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Taxes...
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
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Suicide seems pretty extreme. Also, I don't like suicide being suggested, even in jest, because you never know if someone on the other end just needed a tiny nudge to go through with it.
Alternatives off the top of my head:
Move to a country without taxes. On the other hand, other than tax loopholes for the super rich, many of us living with US-level or above standard of living are unlikely to be happy in a country that does not collect taxes.
Alternatively, you could set up a Star Trek-style system without the use of money in daily living, but that's going to be a tall order.
does not seem that tall to me...
See, you need all the supporting systems for that as well. You can't just buy a computer game and start playing, you also need a motherboard, a CPU, a CPU cooler, a PSU, a network card, at least one drive, some RAM, a bunch of cables, a case, the OS, probably a router and ISP hookup, the electrical outlet and mains power hookup, a shelter for the delicate electronic parts, likely property to build the shelter on, and all the rest of the society BS.
Now to be fair, most people already have electrified housing and probably an internet connection, and many places make a computer a single item purchase, but no one has the systems to bring about a Star Trek style system yet, and even the people who want to build them disagree on how. Building them is also probably going to be quite painful if Star Trek is anything to go by.
Although, perhaps there's a alien civilization out there that's done all this already that you can buy a colonization/uplift from. That might reasonably be a short if expensive order.
This.
And if we're speculating, why not go all the way and say we also don't know it would be expensive. Who's to say it would not cost, say, $15? Wouldn't it be fun to get a Star Trek system for, like, so cheap that a kid could afford it?
(I would make sure to read the fine print, though.)
My mom was an accountant and told me this story.
A finance guy had sole control of a rather large account. At some point he's strapped for cash, and just needs a little to cover the next few weeks. So he pulls a little out of this account, writes down what he took and what he'll pay back, including interest. He's not trying to embezzle, he's just in a tight spot.
Well, it goes pretty well, he paid it back and no one noticed. A few years pass and he's in a tight spot again, no problem he'll borrow from the account and pay it back just like before. Except this time he can't cover it. But he manages to make a quick sale to bring some extra cash in to the account to conceal what he'd taken. This starts a pattern, he withdraws money, but because money is constantly moving in and out, no one really notices and he's able to continue stealing money from this fund. It's a few thousand initially, after a few years it's a few hundred thousand.
Suddenly he's in so far over his head there is absolutely no way he'll ever be able to pay it back. It's a matter of time before he gets caught and he figures that before he commits suicide, it would be best if he just came forward with it, perhaps some of the partners in his firm can help him out. This was an 11th hour revelation, as I understand this man realized he could just confess while standing on the bridge.
He explains what he did, why he did it, and gives an accurate accounting of how much he stole to his board. After a moment of shocked silence one board member stands up, and says "I know what you should do." And before the relief could finish washing over him at a solution, he continued "you should kill yourself."
Shortly after that meeting, the IRS is at his door with a handful of US Marshalls.
Line 8 kids, if you're stealing money and no one's noticing, it goes on Line 8. Break one law at a time.
Crazy story, I enjoyed reading it even though the "poor" guy ended up killing himself. What's line 8 though ? I don't know what this means...
He's still alive! Going seeing the country talking about what to look for when you suspect somebody is embezzling.
Line 8 is a line in American income taxes, it's used for "all other" forms of income, otherwise not reported. So if you stole 100,000 dollars, even though you obtained it illegally, you're expected to report it, or give committed another crime.
Generally that line is used for more niche sources of income. There are planet of legitimate reasons to use it.