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Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

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Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#61

Post by nabla9 »

mathiaspoint wrote: post #60
nabla9 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you want more taxes and are rich, just donate to treasury argument" again. We want systemic changes, not patrons. Taxes are for equity and fairness. Taxes are compulsory, donations are voluntary. Taxes are payment for being for being rich. Donations are taxes for being a good person. Great rant: David Mitchell on Tax Avoidance from The Last Leg https://youtu.be/xc8epam4NyY?t=150 Then Mitchell being more serious:…

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You want maximize collected tax, fairness & equity, and incentives.

This means:

1. convex effective tax curve when income increases.

2. curve is progressive (increasing) to adjust for diminishing marginal utility of income and wealth. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/072815/what-margina...

The emphasis on effective. Meaning: (income - taxes + benefits) curve is smooth and no tax avoidance. Incentives for the poor, the middle and and the rich.

Then you fight over what level the is (political question).

Big tax jumps (suggested by the left) or linear tax (suggested by right) don't hack it.

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#62

Post by mathiaspoint »

nabla9 wrote: post #61
mathiaspoint wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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You want maximize collected tax, fairness & equity, and incentives. This means: 1. convex effective tax curve when income increases. 2. curve is progressive (increasing) to adjust for diminishing marginal utility of income and wealth. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/072815/what-margina... The emphasis on effective. Meaning: (income - taxes + benefits) curve is smooth and no tax avoidance. Incentives for the…

[flagged]

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#63

Post by justsomehnguy »

bluemanshoe2 wrote: post #59

Using the API, the total contributions people have made here for all time are $67,323,122.88. Meanwhile, the Debt-to-the-penny api ( https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/d... ) tells us that (as of 2025-07-25) the public debt is $29,361,169,407,599.91 whereas the day before it was $29,332,905,580,399.32, meaning the one day increase was $28,263,827,200.59. So, the publics total contributions amo…

Yes, the whole idea is...

Also reminds me of an old anecdote:

"How much time it takes for Bill Gates to make a million dollars? Not doing anything for a minute."

BG could be replaced with anyone from TOP500[0] nowadays, I suppose.

https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#64

Post by beej71 »

bluemanshoe2 wrote: post #59

Using the API, the total contributions people have made here for all time are $67,323,122.88. Meanwhile, the Debt-to-the-penny api ( https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/d... ) tells us that (as of 2025-07-25) the public debt is $29,361,169,407,599.91 whereas the day before it was $29,332,905,580,399.32, meaning the one day increase was $28,263,827,200.59. So, the publics total contributions amo…

I've always wondered why rich people would donate to the debt for exactly this reason. What's their angle?

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#65

Post by cameron_b »

EionRobb wrote: post #36
codingrightnow wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to donate -$15. It didn't complain about it being a negative number, just that it was lower than the minimum.

Could you underflow the signed value until it was so negative it was > $5?

Very expensive to test their precision.

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#66

Post by Henchman21 »

HPsquared wrote: post #22
echelon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need an API to block the government from spending more money. It seems like voting for "fiscal conservatives" results in bigger spending.

I wonder if any countries have laws holding politicians to stick to their campaign promises.

I’m more interested in laws that punish lying

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#67

Post by lotsofpulp »

RickJWagner wrote: post #50
primitivesuave wrote: post #8

There is a US Treasury API endpoint [1] to see how much money actually comes in. 1. https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/gift-contributions-...

That’s awesome. There are some very wealthy people that make a great show of demanding to pay higher taxes. Here’s a mechanism for them to demonstrate sincerity.

Demanding all wealthier people have a greater tax liability and not sacrificing one’s self is logically consistent and expected behavior.

If I am playing a game, and others do not want to ally with me, I am not going to make myself lose. But I can still signal that I am open to an alliance.

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#68

Post by jll29 »

bravesoul2 wrote: post #41
AbstractH24 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution to all of America's problems is to nationalize Nvidia?

You'd need to privatise an already national set of 7 Nvidii.

"Nvidiae", actually - "jealous feelings" if translated from Latin.

Re: Donate to the Treasury to help pay down the $36.7T public debt

#70

Post by jigguit »

nabla9 wrote: post #55
RickJWagner wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s awesome. There are some very wealthy people that make a great show of demanding to pay higher taxes. Here’s a mechanism for them to demonstrate sincerity.

"If you want more taxes and are rich, just donate to treasury argument" again. We want systemic changes, not patrons. Taxes are for equity and fairness. Taxes are compulsory, donations are voluntary. Taxes are payment for being for being rich. Donations are taxes for being a good person. Great rant: David Mitchell on Tax Avoidance from The Last Leg https://youtu.be/xc8epam4NyY?t=150 Then Mitchell being more serious:…

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