as an aside - Read somewhere that this argument that the government can’t afford all of these things like healthcare, infrastructure, etc. that would help most people is bullshit. Since the federal government prints it’s own money there is nothing that it can’t afford. We spent 3 - 8 trillion on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars alone. And when people argue that it will increase inflation - sure maybe, but if you tax wealthy people more it can cover part or all of the newly printed money.
Do it for your country's debt!
Submitted 6 hours ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to workreform@lemmy.world
https://discuss.online/pictrs/image/475b804c-2585-4f1b-8543-cea8437a649f.png
Comments
GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 13 minutes ago
karashta@piefed.social 1 hour ago
Or we could stop lying about what the national debt is and tax the wealthy to destroy their absurd power.
https://mmt101.substack.com/p/mmt-basics-national-debt-defined
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 6 hours ago
If we emptied the account of every rich asshole like this we would achieve the same thing AND lose a whole class of dickbags that think they should be in charge.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today 6 hours ago
The top 25 US billionaires could pay off US debt. Not even every billionaire. They total about 3 trillion net worth.
That’s ignoring say the $60 billion or so Apple has in cash and who knows what other companies have
BillSchofield@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
“As of January 2026, the total U.S. national debt has exceeded $38.5 trillion. This figure represents the total money borrowed by the federal government to cover annual deficits, which is growing rapidly, with a rise of over $2 trillion in 2025 alone.”
I definitely want to tax the hell out of the rich, but we are in a deep hole. A long term systemic change will serve us better (or in addition to) talking all of their money now.
timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 53 minutes ago
Nitpick- that is the deficit, not the debt. Like elsewhere said, debt is near 40 trillion.
Otherwise I still agree with the suggestion.
Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
It’s not even “the debt”
It’s their fucking debt. It’s the literal bill they keep skipping out on.
gabbath@lemmy.world 23 minutes ago
I keep hoping that all the demonic shit Aaron Rupar is covering will eventually push him to the left. I’m amazed how he can still be a milquetoast lib while being constantly exposed to evil.
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 1 hour ago
Fresh out of highschool? Wtf… Are kids really not getting jobs while still going to highschool anymore…
Am I out of touch or is this guy just an extreme privileged cunt?
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 5 minutes ago
not as much anymore. it’s hard enough for a grown adult to have a 20 year old car and an entry level service industry job, which I hear from boomers is what they could afford with a part time job in high school.
some teens still work but usually only if their families really need the money. middle class teens are told to laser focus on college resume padding, so grades and extracurricular are what they end up doing. parents worry that a job will distract from algebra homework, and football or marching band looks better to prestigious colleges than McDonalds (non adult directed activities aren’t counted at all)
I didn’t get my first job until after I dropped out of college
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
He’s super out of touch, I had a part time job when I was 15 at a Dairy Queen. And as far as I’m aware, that’s still pretty common.
moody@lemmings.world 45 minutes ago
Some people do, for sure, but lots of people don’t get a job until college age, or in some cases until after graduating.
Turret3857@infosec.pub 1 hour ago
option B.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Adding $3 trillion in GDP would not remove the debt anyway. Assholes like this one don’t even understand how GDP is calculated.
BabyVi@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Mfs legit think GDP stands for Gross Domestic Profit.
HowAbt2day@futurology.today 2 hours ago
You’re not a team player, are you? Work more and work harder. For the team. /s
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Instead of trying to extend the prole’s work life by a couple years, we COULD tax billion-dollar companies and their owners by 2% more and make three times as much money!
But we can’t! Sorry. Our hands are tied
Also, can’t afford minimum wage increase this year, times are tough.
Oh! Almost forgot! We need a raise of 10% this year, and it’s time for our winter break! After winter break, it’s spring break. Lots of breaks. Then we will come back to “work” to pass more important legislation, right before our summer break.
You don’t get breaks every year? Damn. Well, life is not fair what can we do later gator
jontree255@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
“Please stay in the corporate meat grinder so we can have enough money to fuck kids then bomb them”
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 6 hours ago
Doctors I trust more than Doctor Oz, Doctor Phil, or RFK Jr.
