Where did my taxes go? • Hacker News Board

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#191

Post by alsetmusic » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:06 PM UTC

Rekindle8090 wrote: post #184

atmavatar wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or the counterfactual of not having raised that debt in the first place I'm pretty sure most of us would enjoy a different timeline where we didn't sink over $1 trillion in the Iraq war or another $2 trillion on the F-35, where we didn't mindlessly increase the military budget every cycle, where Republican administrations didn't cut taxes on the wealthy every time they won the presidency in the last half century, o…

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If you don't count the quote (which I never do because it's not the words of the commenter), they only wrote one long sentence.

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#192

Post by Ntrails » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #118

RhysU wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Social Security is almost completely disbursement charges but those disbursements aren't means tested so even quite wealthy individuals receive them. Only to those who paid into the system and far less than they personally could have earned on investing the same dollars.

Yeah, one of the problems I have with taxes is that if I pay $100 into taxes I don’t get $100 of value back. Everyone should get at least as much as they put in back. Also, some other people should get more back. But we shouldn’t spend more than we make as a government.

> Everyone should get at least as much as they put in back

I don't even understand the thought process here. Taxes are not being used for productive investments. Some spending is growth, but probably not half.

I could see expecting the median citizen to be flat over their lifetime as a goal.

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#193

Post by srslyTrying2hlp » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:18 PM UTC

zahlman wrote: post #138

d_burfoot wrote: post #104

Many Americans do not realize how much money the US government spends. When you include all three levels, it comes to $32K/person/year [0]. This is much higher than countries that are considered "social democracies" such as Finland, France and Canada. If you look at wealthy blue cities like NYC or SF, the spending is on the order of $50K/p/y, comparable to Norway. It is not realistic to believe that we can become a n…

> It is not realistic to believe that we can become a nice wholesome European country if we just raise taxes a bit. The extra money will just be squandered and stolen. Why, in your view, doesn't the same thing happen to them?

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Re: Where did my taxes go?

#194

Post by srslyTrying2hlp » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:20 PM UTC

animal_spirits wrote: post #165

Teever wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply put the people in those countries who spend the money care about the people who gave them the money. They view themselves as stewards of these resources and genuinely want to spend them optimally to ensure the best return for everyone in society including future generations. That isn't the case in America and will never be the case. America is a failed state.

I would not put this on America being a failed state. Rather the more 'successful' European countries are far more homogenous in demographics than America ever will be. In Denmark, nearly everyone has the same cultural background and similar values, and are striving for a relatively unified vision/goal for the country. In America, there is such an overwhelming diversity in values and cultures, and added animosity bet…

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Re: Where did my taxes go?

#195

Post by srslyTrying2hlp » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:25 PM UTC

pennomi wrote: post #82

arjie wrote: post #12

This makes it sort of obvious how large the US welfare state is. Medicaid: 10% "Safety Net": 7.1% Social Security: 22.6% Medicare: 14.2% 53.9% of the federal budget is spent on welfare. That seems roughly in line with most Western nations.

Except the US doesn’t have universal healthcare, and other nations do.

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Re: Where did my taxes go?

#196

Post by GetTheFacts » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 10:57 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #14

As a thought experiment, it'd be interesting to imagine how things would play out if each taxpayer could adjust little sliders on each category to allocate where they personally would like their taxes to go. Agencies could recommend funding levels, Congress could recommend an allocation and if a taxpayer didn't change it, that default would take effect. But if a taxpayer preferred, they could say, "no, I won't be fun…

>each taxpayer could adjust little sliders on each category to allocate where they personally would like their taxes to go.

If that were the case, I'd go all in on hookers and blow.

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#197

Post by BrenBarn » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 11:11 PM UTC

overfeed wrote: post #169

animal_spirits wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not put this on America being a failed state. Rather the more 'successful' European countries are far more homogenous in demographics than America ever will be. In Denmark, nearly everyone has the same cultural background and similar values, and are striving for a relatively unified vision/goal for the country. In America, there is such an overwhelming diversity in values and cultures, and added animosity bet…

> Rather the more 'successful' European countries are far more homogenous in demographics than America ever will be. In Denmark, nearly everyone has the same cultural background and similar values, and are striving for a relatively unified vision/goal for the country. Can you explain this reasoning without implying American political leaders (or perhaps broader society) are racist? As a counterpoint France, Germany,…

> Can you explain this reasoning without implying American political leaders (or perhaps broader society) are racist?

Why would we need to do that?

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#198

Post by bdangubic » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 11:12 PM UTC

remarkEon wrote: post #189

overfeed wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvote all you want, but y'all still haven't explicitly named the linkage between demographic diversity and American tax policy vis-a-vis threadbare social safety. Instead of asking the reader to fill in the gaps, I challenge anyone who believes it to explain the mechanism linking the diversity prior/stimulus to the tax policy result, and why it only happens in America.

In a place as diverse as America, democracy starts to resemble a racial headcount. Elections start to hinge on explicit appeals to particular ethnicities or sub groups. Political parties are very loud about this and they don’t try to hide it at all. I thought it was clear why this only happens in America (the aforementioned diversity).

what does this have to do with tax policy?

Re: Where did my taxes go?

#199

Post by proshno » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

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Re: Where did my taxes go?

#200

Post by ryandrake » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 11:36 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #14

As a thought experiment, it'd be interesting to imagine how things would play out if each taxpayer could adjust little sliders on each category to allocate where they personally would like their taxes to go. Agencies could recommend funding levels, Congress could recommend an allocation and if a taxpayer didn't change it, that default would take effect. But if a taxpayer preferred, they could say, "no, I won't be fun…

> As a thought experiment, it'd be interesting to imagine how things would play out if each taxpayer could adjust little sliders on each category to allocate where they personally would like their taxes to go.

Change that to "allocation where they personally would like the entire budget to go." Otherwise, this is a recipe for an even worse power imbalance than we have today. The rich (who pay more taxes, and therefore whose sliders are more powerful) would have a greater influence on the budget than the poor, in your system.