61–70 of 618 posts
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We're never going to pay it, and no we couldn't have gotten universal healthcare. If they had the votes, they would have done both, regardless of cost. They don't have the votes for universal healthcare.
Running out of people willing to lend us money is the ultimate risk. The more we borrow the sooner that happens.
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Since this is based on US spending I am assuming you are talking about US taxes, in which case, no you are not paying 55% in taxes.
37% federal, 13.3% california = 50.3 Most wealthy people spend another 1-2% of their income on property taxes and a bit on sales taxes, etc. I estimate I pay 53% of my income to taxes. I agree that 55% is unlikely tho
Nah... probably large portion of this was paid to US corporations and citizens. Spending on the level of government is counterintuitive. If you are government you hand out money but it gets back to you. Unfortunately, interest on that debt is real and is owed to other countries.
Most of that debt is internal.
Highlights from the March 2021 report
* Federal Reserve and government: $10.81 trillion (December 2020)
* Foreign: $7.07 trillion (in September 2020, Japan owned $1.28 trillion and China owned $1.06 trillion of U.S. debt, which is more than a third of foreign holdings)
* Mutual funds: $3.5 trillion
* Other holders, including individuals, government-sponsored enterprises, brokers and dealers, banks, bank personal trusts and estates, corporate and non-corporate businesses, and other investors: $2.28 trillion
* State and local governments, including their pension funds: $1.09 trillion
* Private pension funds: $784 billion
* Insurance companies: $253 billion
* U.S. savings bonds: $147 billion (December 2020)
source: https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s-national-debt-33...
Approximately $20,000 per person. $1000 a year would have made a nice universal basic income for the last 20 years.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that wages are quite inflated in the USA and $1000/year is not a livable income (i.e. sufficient for cheap housing, cheap food, water, electricity, basic appliances like a fridge and washing machine, heating, and pretty much nothing else) even in Europe where I'm from. Or am I missing the point of a UBI?
Still, it would’ve been a nice little boost.
Nah... probably large portion of this was paid to US corporations and citizens. Spending on the level of government is counterintuitive. If you are government you hand out money but it gets back to you. Unfortunately, interest on that debt is real and is owed to other countries.
Wrong US companies got the money, like BlackRock that owns 9trillion dollars in US assets, invests in weapons, including cluster munitions [2] and are untouchable[1]: [1] https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren... [2] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-fea...
EDIT: I don't like when the parent removes his entire comment and replaces it with something else, so now your comment seems stupid and off topic.
I leave mine because I like DS9
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The simplest way to look at it is the national debt would be 22.6T instead of 28.6T. That’s one option where nothing changes except war or no wars. Many people say national debt has zero impacts but eventually nobody is going to be lending the US money if we don’t pay our debt, which one way or another leads to a world of hurt. However, to get that debt we needed to borrowing money from someone and agree to pay them…
`nobody is going to be lending the US money if we don’t pay our debt,` 1) The Fed can loan money by simply creating new dollars and purchasing treasury bills. This has been happening for a long time, T-Bills do first get offered to private institutions but the Fed backstops all auctions. 2) There is literally no way for the US Gov to go involuntarily bankcrupt because of 1). It is the sole manufacturer of US dollars…
100 quintillion (10^20) pengő, the largest denomination bill ever issued, Hungary, 1946.
Deaths 9/11 2,996 Deaths Covid-19 USA 621,000 207x Lack of understanding of large numbers is a flaw in the human mind we have to figure out how to fix.
Some related numbers for just Afghanistan: American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448. U.S. contractors: 3,846. Afghan national military and police: 66,000. Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144. Afghan civilians: 47,245. Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191. Aid workers: 444. Journalists: 72. https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afgh…
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that wages are quite inflated in the USA and $1000/year is not a livable income (i.e. sufficient for cheap housing, cheap food, water, electricity, basic appliances like a fridge and washing machine, heating, and pretty much nothing else) even in Europe where I'm from. Or am I missing the point of a UBI?
Discretionary income for a lot of families is — functionally — zero. The result is that any sort of financial issue becomes a devastating (possibly lifelong) burden. Most of these issues are single-occurrence and probably fall in the 200–500$ range. A 1000$ a year UBI would be life-changing for them. And by "them" I mean, like, 50% of the country. I'm in Texas, and the maximum amount of cash assistance possible — mar…
Huh, but, then you basically die. You can't live with kids on $83 monthly, let alone one-time. Surely there's something else if you don't have a job?
Approximately $20,000 per person. $1000 a year would have made a nice universal basic income for the last 20 years.
Sure, but you can't discount all the US jobs created for defense industry and mercenary corps /s
Here's an article from 1983:
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/16/jobs/defense-spending-its...
> According to the study, for every $1 billion spent by the Pentagon to buy goods and services, 28,000 jobs are created in the private sector. The same investment would create 32,000 jobs if spent on public transportation, 57,000 if used for personal consumption and 71,000 jobs if spent on education, the report contended.
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Since this is based on US spending I am assuming you are talking about US taxes, in which case, no you are not paying 55% in taxes.
The top US tax bracket is 37% and top California bracket is 13.3% for a total marginal rate of of 50.3%. If you're self-employed or a contractor you'll have the employer side too so I could see that hitting 55%. And that's just income tax; property and sales tax could easy push higher than that. A poor person isn't paying that rate, but a wealthy person may well