• isekaihero@ani.social
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    9 hours ago

    But we have more billionaires than any other country. Isn’t that what makes America great? What more do you want?

    Here. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will trickle down a little more on your head. There you go. Now don’t you feel all warm and soaking wet? Bitch.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    But at least the extreme wealthy are paying less in taxes than any time since taxes began

    /s

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    Nations who hold sovereignty over their currency can’t be in debt in that currency any way that can be mistaken as problematic unless they choose it to be.

    The ‘National Debt’ for such entities is merely the tally of their currency which is yet to be obliterated through taxation.

    There’s also no such thing as ‘taxpayer money’ in their context, perpetuating this specious notion unnecessarily inflates the legitimacy of corrosive policies.

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          I’m not sure Israeli education is worth even zero dollars, given the kind of monsters it’s churning out.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            When they’re not committing genocide they have a pretty good software and software security industry for a small country

      • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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        2 days ago

        Never thought about this.

        They really do fund a whole country that has way higher living standards (unless you’re “an Arab” of course) than their own.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          What’s even worse is that the Israeli economy depends on Palestinian labor. Palestinians have practically none of the rights of Israelis, and are subject to genocide and settler-colonial terror, yet Palestinians do a large portion of underpaid labor propping up the Israeli economy. Palestinians are dehumanized, treated as tools to be used and discarded, and this is perfectly natural to Zionists because the conditions of settler-colonialism reinforce this view and create it. This is why a one-state solution is necessary, and Palestine must be free.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              Bingo! Same with other anti-colonial and anti-imperialist countries. Cuba, the DPRK, Ireland, Algeria, Nicaragua, Yemen, China, and more are some of the most supportive countries in the world for Palestine.

    • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      Given the size of the US economy that is peanuts. Bill Clinton managed to pay for Israel and have a balanced budget. The real truth is that the US has cut taxes for the rich. That meant less income and still old levels of spending, hence more debt.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        The problem is it’s no longer peanuts. The debt is larger than gdp and the debt payments are the largest government budget item.

        We’re already in a crisis of not being able to afford anything and the debt is large enough to crowd that out.

        For sure, tax cuts for the wealthy are a huge part of it, but so has the recent destruction of our economy and trade, random use of the military.

        FYI - I believe Bill Clinton mostly grew his way out of debt. Hold things steady while growing the economy (so debt is lower percentage), bringing in more tax income, and lowering interest rates. We’re doing the opposite of all three

        • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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          9 hours ago

          I am not talking about the debt of the US, but what the US pays Israel being peanuts compared to the kind of money the US government has.

      • goferking (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 hours ago

        He did it partially by cutting Americans benefits.

        We could be so much better if we actually taxed the wealthy, stopped funding Israel and invested in the country.

        Sadly we have too many people who believe they would be effected by those tax increases because the country is extremely anti education precisely to keep them that way

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      Kinda. Funding the Zionist entity is a part of a grander strategy maintaining US global hegemony, via IP monopoly, control of the dollar, and dominance of the IMF and NATO. All of these institutions work together to allow the US to siphon an enormous amount of global wealth production into a handful of billionaire pockets. Supporting genocide isn’t the end itself, but a consequence of the means for that grander end of billionaire profit.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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    2 days ago

    Oh but they have a lot to show for it. Ask anyone living in Iran. Or Israel.

    Just not in the USA itself.

    What a weird concept.

    Everybody in the world can see what American money buys, except Americans.

    • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      We can see it just fine. There’s nothing we can do. If you say take arms and start killing people, you’ll get a nice ban. Even if we did that, tye rich would hide in their secret bunkers until we all died and buy our houses for pennies on the dollar, and then they’ll be in your country buying all your stuff because it still will not be enough.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Workers can still practice the age-old mantra, educate, agitate, organize. Revolutions are made by the people, but they do not succeed without mass class consciousness and organized leadership. This is where making worker parties come in, by creating educated and disciplined worker organizations, through collective struggle the people come to more correct understandings of the class struggle. The answer isn’t to take up arms immediately, because the people aren’t unified. This can only come through consistent, deliberate education.

        • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          There is consistent, deliberate miseducation, propaganda, and psyops on a mass scale. It will be interesting to see how society adapts to survive it when there are cameras and precrime detection algos everywhere.

          I heard Florida banned Flock. Assuming that’s not a cover story for giving a contract to someone’s other surveillance company, that’s decent news. I wouldn’t expect such a shitty state to make such a progressive decision.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            There are certainly obstacles to organizing. Nobody said the work was easy! The critical point is that it isn’t impossible either, though, and that’s why it’s necessary to retain revolutionary optimism.

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        I think some did not see it till it was used internally but are waking up. unfortunately some still are blind to it.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    If all the DSA’s in the running get elected, we’ll see some measure of change.

    There were only like six Tea Party reps that got elected way back when, and we saw how they were able to shake things up.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The Tea Party was pushing on an open door. Democrats and Republicans alike were enthusiastically in favor of slashing SS/Medicare, gutting education and housing development, privatizing prisons, and cutting taxes.

      The DSA will have an uphill battle. Everything they’re asking for in the US is Haram under the current socio-economic order.

    • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      To add to UnderpantsWeevil’s response there is also a pent up demand for something better but that better is going to take time and negotiations (since DSA will not have majority control). My worry is that people will get frustrated that things are not changing fast enough and vote out the progressives.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        I still say that is the real problem with Biden’s strategy. So many of the good things done then were long term improvements where we needed to stay the course. Then people got impatient and voted for the chaos we have now

        And that’s going to be a huge problem win for the future. Just like American corporations who can no longer think or plan beyond the next quarter, American government can no longer think or plan beyond 2 years.

        Our most needed fixes are long term, systemic fixes. Not just single payer healthcare, ubi, ssa, but all sorts of infrastructure (power generation and transmission, transportation, development, water, new technology, science, education). Everywhere I turn we seem to be building beyond what we can afford while having no plan to maintain what is there. We didn’t bring a ladder but keep digging this grave deeper thinking we’ll get out somehow

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        The necessary changes cannot go through reform, though. Even if the DSA wins, those gains will be temporary at best. Socialism is still necessary, and still requires smashing the capitalist state apparatus and replacing it.