Nobody in politics really cares for voters. They just tell convenient lies, and once you dropped your vote into the ballot box, you stop to exist for them again. You are just the annoying necessary means to lift them up to the pork barrels of political bribery.
Do you have some action plan to fight that?
For the US, this would require removing companies from political actions, and channeling private political donations to a neutral handler that limits those to a certain maximum amount.
The superrich own the media.
And the politicians.
Question answered. No further comments needed. Part of growing up is realizing the "democracy" we live in is just a mask for fascism.
A good chunk of current democracies are actually open market oligarchies.
And they also run fake competitions where they promise to give a million dollars to people for voting a certain way, but really the winners were predetermined the whole time...
Because they don't own the means of production, and the opposition has a monopoly on violence.
Over 70% of voters want universal healthcare. About the same amount want a higher minimum wage.
About 90% of Democratic voters want universal healthcare, more than half of all independents want the same thing, and even a huge amount of Republicans want universal healthcare (around 40%).
Even so, D&Rs can't be bothered.
(yes yes, I know, BoTh SiDeS so I must be a secret Nazi bot, etc. you got me)
Because the rich bribe our politicians. Legally.
We REALLY need to normalize demystifying the rebrand of bribery as 'lobbying'. There's a reason that term has power, cause people alreayd learned the dangers of it, and the corruption it breeds.
Long article to say "the rich are in charge"
That's not the full answer though, since a similar phenomenon appears in much less oligarchic systems.
While the rich also have a disproportionate influence in those systems, it wouldn't be enough without the assistance of the racism and spite of the average voter.
Why do we think they're less oligarchic? It's a classic principal-agent problem. Representatives are generally for sale.
Less corrupt systems than the one in the US can and do exist.
I might be assuming too much of what you meant by oligarchic.
An oligarchic system is one where political power lies predominantly in the hands of a small privileged elite. But it's not a binary concept, the current US system is less oligarchic than it was in the 19th Century, or the Venetian Republic for example. What did you mean?
Title should be: ruling class makes it as difficult as possible for the rest to tax them
Blue-state Democrats are in a bind. They support a more equitable tax system, but fear, with some justification, that they and their party will be blamed if higher state taxes cause their wealthiest residents and their state economies to “head south,” literally and figuratively.
They say "with some justification," but what is that justification? Is there evidence that higher taxes causes wealthy residents to leave AND that that has negative consequences for the broader economy?
Just like all the billionaires in NYC that fled when Mamdani took office? All 0 of them?
So what if the rich leave? They're not paying taxes, who needs them? The need for vendors and contractors doesn't go away when the wealthy leave. The economy goes on. Someone will take their place and pay taxes and not bitch about it so much.
the fear isn't that a rich person leaves. the fear is that a large employer moves and takes all those jobs with it.
Because the rich are extremely resistant to taxation.
Because 90% think they're in the top 10%, and the top 10% think they're all 1 step from being the next musk.
They're all deluded be capitalism.
This basically sums it up. https://youtu.be/sYA-z0Y8WRQ?is=kw_NGc3gLO-d4Onl
What the bottom 99% want is irrelevant. We don't run this country or make its decisions. We are just cogs in a machine that exists to serve the rich and convince the poor that they're in some magical land of freedom. None of us are free.
Not entirely. Generally of course people who don't have to labour for their livelyhood have more time and certainly more resources to influence politics. But the common man can make their voices heard. -you can vote in your interest. Be careful of what people try to tell you is your interest -you can protest (peacefully); look at France to see a populace that doesn't just take what is rammed down their throats -you can talk to your neighbours; discuss things with them to form an opinion; don't just parrot talking points from media; -you can write to representatives; sure, your letter won't be directly shown to then, unlike one from Koch or someone. But it won't go unnoticed. -participate at town halls -participate in polls A fortune 500 CEO or Forbes billionaire list name will have more impact than a single voice from the population. But organised, the voices of the population make a difference. Organisation, participation and critical engagement can make a difference.
the question answers itself.
Because they're using some of their money to keep us from holding them accountable? And that they have probably run the numbers to find that it is cheaper to do this than to just... Pay the taxes.
Some things that would help:
Trying to get exact numbers for wealth to tax it is near impossible especially in ultra wealthy areas with their own ways of hiding it Anyone who suggests touching capital gains will be accused of attacking peoples retirement at least in the US 401ks have replaced most other forms of retirement benefits
Im surprised there aren’t more Georgists in this day and age when we have so much bogarted land and empty luxury apartments
Probably because the foundation of georgism became fundamentally irrelevant with the invention of the microprocessor.
Summary since the Access top this page has been denied:
Most Americans support higher taxes on billionaires due to concerns about inequality and concentrated wealth, yet federal and state efforts to implement such taxes have largely stalled because of political influence, legal complexity, and fears of capital flight (wealthy moving their money outside the US).
This is definitely not a real question
...but I'll answer it anyways
The answer is because the rich make the laws.
Because voters have little to no say in the matter.
That and half of the people who actually show up to vote, vote for republicans, who are against taxing their buddies, donors, etc.
How is this a real question
Because voters don't vote accordingly.
Is this actually a legitimate question they're asking?
It's the most obvious answer on earth. The people making the laws don't work for the voters anymore. They vote for the donors.
It can be more complicated than that. My governor just signed into law a state income tax on anyone making a million or more. (We have no other income tax, everyone pays a regressive sales tax.) All the poorest people in the state are mad and they are collecting signatures to repeal the millionaire tax, because they think this new income tax will "trickle down" to anyone making $100k or less. They are absolutely convinced of this, even though new laws would have to be passed for that to happen. And this is a blue state.
Are they actually all the poorest people in the state, or are we talking like a doordash grandma situation where they hire some people to dress up like regular working class folk for an afternoon?
Well the politicians are rich and don't like hurting themselves. And they like earning money or getting richer.
Probably for the same reason that rejecting insider trading by politicians is popular. Or worker protections. Or single payer healthcare.
I seem to remember Cenk from TYT showing polls that Americans tend to poll progressive on the issues. Somehow, all the things that are popular don't get passed, though, hmmmmm...
werealltryingtofindtheguywhodidthis.jpg
A trillion ants want the human picnic food but the humans have bug spray, ant traps, and a vicious hatred for ants.
Why aren’t the ants getting to enjoy the picnic food?
Why is it so hard to reach consensus on Lemmy?
Why do you support genocide?
Why aren’t you just like me? You genocidal asshole?
It’s the “media” right? Not us?
The “media”??? Right?
You may want to block a few communities, my friend.
“Voting against our own interests”
Usually because someone waved a flag at them.
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