Doc Brown
Doc Hollywood
Doctor Bombay
Doctor Claw
Doctor Demento
Doctor Detroit
Doctor Dirty
Doctor Dolittle
Doctor Doofenshmirtz aka Dr. D or just “Doof”
Doctor Doom
Doctor Evil
Doctor Feelgood
Doctor Frankenstein
Doctor Hannibal Lecter
Doctor Horrible
Doctor Jekyll
Doctor Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy
Doctor Martens
Doctor Moreau
Doctor Nick
Doctor Otto Octavius
Doctor Pepper
Doctor Scholl’s
Doctor Orin Scrivello
Doctor Seuss
Doctor Spaceman
Doctor Spock
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strangelove
Doctor Who
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zoidberg
Dr. Dre
Dr. Enuf
Dr. Tran
Rug Doctor
Even Nurse Ratchet
pennomi@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.
officermike@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
You left out Doctor Kevorkian
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
Every time I post this list I get a few more suggestions. I can’t believe it took this long for Kevorkian to show up.
He is a good doctor. He did EXACTLY what his patience wanted. Some people can’t see past that.
THANKS!
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Even Nurse Ratchet
I’m convinced she’s a Deputy Secretary at HHS somewhere.
Notyou@sopuli.xyz 4 hours ago
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
You forgot:
Doc Johnson
Doc Gooden
Dr J, Julius Irving
The Doctor, ST:Voyager
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
Doc Johnson
LOL How did I miss that one.
THANKS for playing!
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
Doctor Princess?
Doctor Kelso?
Doctor No?
Doctor Nick?
atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 hours ago
you have to mess up a lot to be less trustworthy than someone called Doctor Evil
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 2 hours ago
Dr. Oz will kill you.
Dr. Phil will take all your money.
RFK Jr. LOOKS sick. Don’t take health advice from sick people.
paequ2@lemmy.today 4 hours ago
Dr. Simi
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 minutes ago
This is why I’ve been not purchasing much anymore. Beyond food and what I need for work as well as shelter, there’s not much else to spend money on. I’ve developed some hobbies and I’m focusing more on the good they do for me.
Ascendor@discuss.tchncs.de 1 hour ago
Same is happening in Germany right now. Work more, longer, get less pensions, receive less health care, be less sick.
someguy3@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Unfortunately our work doesn’t go towards the debt. It goes to making the rich richer.
Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
Their fucking hubris is almost unbelievable
BigDiction@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
‘Work better during their lifetime because they’re healthy’ is actually the way forward.
But of course it’s mentioned last because the first two proposals are a lot cheaper and faster.
Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
Only when the inverse is also true, if you’re allowed to live even when you can’t contribute.
Paid sick days? That’d cost the economy today. Who gives a shit about tomorrow?
nulluser@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
That would more than remove the debt.
No it wouldn’t! They’d just create even more debt, and then try to tell people that, if they’d start working earlier, and keep working later, and work harder, then… they could create even MORE debt.
CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Sure but if we pay off the full debt our FICO credit score will go down. You gotta carry a balance nowadays.
cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Just as a heads up, ypu dont need to carry a balance and be charged interest - you can pay off your cards each month never paying interest and still have an improved score, simply pay the statement balance before the due date
Tower@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
I’ve seen people have their cards cancelled for doing this. Rare, but not unheard of.
CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I wish this were true, but I have personally seen my credit score go down when I finished paying off accounts like car loans. A FICO credit score is a measure of how profitable a customer you are, not how likely you are to pay it back. Credit cards are a particularly expensive way to do this, but lemme assure you that taking out a mortgage will do wonders for your score.
marcos@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Well, actually yes, countries paying down their debit is not a good thing.
But they can switch the debit into a form that doesn’t pay any interest.
CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
As a holder of US debt, I like that it pays interest. It’s what’s so silly about all this debt stuff — we owe the money to ourselves. The debt is what we use as currency. The idea that carrying no debt is desirable is based on an analogy to a household budget, but households don’t issue fiat currency, and also households carry debt too!
Triumph@fedia.io 6 hours ago
That's not how national debt works you absolute ladle.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Americans are trained to believe that our National Debt is some kind of foreign imposed obligation that comes with the threat of sanctions and military intervention if we fail to pay it. Because that’s how we handle debts international, it must be how we handle debts internally.
BillyClark@piefed.social 5 hours ago
If the government has more income, that just means they have more money to give to corporations and wealthy people.
CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Because you give them the money, then they use it to generate even more money for the country?
It does come back through taxes? right?
anakin_padame.jpg
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 5 hours ago
But this doesn’t give much more income to the government. Even if $3 Trillion more dollar circulated, disregarding job market dillution and lack of skilled labor, then the GOP defficit adds about a trillion per year and this would only generate about 15% taxes on those wages and other wealth transfers or only 450 billion.
Also, that 300Tn number makes no sense because each of 4.5M 18 year olds would have to generate $666,666 revenue.
RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
There is the pool of people that are looking for a job but currently doesn’t have a job. There you have many unexploited work hours. Start there genious.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
Did I fuckin miss something? We are 30 trillion in debt.
