one ,

That’s not true of taxes in general—you only get taxed on income if you make income, for example—but property taxes certainly do feel like a subscription fee, because unlike other taxes, money doesn’t have to change hands in order for you to owe property tax.

WhyIDie ,

now introducing: life as a service

cassetti ,

Just don't subscribe. When netflix pissed me off, I unsubscribed. When Adobe moved to a subscription based platform, I forced myself to learn alternative applications (although I still have a copy of Adobe Creative Suite from 2003 which I am still using on old laptop when needed). When Microsoft started charging a subscription to use "office" apps, I switched to LibreOffice. During Covid when I wasn't using my gym membership I cancelled it and used that $75/month savings to start building a home gym setup (it ain't great, but its better than nothing!)

If something is a subscription, I either find an alternative program/service, or simply don't use it.

Hyggyldy ,

I mean businesses under capitalism have to support themselves somehow. On the web if you’re not a storefront you basically have to either advertise or offer subs.

Rozauhtuno ,
@Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

!fucksubscriptions

frippa ,
@frippa@lemmy.ml avatar

Soooo… I’m pirating my country?

icepuncher69 ,

*IRS whants to know your location

bentropy ,

Most people online seemingly prefer to live in a shit hole without any infrastructure at all then to discuss how to fix their government to reduce waste of tax money…

dojan ,
@dojan@lemmy.world avatar

The fix is easy. Guillotines. Corrupt politicians. CEOs. Anyone with a net worth over a certain amount.

Off with their heads.

Pons_Aelius ,

Guillotines...

I would remind you that the people who started the reign of terror by calling for and lopping off the heads of the nobility ended up taking La Monte-à-regret (The Regretful Climb) themselves.

dojan ,
@dojan@lemmy.world avatar

Well yes, because what really happened was one upper class being replaced by another. The workers/lower class was exploited throughout, and that never changed.

Politicians are supposed to be representatives of the people, but no matter where you live right now, they’re owned by corporations, and champion corporate interests. Corporations are not our friends. Thus by extension, politicians aren’t either.

icepuncher69 ,

Thats why we should strive to replace human leadership with A.I. Which of all the jobs is gonna steal from people, it migth as well steal the jobs that could be benefitial to everyone but arent because humans are weakminded and corruptible. A.I. is gonna redistribute resources as needed in a human level, not in a cold USSR way, and it should build a network to exploit resources in a sustainable way. Of course im talking about a singularity level A.I. and not necesarily the language models or machine learning that we have at the moment (Althought imho they could do a better job than our actual world/corporate overlords), and the fact that we are not working on something like that is probably concerning since there are problems like global warning that the current leadership is just not gonna solve and to replace it with more of the same is just gonna continue the cycle.

Aesthesiaphilia ,

easy

violent revolution resulting in the death and destruction of the world as we know it

rofl

FinalRemix ,

Well? Would it really be the worst idea, moving forward??

Aesthesiaphilia ,

It wasn't called the Reign of Terror for nothing dude. It was an awful idea that created a lot of innocent suffering.

ButtholeSpiders OP ,
@ButtholeSpiders@startrek.website avatar

Guillotines

As a Klingon, this feels like an acceptable answer.

traveler01 ,

The issue people don’t seem to understand is that, you don’t actually need to pay that huge amount of taxes to actually get all that from the state. You’re paying a lot more because the government is overeaching, by investing in failed private companies to rescue their mates, by creating huge amounts of debt, etc.

The government should exist only to provide essential services and regulation to the market, nothing else.

where_am_i ,

Most of the taxes are redistributional. So you’re right and wrong at the same time.

traveler01 ,

That’s the basis of socialism, you tax to redistribute wealth. That’s basically theft.

kameecoding ,

no that’s functioning society, and counters runaway capitalist dystopia.

those who have more contribute more, so we can all live a decent life.

but if you think Taxes are theft, do pray tell us what you think Profits are?

becaue the way you make profits is that you pay less money to your workers than they generate, so what’s that if not theft?

argv_minus_one ,

The government should exist only to provide essential services and regulation to the market, nothing else.

There’s an awful lot of devil in those details. Does health care qualify as an essential service? How about Social Security, which is the only reason working-class people don’t all become homeless once they’re too old to work? Mail? Roads? Firefighting? Modern governments do an awful lot, and life would be an awful lot worse if they didn’t, but it costs an awful lot of money.

Effort should be made to root out wasteful government spending, of course, but that means unraveling the twisted schemes of those who would misappropriate tax money without destroying the government functions they’ve attached themselves to, and much like surgically removing a cancerous growth from an organ without destroying the entire organ, it is neither easy nor permanent.

traveler01 ,

Firefighters for example is an essential service but in my country is done by volunteers who doesn’t get paid too much (when they should be paid better and government should be responsible for the service). Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.

There are many examples in my country where government is overreaching by a lot but fails in the most basic stuff.

argv_minus_one , (edited )

Also, social welfare systems are usually required because you tax people to a point they can’t save money.

This is a grave misconception. Taxes are not what stops people from saving money. Taxes are proportional to income, expenses, and/or wealth. No matter how little money you make, taxes will never take all of it.

Prices of goods and services are what stop people from saving money. Prices are always set as high as the market will bear. Landlords and merchants are trying to take all of your money, not just a fraction of it. This leaves no room for savings unless you make a great deal more money than the average person.

The saying does not go, “the taxes are too damn high.” The saying goes, “the rent is too damn high.” Never forget that.

amminadabz ,

Ive been on the phone for an hour and they wont let me fucking cancel

ButtholeSpiders OP ,
@ButtholeSpiders@startrek.website avatar

Found the best answer is telling them you can’t afford it anymore, followed by telling them everything negative about your life in a lifeless tone. After a while, they’ll do anything to get you off the phone.

Aesthesiaphilia ,

You can also tell your credit card company that you attempted to cancel but they won't let you, and all future charges from that merchant should be refused.

lemmyseizethemeans ,

One. Hundred. Fucking. Percent.

They call it a ‘rentier’ based capitalism where you never get to own anything, just have to keep paying for the same thing over and over. It is insane.

Screwthehole ,

Ya rent from who? Someone still fucking owns everything. “You can just rent it!” says the guy who fucking owns it. Fuck that.

WtfEvenIsExistence ,

Every tenant is technically under a sublease since the landlord is essentially renting from the government.

Hogger85b ,

Magna carta had somthing to say about that

Pons_Aelius ,

And emanate domain means that you only own property with the government's consent and that can be removed at any time.

UlyssesT ,

YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY maybe-later-honey

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