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Just tax billionaires and we can have all of the above and a surplus budget.
How about we tax billionaires and also not give giant gifts to defense companies every year?
unless conflicts end worldwide I want my country to maintain the highest level of military technology and local capacity to ramp up if needed. That being said I don't want my country involved with every conflict in the world.
If the USA wouldn't be randomly invading countries every few years, they could keep the same level of military technology while spending much less.
The Iraq war did nothing to increase the US military's capabilities but just wasted enourmous amounts of money while killing civilians on a daily basis.
Yeah but it also gave us the Saddam Hussein outline meme.
Trillions well spent.
NCD user spotted
that's not how technology works, stuff will get outdated if we use it or not
for sure. To boot that was done while backgrounding afganistan which was the main 9/11 thing and caused it to go on forever since it was neglected.
What's up with Americans never mentioning Afghanistan anymore like it wasn't the first place that got invaded after 9/11???
it is much mentioned a bunch by our right on how bad the left president did finally extricating ourselves from the thing they started (and of course lets not forget what president actually eliminated osama)
As a Finn I don't want the US to stop fully... but they have a huge amount of excess, it's insane how much money they waste
Understandable
Good news, they could reduce it by 400 billion a year and still spend more than the the other 3 biggest spenders combined
If it's at the expense of everything else that could help the state of the country and quality of life, what's the point?
if it was but those other things are happening. I think your saying its not enough but when is it enough?
Sorry I was admittedly kinda vague. No point in having the world's best military when it's protecting a country that has destroyed the middle class, expanded the poverty class, secured inadequate funding for social security, failed to give its children a quality education in primary school, and priced secondary education into the stratosphere despite decades of telling kids college is the only thing that will get them a better job than flipping burgers.
Are all those things literally true? No, but some of them are, and they are all headed that way. Would be great if somehow a good military wasn't the only thing anyone was willing to fund.
Oh I get you. I often wonder at what point enough will be enough as we roll downhill.
I'm pretty sure the U.S. can do that without an $816.7 billion defense budget, much of which goes to giant corporations, and without being larger than the next 20 militaries combined.
How about we do a $400 billion defense budget and only be larger than the next 10?
, much of which goes to giant corporations, and without being larger than the next 20 militaries combined.
The biggest expenses, by far, are personnel costs and maintenance. The idea that the defense budget is a giant gift to contractors is just not backed up by evidence.
oh yeah but that is still money to defense companies. What you said here is pretty much what I meant. Just enough to maintain top tech levels and ability to ramp up and thats it.
I want my country to maintain the highest level of military technology and local capacity to ramp up if needed
There is N-word that will burn some asses: nationalize.
Watching Ukraine absolutely stonewall Russia using cold era tech has been incredible. Imagine what modern equipment could do. I can't wait to see what happens when they get f-16s, which were developed in the mid 70s by the way.
The last time US was involved in a war that even remotely had something to do with US was WWII. Before that it was probably civil war.
Yeah, because that for sure will stop other world powers from arming themselves and attacking others.
And to answer upcoming question: why we should care not others instead of ourselves. No one attacks us militarily (we are attacked via hubris warfare with disinformation such as this though) because we are armed.
Why would being ten times larger than the next ten militaries in the world combined instead of the next twenty make us likely to be attacked?
Because then you would say why 10 and not 5 and so on. The social spending currently is still much much bigger than the money spent for social services anyway (4.1 trillion + 910 billion in non defense spending which covers mentioned education housing etc): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_States_federal_budget
Cutting military spending won't increase social spending. The GOP is for cutting spending no matter what do they can cut taxes from corporations which what they did with latest tax bill.
Look at corporate income taxes, that should be increased.
I'm really amazed that people on Lemmy are actually cheering for massive, bloated military budgets.
Oh so after showing how ridiculous your post is and defense budget is a drop in what already is being spent on social programs now you are changing goal posts?
This post has always been about bloated defense budgets and all I have been talking about is bloated defense budgets. I didn't move any goal posts. That is a lie.
not give giant gifts to defense companies
There is N-word that will burn some asses on lemmy.world: nationalize.
defense companies
You mean mercenaries and arms dealers. The only thing they're defending is their profits.
I can't believe how many people on Lemmy of all places are defending massive defense budgets.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
I'm not saying there's no waste, but being against wasteful spending is a completely different thing, to me, than being against wasteful spending.
I'm completely okay with spending inordinate gobs of the tax base on defense because at this point, the US defense budget is, in effect, the premium we pay yearly for "Global Nuclear War Insurance".
It's as much as investment in psychological warfare as practical. That is: we lead the race by such a huge lead that nobody else even bothers to attempt to rival us. This prevents open/total war between superpowers, and also has a suppressive effect even on larger non-superpower nations.
And if you think our defense budget is inflated now, heaven help you if a near peer conflict actually would break out.
Basically we pay a lot, year in and year out so that we don't have to deal with war time spending...and of course all the death and destruction as well.