Karjalan@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
That’s what happens when you give the richest people tax breaks and subsidise all your rich buddies endevours without uplifting the lowest socio-economic portions if society.
The best way to fix the economy is always to give the poorest more money (or less financial burden) because they spend a much higher percentage (usually all) of their excess income to keep afloat or improve their way of life.
The worst way is to give rich people more money. Because they horde it, gamble on non tangible goods (stocks, crypto, “ai” etc), send it off shore, keep it in the family and share it with other rich people etc.
It’s ironic that the party that always does the worse thing for the economy and demonises doing the best is seen by the masses as the “good for the economy” party.
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
‘simple, if one extra year is 3T, instead of hiring kids at 16, we hire them at 6’ --dr dumbass
vane@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Is he saying that USA plan to borrow $3 trillion this year ? Because last year it was $1 trillion dollars.
Where the fuck are we all going ? Where are the limits ?hector@lemmy.today 41 minutes ago
Bankruptcy is the limit, incoming.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 5 hours ago
universal health care would accomplish the same thing
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
You found the only liberal argument for healthcare.
timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 49 minutes ago
Honestly, those are important arguments and people would be wise to make them.
Outside this bubble that kind of talk is very accepted and desired. Convincing people it’s better for the economy, starting a business doesn’t risk losing healthcare, businesses now don’t need to waste time and money picking health insurance plans, etc. Are all valid arguments and would only help achieve the end goal of universal healthcare.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Motherfucker you’re a surgeon, not an economist
hector@lemmy.today 28 minutes ago
To be fair economists are the last ones you can trust on the economy, as they are paid by monied interests.
HailSeitan@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Anyone who thinks a currency-issuing country like the US would be better off by taking $3 trillion OUT OF CIRCULATION, thereby making the American public $3 trillion POORER clearly shows that they understand NOTHING about how economies work.
hector@lemmy.today 38 minutes ago
One would think that would go without saying, but in today’s world, the ivy league suits tell us falsehoods and we believe it. Not us but us collectively. Burn the ivy league to the ground.
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 2 hours ago
“If you would all just put in even more effort within a system that economically, physically, and mentally crushes you for your entire life, the billionaires won’t have to give up their undeserved wealth! Whaddaya say, guys!?”
nonentity@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
The plan is to physically destroy yourself to fix an entirely imaginary problem.
The ‘National Debt’ is merely the cumulative tally of money that nation’s government has ‘spent’ into, and not yet taxed out of, existence. It imposes no tangible burden, and believing it does helps the owning class convince the uninitiated to choose and work against their own interests.
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
Debt is caused by the rich refusing to contribute. Everyone needs adequate healthcare, housing, clean food and water, transport, and a pristine environment.
nonentity@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
This argument lends weight to the specious idea that taxation on wealth hoarding is necessary to pay for the provision of society.
Provisioning healthcare, housing, food, water, transport, and a liveable environment is not constrained by financing, it’s an exclusively social and political choice to not allocate or deploy the appropriate resources.
The financially obese should be euthanised through taxation, not because we need their money, but because they’re an existential threat to any society that tolerates them.
Reygle@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
“Grind the younger generation in to dust for ME!” -X’ers, always
morto@piefed.social 5 hours ago
Don’t fall for the lie of generational conflicts. They’re mostly fabricated by social media. The true conflict is the class war
Reygle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Oh I’m not falling for anything. I basing this solely on the actions of my own father.
marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Funny, the media vilified us as Slackers, then Millenials as Snowflakes, then Gen Z as Entitled. There’s a pattern.
Reygle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
There is, but to be fair I needed a lot more coffee when I was typing my comment this morning- I didn’t mean to say that to genx, I meant to insult boomers but had an idiot moment.
hesh@quokk.au 5 hours ago
Leave gen x out of this. This dude and his cronies are boomers.
Reygle@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Fair.
Virtvirt588@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Why is it that they always talk about giving the working class more work? It is another conondrum where the borguoise are put once again as the victims - erasing all their wrongdoings because of their fault.
The extension they’re giving to the working life isn’t a novelty anymore. It should be quite clearcut that they’re manipulating people just to pay off their debt.
What really matters is what the people are going to do - as long as the misinformation campaigns and indoctrination to wage slavery continue, shit like this will continue as well. Its up to the people to decide when that tipping point will be reached - if it does.
lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
Watching the US try to fix the country without taxing rich fuckers is like watching a poor person try to budget their way out of being poor.
Sometimes you just need more fucking money.
uberdroog@lemmy.world 4 minutes ago
Or we could make it illegal to be a billionaire.