Memes

Strengthen governments? Corporations have been specifically sowing distrust in government so that they can convince voters to weaken regulations and vote against their own interests. How are corporations strengthening governments when they benefit from weak government?

Human beings may not be perfect but a computer program with language synthesis is hardly the answer to the world's problems.

This meme's text has figures about "now" but doesn't note that it is mostly a paraphrased quote from Deus Ex, a video game set in a fictional dystopian version of America in 2052. The speaker is not in fact talking about 2024 America. But even for the past figures, I would want citations.

The first part seems to be talking about tax sources as a portion of total taxes raised, which isn't easy to search for. I did find a table that cited whitehouse.gov and recorded income collections compared to total GDP at least. It did peak in 1945, but only at 7.1%.

The US Bureau of Labor doesn't seem to have records on self-employment before 1948. The only thing I could find talking about self-employment in 1900 was a blog post that said it was 50%. 90% self-employment sounds like a lot of subsistence farming and odd-jobs work, which isn't exactly the ideal economic model.

The Deus Ex part is part of a longer conversation, but here is the relevant section:

JC Denton: Just answer the question.
Leo Gold: Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people.
JC Denton: Do you have a single fact to back that up?
Leo Gold: Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent.
JC Denton: So?
Leo Gold: It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time.

The west, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power. Slogans such as "governments have limited power by design" come from well-paid researchers, think tanks funded by big businesses. It's privately funded propaganda, like the Trilateral Commision in United States, for instance.

Picture is wrong, my panties would be on the floor (I'm a dude)

It’s going up to 15% in January according to Biden’s new tax proposal.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/11/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-cuts-taxes-for-working-families-and-makes-big-corporations-and-the-wealthy-pay-their-fair-share/

Give me the GEP gun.

1945 is a really weird data point, because yk, WW2 was still going on, so at least for Americans, most of them were probably employed by the state or by the various enterprises that produced the weapons needed for the war effort

What a shame. He was a good man

The fact that a worker who barely makes ends meet pays 10-20 times the taxes Amazon pays is... Fascinating in a dark way.

Similar to feudal peasants that used to pay up in the form of free labor and produce, while their noble overlords enjoyed massive privileges and zero taxes.

Switch to linux /s

I got a coworker that does this without drinking 😆 Most of us kinda check out until he picks up that we’re not engaging

Am I the only one here bothered by that weird improper hyphenation?