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Tax Wrapped 2025

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Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#31

Post by wyre »

wrs wrote: post #12

Editorially, it might be good to point out that government money moves in both directions. I spent $X on interest payments on the national debt, but I also received $Y of those interest payments if I have any Treasuries in my portfolio. Similarly, I might be receiving Social Security or Medicare benefits. Maybe expand this with a second section estimating what you're receiving from the government?

You exist in a bubble if you think a meaningful population of the target audience of this app have any meaningful amount of treasuries in their portfolio, or any portfolio at all.

I don’t think the website is lacking in describing things that we get from the government.

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#33

Post by ed_balls »

>Just like credit cards, the national debt has interest payments the government needs to pay.

Something I learned a few years ago: debt is to national debt what a chair is to an electric chair[1]. Government has to increase monetary base when economy grows. National debt is a good thing, where credit cards are just awful.

> Interest doesn't buy anything. It's the price of having spent money we didn't have.

And where does interest go? WHERE DOES INTEREST GO?

[1] or java to javascript :)

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#34

Post by rl3 »

voidfunc wrote: post #27
onelesd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we need to kill off fire departments. my house has never burned down and i will never get my money's worth.

This is a strawman. Look up how utterly fucked social security is and tell me with a straight face it is a good system and you'll get value from it.

Sure, but what replaces it?

You're talking a catastrophic level of pain and suffering if there's nothing to take its place.

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#35

Post by Steve6 »

woodruffw wrote: post #21
Steve6 wrote: post #19

This is amazing and depressing. Most people will never get any benefit from this spending, definitely not of equal value to what you contributed/lost/spent. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum you should be disappointed by the federal governments reckless spending. Yet it never gets better. Likely never will. I see other people recommending taxes that are missed, but with people being taxed from every…

The visualization shows that, at many income brackets, the majority of one's taxes go squarely into the social safety net. You can make an intelligible argument about waste, etc., but to say that Americans don't benefit from social security, medicaid, etc. seems facially incorrect.

Even if you ignore ALL other tax spending (which is a huge ask) the best possible outcome is $1 in = $1 out. That breaks even at best. The government isn't creating value it's just moving money around.

Now add in other wasteful spending. Add in inefficiencies. Add in the deficit. Add in inflation and money printing. Add changing administrations with their own goals. Add wars and other foreign affairs. Add in spying on citizens. Add in back door deals with giant corporations and insider trading.

Saying "If you ignore all the bad parts, the government is beneficial" is not a strong argument.

There are SOME people who benefit from the social safety net. But as a whole it's largely a drain on everyone else.

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#36

Post by Cider9986 »

welldoneator wrote: post #5

I _really_ enjoyed this and love the concept! Scrolling on desktop was a little odd, but worked really well otherwise. Content wise it's pretty eye opening just how much of our tax dollars go to things like social security, medicare and interest. Seeing it laid out in the exact dollar amount affecting me is pretty powerful stuff. I wonder how much voting habits would change if this was a common way to communicate the…

Another cool site somewhat similar to this is Wealth, shown to scale[1]

[1] https://wealth.ronnycoste.com/

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#37

Post by CobrastanJorji »

It says I contributed money to Humanitarian assistance, but is that based on the budget or based on what was actually spent? Because there's been something of a recent Constitutional problem with budget money not actually being spent on its intended targets.

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#38

Post by woodruffw »

Steve6 wrote: post #35
woodruffw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The visualization shows that, at many income brackets, the majority of one's taxes go squarely into the social safety net. You can make an intelligible argument about waste, etc., but to say that Americans don't benefit from social security, medicaid, etc. seems facially incorrect.

Even if you ignore ALL other tax spending (which is a huge ask) the best possible outcome is $1 in = $1 out. That breaks even at best. The government isn't creating value it's just moving money around. Now add in other wasteful spending. Add in inefficiencies. Add in the deficit. Add in inflation and money printing. Add changing administrations with their own goals. Add wars and other foreign affairs. Add in spying o…

That's not really how taxes work. Some of your mine (and mine) is essentially front-loaded into today's social safety net, ensuring that the poor, infirm, etc. are afforded certain minimums in terms of quality of life.

The $1 I put into that doesn't "come back" to me in cash; I get it in the form of a society that has fewer people going hungry, dying from treatable conditions, etc. This is where the argument around efficiency, waste, etc. can be made, but waxing about inflation, etc. has essentially nothing to do with the matter.

Re: Tax Wrapped 2025

#39

Post by ghaff »

coredog64 wrote: post #20
welldoneator wrote: post #5

I _really_ enjoyed this and love the concept! Scrolling on desktop was a little odd, but worked really well otherwise. Content wise it's pretty eye opening just how much of our tax dollars go to things like social security, medicare and interest. Seeing it laid out in the exact dollar amount affecting me is pretty powerful stuff. I wonder how much voting habits would change if this was a common way to communicate the…

I'm at work, so just a few seconds to chime in: Educational spending is primarily sourced from the states. If you were to sum state spending on education, you would come up with another eye-watering pile of money. It's just that this money is usually sourced from property taxes and sales taxes and so doesn't show up on a "Here's how your income taxes were spent" analysis.

In fact, a lot of educational spending is local. I think something like 65% (maybe more) of my town's property taxes go to K-12 education with a decent chunk of the rest going to emergency services. There are various grants at the state and federal levels but it's mostly local.
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