#USpol #Norway #taxes #tax
-
Isn't education the best weapon against propaganda? You can only brainwash people who are not aware of the facts, and are unable to differentiate between facts and fiction. The problem is when people have not learned critical thinking and self-reflection.
And I don't mean conspiracy theorists who probably think they were the best critical thinkers available. In a complicated world, simple answers are usually wrong. But understanding the complicated ones is often tiresome and hard. That's why conspiracy theories from UFO nonsense to antivaxxer lies are so en vogue in some circles. In the best case, they are simply misled into believing nonsense. In the worst case, they are purposely led away from more important issues.
What I mean is that the ability to reflect on information and weigh different sources against each other and come to an educated conclusion based on PLAUSIBILITY and KNOWLEDGE is the best antidote against brainwashing. Education!
Take the antivaxxer movement. Their ideas are backed by NO scientific evidence. RFK's agitation against measle vaccination, for instance, has led to an epidemic in the US. Children have died from a disease that was practically eradicated. Even more have permanent damage. But those numbers are CONCENTRATED within those who won't vaccinate their children. QED
@HarryMutt
You're right and am so impressed by your critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, in placeslike my own country, the government feeds people with the information it wants them to hear. The illiteracy levels are so high where a very big number of people can't be deceived and besides that, people are distracted through entertainment, sports and social media which makes them unable to pay attention to the reasons behind and policy. Can I share with you about my project? -
@davidaugust me- "yeah, the tax is higher, but things are actually taken care of, maintained, and you don't need to pay $2500 a year in taxes."
My dad- "I'd rather not pay taxes."He doesnโt care if anything works? I doubt that. I donโt doubt he may tell himself that, but I doubt it is true.
-
@davidaugust plot twist. Gofundme destabilizes governments to drive up adoption
-
@davidaugust hilarious in a laugh, but actually crying kinda way
@effariwhy you. Weeping through laughter.
-
@davidaugust@mastodon.online
I don't think Americans pity anybody else's tax rate. You don't think most Americans don't know our for-profit healthcare system sucks? Do you think Americans honestly want to launch GoFundMes? SCOTUS has made it all but impossible for actual Americans to do fuck-all about anything. Citizens United basically allowed every politician to be openly bought and paid for.@mike @davidaugust Oh, I disagree. I think the vast majority of Americans fully embrace the propaganda. We lost the popular vote. Trump actually gained support among the youngest voters because they believed Trump would make the economy better.
We saw what Trump did the first time, and we STILL lost! American voters are morons.
-
@davidaugust AND you get the freedom to walk the street at night and not having to arm yourself because everybody else is armed.
You get the freedom to trust that police officers have proper training and actually know the laws they are supposed to enforce.
You get the freedom to send your kids to school and college without going broke.
You get the freedom to drive your car and not have to use failing infrastructure.
-
@ScotInTraining @davidaugust Very sad, but true! Hereโs that info:
Chart:
โMaternal Mortality in the U.S. Far
Outstrips That of Other Industrialized Nationsโ -
@mike @davidaugust Oh, I disagree. I think the vast majority of Americans fully embrace the propaganda. We lost the popular vote. Trump actually gained support among the youngest voters because they believed Trump would make the economy better.
We saw what Trump did the first time, and we STILL lost! American voters are morons.
@Extra_Special_Carbon@mastodon.world @davidaugust@mastodon.online
The fact that stations like Fox News and Newsmax are legal and are allowed to flat-out lie and brainwash a large swathe of the population is at least partially to blame. -
This isn't quite what I meant. What is the cost from the average citizen viewpoint? We need a comparison of the all taxes (national, local, sales, etc.) plus out of pocket health costs for a median family. Probably also better if it is done as a percentage of per capital income. Makes a much better argument that gets around the regional differences in salaries.
-
@WiseWoman As much as I love having free healthcare, parental leave etc, people in EU countries fall for fascism every other week.
@davidaugust@j_bertolotti @WiseWoman @davidaugust Well, the #USofRael have been living under fascism forever, and yet don't get any of those things.
I don't know I kind of like my universal health care and strong unions things and still don't get fascists rulling my country. -
@LibertyForward1 @DerPumu @davidaugust
Right. My glasses broke six years ago, I cannot afford an exam, nor have the funds to get one.
If taxes go towards medical expenses, it should extend to the nearly blind as well. The longer we go without glasses the worse our eyes get. I know that is impossible in the US. However, for the countries that do have a universal health care, maybe petitioning the government departments that run these programmes and asking them to extend the medical benefits?@faliate @LibertyForward1 @davidaugust in many countries glasses are part of "free" health care. Here in Germany it's covered by the mandatory health insurance.