You're free to not like that, of course, but like I said, I'm 100% good with it.
the US defense budget is, in effect, the premium we pay yearly for "Global Nuclear War Insurance".
That's as true as the one about billionaires being "job creators" 🙄
This prevents open/total war between superpowers, and also has a suppressive effect even on larger non-superpower nations.
More ridiculous propaganda. The US military prevents war in the same way as tornados prevent strong winds.
And if you think our defense budget is inflated now, heaven help you if a near peer conflict actually would break out
So what you're saying is that spending as much as the 20 next countries wouldn't be enough to fight ONE of those? Sounds awfully wasteful.
Basically we pay a lot, year in and year out so that we don't have to deal with war time spending
Something like a single decade total HASN'T been war time for the 250 years the country has existed.
and of course all the death and destruction as well.
Except for those millions of pesky foreigners that of course have it coming 🙄
You're free to not like that, of course, but like I said, I'm 100% good with it.
Because you've swallowed their lies hook, line and sinker.
Not just billionaires; corporations.
If we consider corporations people (and the Supreme Courts says we have to) then we should tax their income. That means total income, not profits because I don't pay taxes on what's left over after my bills, so why should corps get to?
Wouldn't the billionaires just create private LLC to hold their funds? And they are not income based taxes, this would have to be based on shares or assets, net worth.
Taxing billionaires can help, but we also need to see that they contribute to what laws and rules get made, using lobbyists and support from politicians they fund.
Please inform and educate me, for those that have thought more on this!
I think when people say "tax the billionaires" it's implied that there would need to be new tax policy drafted that closes certain loopholes and exploitable tax shelters.
I can’t speak on the billionaires but wealthy people are already utilizing private LLCs to do exactly what you are talking about.
Yes, I agree.
Some have proposed closing loopholes, "extremists" on the republicans and democrat side.
I was asking for information on how and what exactly can be done, with any videos or articles talking on the subject, if y'all have seen or watched any.
I didn’t see a question in your original comment but I can answer a bit.
A lot has been said about the proposal to tax unrealized gains. One of the issues is that this is how the super wealthy are able to keep their taxes low. A not insignificant amount of their wealth is tied up in the stock market. This sits as an unrealized gain(or loss) but, because of the large amount of their holdings, they can take out loans using it as collateral at near 0% interest. This loan is tax free, and reduces their tax burden at the same time. Closing this loophole for them is a big one. Why do you think the majority of the compensation C Suite executives are given is in stocks? It’s for this very reason.
Now the backlash on the proposal to tax unrealized gains is fair when you look at what is considered unrealized gains. With inflation, house values are generally always going up. That increase IS an unrealized gain. And don’t be mistaken, the fact that we accept 2% as a general year-over-year inflation number means that inflation is an accepted financial policy of the United States.
That’s why the proposal to tax unrealized gains starts at an already high number. I think it was in the $400,000 range, but I am not certain.
Piggy backing off of this, a lot of the super wealthy bury their money into real estate. The idea of increasing real estate taxes on purchases based on the amount of home(s) you have has been circling around. I like the idea.
Closing the loopholes surrounding Private Foundations that they start up is another. Here’s an article that best articulates what’s wrong with these. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-private-nonprofits-ultrawealthy-tax-deductions-museums-foundation-art
Finally, we need an IRS that is funded and staffed appropriately, and to actually ENFORCE the tax code.
Please inform and educate me, for those that have thought more on this!
That was my fault, should have made it more obvious what I was looking for when talking to people.
Your response is a great one and what I was looking for, when talking about these kinds of things, thank you!
Just finished listening to August Nimtz on Upstream podcast. He explains why voting for the lesser evil will always push you further right.
So this sounds interesting, but depressing. Is it all just doom or does he propose realistic actionable solutions?
Yeah. Join or form an actual workers’ party that facilitates working class interest. There is no “easy” button.
August H. Nimtz, Ph.D., is a professor of political science ...He specializes in Marxism
What a surprise that the guy who thinks violence is the only way to make political change thinks voting is useless
He talks about that in the podcast.
Podcast is 1:28:02 long.
Do you have timestamps of questions or talking points?
I listened while walking my dog. Sorry. I don’t know how to do timestamps. It’s worth a listen. He goes back in history to other social movements and why they failed. Without a legitimate working class party to prevent capitalism from resorting to fascism, the bourgeoisie will always pull the economy further right. He talks of what Lenin and Trotsky got right, and what Stalin got wrong. It’s a well balanced take you don’t hear too much.
Thanks for the info!
Yes, voting for the status quo will not change anything.
We learned this from Justice Dems. and Bernie Sanders in 2016/2020, you can't change the system from within, the system will change you.
I watch Richard Wolff, so will watch his interview with August Nimtz.
What Marxism Teaches Us About the Trump Moment & Capitalism in Crisis - August H. Nimtz Jr. [4:59 | Aug 2, 2021 | Democracy At Work]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIo4QSVifbY
Economic Update: Best Years of U.S. Lie in its Past [29:35 | Aug 2, 2021 |Democracy At Work]