I think part of OP’s frustration is that corporations (and the wealthy, for that matter) have a lot more loopholes to be able to claim deductions compared to the average person. And people are spending money to just survive, which seems more important than making a profit. The average person doesn’t have the resources to access these loopholes.
Loophole example: say you’re just a common multimillionaire. You want to own multiple properties, but to just go out and buy them, you’d need to spend your income on them, which you can’t deduct from your taxable income. Instead, you incorporate a private consulting company (just yourself) and instead of you buying those properties, your business buys them for you. You know, so that you can have somewhere to stay when you travel for business. Those become deductable expenses, and your company doesn’t pay any tax on the income used to purchase them. You pay yourself a meager $50k per year, pay almost no tax, live luxuriously, and write condescending posts on LinkedIn. Congrats, you win capitalism.
People have been doing that. There have been more protests in the US recently than in memorable history. But it would seem that screaming is falling on deaf ears. So it’s the next escallation after screaming that people are doing that seems to be making more of an impact. And while it’s unfortunate that we need remorseless Italian plumbers, it does bring a sense of relief that it seems to be rattling some of the wealth class.
For what it’s worth, humans have historically been really great at ignoring absolutely abhorrent things. Our brains are wired to help us survive, and sometimes that means normalizing the fucked up stuff so that we’re not completely overwhelmed with the absolute fuckery of the world around us. It doesn’t make it okay, but there’s a biological reason for people going, “huh.”
I do get mad. I get banned on a near-daily basis for spitting facts, like how the Earth doesn’t exist and how we live in a police state, which is obvious when you think about it.
That was the point of Occupy Wall Street. The movement formed in response to the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting bailouts, in defiance of capitalist principal, and without similar response to the people suffering thanks to the crisis and following recession.
In fact, even though Obama navigated through the crisis, almost everyone with financial investments gained profit through the ordeal while the common US worker was in worse straits, which made the people, specifically, uneducated white men, angry and frustrated and set them up to be manipulated by Trump.
I think part of OP’s frustration is that corporations (and the wealthy, for that matter) have a lot more loopholes to be able to claim deductions compared to the average person. And people are spending money to just survive, which seems more important than making a profit. The average person doesn’t have the resources to access these loopholes.
Loophole example: say you’re just a common multimillionaire. You want to own multiple properties, but to just go out and buy them, you’d need to spend your income on them, which you can’t deduct from your taxable income. Instead, you incorporate a private consulting company (just yourself) and instead of you buying those properties, your business buys them for you. You know, so that you can have somewhere to stay when you travel for business. Those become deductable expenses, and your company doesn’t pay any tax on the income used to purchase them. You pay yourself a meager $50k per year, pay almost no tax, live luxuriously, and write condescending posts on LinkedIn. Congrats, you win capitalism.
When you say that OP is “frustrated” it feels like what I see everywhere. People see the most abhorrently FUCKED UP shit and go, “huh.”
I WANT YOU TO GET MAD, GOD DAMNIT. I WANT YOU TO GET UP OUT OF YOUR CHAIR AND SCREAM, “I’M I HUMAN BEING GOD DAMNIT! MY LIFE HAS VALUE!”
People have been doing that. There have been more protests in the US recently than in memorable history. But it would seem that screaming is falling on deaf ears. So it’s the next escallation after screaming that people are doing that seems to be making more of an impact. And while it’s unfortunate that we need remorseless Italian plumbers, it does bring a sense of relief that it seems to be rattling some of the wealth class.
For what it’s worth, humans have historically been really great at ignoring absolutely abhorrent things. Our brains are wired to help us survive, and sometimes that means normalizing the fucked up stuff so that we’re not completely overwhelmed with the absolute fuckery of the world around us. It doesn’t make it okay, but there’s a biological reason for people going, “huh.”
I do get mad. I get banned on a near-daily basis for spitting facts, like how the Earth doesn’t exist and how we live in a police state, which is obvious when you think about it.
That was the point of Occupy Wall Street. The movement formed in response to the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting bailouts, in defiance of capitalist principal, and without similar response to the people suffering thanks to the crisis and following recession.
In fact, even though Obama navigated through the crisis, almost everyone with financial investments gained profit through the ordeal while the common US worker was in worse straits, which made the people, specifically, uneducated white men, angry and frustrated and set them up to be manipulated by Trump.