Old school Socialism is dumb

But we need to avoid the tendency to decide on solutions without defining the problem.

“Progressive tax system” and “cut off tax havens” is not out of the box thinking.

Why are taxes needed? What is the government expected to do, or no do? What is the value of paying a tax? If the goal is re distribution of wealth, that is a non starter.

Think about what we want to be as a nation.

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx of course but those ideals above have already been enacted and you have empirical evidence to show that inequality was much lower when these were in place.

The problem is many fold but I would say the main ones are the political system has been usurped by corporations and doesn't represent the majority at all, human accelerated climate change (individually and collectively we need to change on this), foreign policy especially by the super powers, the msm (controlled by billionaires) and inequality.

It's obviously way deeper than that but we have precedence to curb the worst of these issues and if enacted I believe that will lead to conversations that are much more radical and hopefully much more.inclusive of people

So, it’s not the tax system itself, it’s the way it’s been manipulated by the people we elect.

The election process itself hasn’t changed, but the everyday person is easily swayed by half truths.

Laws and regulations will become more rational if we are able to elect people who actually represent us.

So, we don’t need tax reform first. If we do not change who we are electing, then tax reform will simply result in a new set of loopholes.

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx you've got no argument from me......but you have to be able to make the case for tax reform

Tax reform will logically follow. @gol979

@JoeyFoxx saying that, trumpkins has gone through a tax reformation in cutting taxes for the mega rich resulting in the biggest hand out to billionaires.
I'm obviously not down with that tax reform

You’re making my point aren’t you?

It’s not about the regulation. It’s about the people we elect to create it.

All of the bitching and moaning we have about politicians is not unlike people who complain about their children.

We have only ourselves to blame.

We allow ourselves to be manipulated by “the man” and in the meantime, we collectively fuck each other over.


@gol979

@JoeyFoxx but to go back to your original point......where are you going to get people who want to run for office saying that we should have higher taxes for profit and the rich if it doesn't come from the "left"?

We don’t know if we need higher taxes.

We need to reset expectations in terms of what the government should be funded to do.

We have to stop jumping to solutions without first defining the problems and what literally caused those problems.


@gol979

@JoeyFoxx would you cut your military budget by 50% to a still disgusting $325 billion (still the highest in the world, by far)?

Are you asking me to run?

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx I don't think so but I was asking your opinion

I don’t have one.

Military spending could be a good thing, so long as we all benefit.

We need more investment for university research for materials science and health research that isn’t big pharma.

It’s not the size of the budget that matters. It’s what the taxpayer gets for it.

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx no opinion on a $750 billion military budget? Fair enough

So, you’re not actually reading my comments in full and making an attempt to understand.

Fair enough.

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx I am trying to understand but you're very vague and when asked for a direct opinion related to your original point you have no opinion but then state many other opinions.
You have no opinion on the biggest budget (military) but keep bringing up other aspects of the budget (r&d) and then say the amount doesn't mean anything (in relation to the budget).
Maybe I'm dense (actually no maybe about it) but I'm struggling to get your point

Have you actually read the federal budget on military spending? Do you know where it goes?

It’s not only about weapons.

The US Government has been moving budget from scientific research in the nations universities into the military budgets where research is being done through private industry.

It’s a lost opportunity. And research for the sake of research is wasteful.

One option could literally be to leave the budget top line alone, but direct military funding back to University research.

What are the benefits?
- Universities who want this funding must offer lower cost education, so students will benefit
- The US reestablishes itself as a leader in developing new things and new idea
- more cost effective health research would benefit hospitals and lower the cost of healthcare not with insurance, but actually making it less expensive to treat illness and injury

The US government had plenty of money. We just need more wisdom applied in terms of how we spend it.

And, the military gets the immediate benefit of all the above.

@gol979

@JoeyFoxx so you obviously do have an opinion.

The benign military budget, come on.

Did you see the audit from the pentagon?

@gol979 It's not benign. Thanks for white-washing my perspective.

There have been many audits of the Pentagon. Wasteful spending and hidden spending at the Pentagon is no different than any other part of the US government.

The notion that we need higher taxes is fucking dumb. If a teenager continually goes out and spends money on dumb things, do you raise his or her allowance?

What we need is a GAO with teeth. We need actual accountability for where the money goes.

And we need a national security strategy that makes sense. Not every dollar spent should be public, because that opens the door for the Putin's of the world.

@JoeyFoxx ok. I think I understand your perspective a little more. Cheers for your patience

@JoeyFoxx [quote]research for the sake of research is wasteful. [/quote]

🤣🤣🤣

Sorry, but this made me chuckle. Research for the sake of research, is what gave us every single science breakthrough. There's a simple principle, called: we don't know what we don't know. So, the only way for us to advance, we need to do research for the sake of research. This is the purpose of every single research university.

The only company that had a true "research" department, in our modern history, is Xerox, but that was decades ago. Microsoft used to have the same, but they abandoned it, after Bill Gates left.

@Northwest I'm glad you got a chuckle by reading the letter of what I wrote instead of paying attention to the spirit.

Happy Friday.

@JoeyFoxx [quote]research for the sake of research is wasteful.[/quote]

This is absolutely not true.

@Northwest This is the title of an actual research paper:

"A comparison of jump performances of the dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835)"

Literally to compare how high a cat flea jumps vs a dog flea

I am sorry sir, but not everything is of equal value. Some things are interesting to know, but in the grand scheme of things, do not need to be known.

We need to be rational in how and why money gets spent, to spend money on things were society benefits.

If there isn't a reason to understand the thing being researched, then it is, indeed, wasteful.

My apologies if you're not getting my point.

@JoeyFoxx Your premise, that research for research's sake, is not correct. Research for research's sake, is the very [b][i][u]foundation[/u][/i][/b] of discovery.

My apologies if you're not getting the point of science.