this is the thing that has been brilliantly eliminated from any tax discussion by the media and politicians. whenever taxes come up the conversation plays to emotional responses rather than logical and mathematical. its always examples of billionaires who pay very little effective taxes (due to carried interest - which is then never part of any tax reform) or corporations (typically through explicitly embedded writeoffs that the people ranting about them PUT THERE).
what is never discussed is exactly what % of an individuals income is fair to say they should pay given their income. what is never discussed is what exactly is this income they are paying going to? the government has already bankrupted entitlements - and funding them with their annual distribution with some tax income and borrowing from miscellaneous pork to get by doesnt work long term so it aint that. they regularly loses track of billions or funds agencies that are functionally useless due to mismanagement or actually completely pointless with billions. they continually come up with reasons to spend money but never have to answer with the preposterous amount they take in annually that isnt enough. this should be a bipartisan concern- wtf are they actually contributing that works even moderately effectively or remotely efficiently? how have they diverted everyones attention from how much money they take annually and how tf is that not enough to people not paying their fair share? they continually find reasons to drum up new bills that cost several billion to hundreds of billions or more and the amounts allocated to the subject of the bill are preposterous, nevermind the billions in bullsht pork they shove into them.
this should absolutely be a bipartisan outcry. every single thing the government runs is a financial catastrophe. they could take 100% from everyone and run out of money. why would anyone trust them to decide what anyones fair share is? they are, by an exponential degree in scale, the poorest financially managed operation in the country and arguably the world. the government is in no place to demand more when the product it pays for is so comically poor even veep couldnt have dreamed it up. not a dime should be raised until they can account for every dollar spent, why it was spent, where it actually landed, and produce evidence they manage their spending efficiently enough to create a positive difference. until then they can stfu with anyone not paying their fair share. they get enough, you show us anything you run being managed in a manner that comes remotely close to what can be considered financially literate.
