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[-] MooseBoys@lemmy.world 160 points 2 years ago

Accurate except for the “instead” part. Road maintenance comes from local taxes, whereas military aid comes from federal taxes.

[-] Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well if you really want to get technical about it.... No programs or spending are really funded by taxes anyway, the government just says "OK" and the numbers in the bank accounts of the companies implementing said program go up. Taxes funding things is just a myth. Taxes just delete money. So technically, nothing is funded by taxes and taxes are just a money void.

Edit: People seem to be down voting because they think this is tinfoil hat BS or something. It's not. Look up modern monetary theory. Governments with fiat currency don't need to collect money to pay for things. They just invent and issue more currency. See this video: https://youtu.be/75udjh6hkOs?si=dVpp9V5f96kLDV4-&t=1628

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago

the wikipedia page says:

MMT is controversial, and is actively debated with dialogues about its theoretical integrity, the implications of the policy recommendations of its proponents, and the extent to which it is actually divergent from orthodox macroeconomics. MMT is opposed to the mainstream understanding of macroeconomic theory and has been criticized heavily by many mainstream economists.

i don’t think your comment properly highlights how controversial MMT is. i’m not an economist, but i don’t think it’s fair to use language like “taxes funding things is a myth” and “technically nothing is funded by taxes and taxes are just a money void”, when those claims rely on such a controversial theory.

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[-] stevehobbes@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I mean this is a cute clever thing that sounds smart that isn’t.

The government pays for things. The government funds that through monetary policy that includes printing money, as well as raising money via taxes. Whether the government deletes a dollar you give them and prints another dollar vs transferring the dollar you gave them into their spending budget is super irrelevant.

It’s functionally the same and either way, your tax dollar, whether “deleted” and replaced or transferred is still your proportional allocation of funding.

This is real “I am very smart” vibes.

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[-] uriel238 24 points 2 years ago

Sorry about all the broken veterans with TBIs. We could have invested in better healthcare infrastructure, TBI treatment research even better armor and helmets for our troopers dealing routinely with IEDs. But instead we got experimental tanks with active camo, a shitty plane which we're phasing out and aid to Israel to perpetuate their ancient religious genocide program.

It's just that US soldiers are poor and expendible and people with money tell us who and what is important.

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago

And there are literal laws of nature that would prevent that from ever changing.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 18 points 2 years ago

I mean, potholes in my area get fixed pretty quickly, because the local government takes its job relatively seriously.

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[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 96 points 2 years ago

Please, not fixing potholes have been around longer than the current Palestinian/Israeli and also a completely stupid reduction of the complexity of this whole fucked up situation.

[-] smooth_tea@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago

There's nothing complex about it. Israel imprisons an entire people and every time the UN tries to do something about it the US vetoes it.

The "it's complex" excuse is used to have people look the other way by turning it into a hopeless situation.

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

not fixing potholes have been around longer

They haven't been fixing potholes since 1949? Those potholes must be huge.

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[-] Rolder@reddthat.com 77 points 2 years ago

It’d be way more effective if the road pictured wasn’t absolutely perfect and pothole free

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[-] arc@lemm.ee 60 points 2 years ago

Love the false equivalence. Your city taxes can't fix the potholes because your federal taxes pay for a military.

[-] hark@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

Those federal taxes cannot be allocated to state funds which cannot then be allocated to city funds to maintain roads?

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

No because they must be spent to kill Palestinian children. Get your Merican priorities straight.

[-] mingistech@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

Federal tax funds the maintenance of the Interstate Highways.

[-] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 18 points 2 years ago

Where do you see an interstate highway in the pic?

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[-] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 59 points 2 years ago

All children in Gaza are terriosts! Or potential terriosts! Isreal NEEDS to bomb ambulances, hospitals and water wells because that is where all the terriosts are! ya see?Any amount of infrastructure supports terriosism! Bombing is a nessecity!

It's outright ghoulish.

[-] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 years ago

"Anyone who runs is Viet Cong. Anyone who stands still is well disciplined Viet Cong."

[-] rubicon@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 years ago

How can you shoot women and children?!?!

Easy, you just don't lead them as much

[-] quatschkopf34@feddit.de 38 points 2 years ago

Well, it‘s actually true that Hamas uses civil infrastructure and civilians as shields, you can’t deny that. Of course that doesn‘t mean that Israel can just bomb everything.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 17 points 2 years ago

in an area where the population density is 5,300 people/km2 "human shields" is a quite weak argument. It is practically impossible to seperate civillian and military infrastructure in such densely populated areas.

For comparision the Netherlands has about 500 people/km2 and it is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe.

[-] quatschkopf34@feddit.de 23 points 2 years ago

There is a difference between the close proximity of military and civilian infrastructure because of a high population density and actively choosing hospitals as military bases.

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[-] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 years ago

Somebody should tell Israel

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[-] Gandarf@startrek.website 16 points 2 years ago
[-] Hello_there@kbin.social 20 points 2 years ago

Israel's actions did

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

a straw man

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[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 54 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

We send $5,000,000,000 in outright charity to Israel, not including what our legislators are about to fork over as soon as they get their stock portfolios situated in the best ways to profit from it.

That's $100,000,000 per state that could be used to fix potholes or help Americans in other ways, but we're silly geese who 100% support neglecting our own people in favor of war, so we're getting what we voted for.

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[-] Dewded@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

Isn't this a photoshop? Boring Dystopia is a lot more poignant when the content it shows has some reality to it.

While the point the image is trying to make does have quite a bit of reality behind it, the shopping is to its detriment.

[-] Daqu@feddit.de 24 points 2 years ago

Just put the babies in the potholes.

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[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

What does this abstraction contribute to the discourse? Does it rile up support for fixing potholes? Does it rile up support for Palestine?

My feeling is it obfuscates the issues and makes progress seem impossible.

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago

It draws attention to the fact that we are paying money to shoot missiles at innocent Palestinian children.

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[-] TechDiver@kbin.social 16 points 2 years ago

"Your tax dollars help protect innocent people against terror"

[-] Cockmaster6000@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 years ago

Terror like bombing civilians in refugee camps?

[-] angrymouse@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

"(...) Against terror they created opressing random ppl"

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[-] S_204@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

The dystopia will get a whole lot less boring if the civilized world allows Islamic jihadism to achieve its goals.

This is an investment in your future.

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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
2009 points (100.0% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

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