this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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[–] seggturkasz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is som weird metaphor... So some people get voluntary "cancer" in hope theycan fight it and it will benefit them in the long run, and some don't. While someone will have just the benefits and not the cancer while everyone chips in.

I get that in the long run highly educated people tend to pay more taxes. So makeing education affordable in is a net benefit for everyone. But this analogy is just weird...

I don't know man, at the end of the day it is unfair, and making fun of that seems inappropriate.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I get that in the long run highly educated people tend to pay more taxes.

Sounds wrong, in general the more you make the less you pay in the Usa, in other countries it probably sounds a bit more plausible.

[–] stankmut@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The US has a progressive income tax, so it is true that people with higher education pay more income tax as a whole. The main difference with other countries is that it has a fairly low percentage cap and an absurdly low capital gains tax. The wealthy paying a low tax rate because of most of their earnings being asset based instead of income based doesn't change the fact that the people who get paid higher incomes from their jobs that required higher education pay more income tax.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Exactly, it's like when you look at US median wealth distribution, if you don't strip off the 0.1% at the top that have over a billion dollars in assets, then it makes everything massively lopsided and skews incredibly higher than reality.

Being told that at the age of 35, your average peers have a net worth of $175,000 is not anywhere near true for most people that's actually 35 and surrounded by peers.

You just have a couple of money bag multi-billionaires massively counterbalancing the far higher number of people with negative net worth.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sure that's how it's supposed to work but I imagine we'll find the higher the income the less you pay as a percentage given the plethora of tax evasion schemes available.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

It's highly dependent. Your doctor that makes $250,000 a year probably pays his fair share of $250,000 following the tax codes.

He doesn't really have the time or interest in finding loopholes in order to save the few thousands of dollars it might save him.

Most likely, he hires a qualified CPA and allows the CPA to manage his tax returns.

The people that are doing the tax dodging are the businesses that make millions a year, and they're using their business assets in order to decrease the amount of taxes they and their business pays.

They hire accountants and they do everything they can to not pay taxes, wherever the law allows for you to legally not pay them.

My opinion is that the actual solution is not to villainize the businesses for taking advantage of the tax loopholes but rather it is to villainize our politicians who created the tax loopholes as kickbacks for their friends that give them perks in real life.

There have been proposals to fix this, things like the VAT in England, and they are always loudly shouted down by the news corporations who are in the pocket and owned by the businesses that would be most negatively affected by them.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

the pols own the businesses and/or get donations/kickbacks from them

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If you think tax evasion is more common in business id say I'm fairly certain you are wrong and it's statistics will support that.

We simply don't know because the it's does not focus in higher earners because they can fight it, us poors can't.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I mean, I'm pretty sure that petty tax dodging happens even amongst the poorest of people, but if you look at what you would get out of going after the perpetrators, doing things like closing tax loopholes and instituting a VAT, things like that, would do more to solve the problem than auditing every single family that makes under $70,000 a year and finding out where they have made mistakes, accidental or otherwise, in their tax filings.

Instituting a corporate flat tax on any company that has revenues of over $500 million a year would put hundreds of billions of dollars into the federal economy.

With that money, corporations would actually save quite a bit of money because they wouldn't have to hire so many freaking accountants, and that much income could take care of the $1.6 trillion student loan debt crisis in half a decade.

After that was taken care of, it could all be thrown into Social Security and take care of that looming crisis. It would alleviate so many financial concerns from the country that it's actually concerning that we are not even beginning to consider doing such a thing.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yep. Great comment.

Tax enforcement has costs. Some taxes cost more than others to institution, and tax enforcement makes zero sense for poor people where the cost of enforcement exceeds the revenue.

Which is precisely why the IRS has been so gutted, because a broke IRS has no money to audit rich people who are doing massive, illegal, and blatant tax evasion systematically.

And the media focuses on what people buy with food stamps as if they should only be able to buy beans with them.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Also agreed.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nah, our tax structure is all kinds of fucked up and the middle class pays the most in tax. You don't start getting to skip out on taxes until you make 50x what the average college graduate earns.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
[–] Madison420@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't need my own you just proved my point, 100k is not middle class.

The report, which crunched the numbers for all 50 states, is based on Pew Research’s definition of middle class: two-thirds to double the median household income.

i believe your source even makes note that the American "middle class" is considered working class just about everywhere else.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And in which state is 100k more than double the median income? Did you actually look at the article, or did you hit the second paragraph and assume?

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

That's not how most of the world defines middle class because it's a useless stat that does not reflect societal issues via economics.

I looked at the article.

‘Middle class’ goes beyond income

For many people, being “middle class” goes beyond a certain income level, says Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner and expert in financial psychology and behavioral finance.

Did you?

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Okay, I thought we were talking about the US tax structure.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago

The us tax structure doesn't involve classes. There is no irs definition of middle class because that simply isn't what they do.