To be precise, that's not taxes going towards medical, over here, taxes are separate from health insurance, so politicians can't line their industrial friends' pockets with that money. -
@davidaugust When you are paying for private healthcare, you are also paying the providers margin.
That makes it much more expensive that tax funded healthcare systems that don't take profits. About twice as much in the US than in the EU, with poorer outcomes.American healthcare is much worse than "profit on top"
American healthcare is a protection racket whose purpose is denying care, so as to say "Nice lung you got there, you covered enough?"
Beside the hospital is an equally large deny services building whose purpose is to override doctors, prevent treatment, you pay for that too.
Another building beside that is "billing" to produce financially destroyed families to work below minimum wage.
You pay for that too.
-
@faliate @LibertyForward1 @davidaugust in many countries glasses are part of "free" health care. Here in Germany it's covered by the mandatory health insurance.
To be precise, that's not taxes going towards medical, over here, taxes are separate from health insurance, so politicians can't line their industrial friends' pockets with that money.@DerPumu @LibertyForward1 @davidaugust
Oh wow okay! That's amazing! -
@HarryMutt
You're right and am so impressed by your critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, in placeslike my own country, the government feeds people with the information it wants them to hear. The illiteracy levels are so high where a very big number of people can't be deceived and besides that, people are distracted through entertainment, sports and social media which makes them unable to pay attention to the reasons behind and policy. Can I share with you about my project?Sure! I'm always curious to hear from other places. Although I'm not so sure that I myself are so impressed with my own skills.
That's the crux not only in your country. People seem to forget what's important, and with the advent of social media, the ways to get yourself lost in meaningless entertainment have exploded. Not that the mechanisms had changed. Even back 2 millennia ago, the Romans knew that "Bread and Games" will keep the poeple from rioting.
Only the media have changed, and maybe the attention span. Hence, a government that has the media in its hand can do bad things with them. Literacy rates are probably only one factor in this.
But I'm curious, what's the primary source of information for those people you are referring to? TV/Radio? Or their mobiles? And if so, how do they use the phones when they are illiterate?
-
Sure! I'm always curious to hear from other places. Although I'm not so sure that I myself are so impressed with my own skills.
That's the crux not only in your country. People seem to forget what's important, and with the advent of social media, the ways to get yourself lost in meaningless entertainment have exploded. Not that the mechanisms had changed. Even back 2 millennia ago, the Romans knew that "Bread and Games" will keep the poeple from rioting.
Only the media have changed, and maybe the attention span. Hence, a government that has the media in its hand can do bad things with them. Literacy rates are probably only one factor in this.
But I'm curious, what's the primary source of information for those people you are referring to? TV/Radio? Or their mobiles? And if so, how do they use the phones when they are illiterate?
@HarryMutt
It's about fighting hunger in my community, I work with 12 young volunteer farmers to make this a reality by growing food for the needy, educating local farmers with advanced agricultural skills to help them improve on their production as well as equipping beginner farmers with required tools like seeds , fertilisers and organic pestcides to help them produce the best out of their gardens as well combat climate change through tree planting. Do you have such initiatives there? -
Sure! I'm always curious to hear from other places. Although I'm not so sure that I myself are so impressed with my own skills.
That's the crux not only in your country. People seem to forget what's important, and with the advent of social media, the ways to get yourself lost in meaningless entertainment have exploded. Not that the mechanisms had changed. Even back 2 millennia ago, the Romans knew that "Bread and Games" will keep the poeple from rioting.
Only the media have changed, and maybe the attention span. Hence, a government that has the media in its hand can do bad things with them. Literacy rates are probably only one factor in this.
But I'm curious, what's the primary source of information for those people you are referring to? TV/Radio? Or their mobiles? And if so, how do they use the phones when they are illiterate?
@HarryMutt
Learning how to use a phone doesn't require someone to be educated . There are hundreds and thousands of people in my community who who use smart phones although they're not educated. Here we have the UCC which regulates the kind of information showed on TVs, radios and some medias. It becomes easy for them to decide the kind of information to be shown by people more especially the youths and the children. This also plays a big part in keeping people divided and reluctant. -
@HarryMutt
It's about fighting hunger in my community, I work with 12 young volunteer farmers to make this a reality by growing food for the needy, educating local farmers with advanced agricultural skills to help them improve on their production as well as equipping beginner farmers with required tools like seeds , fertilisers and organic pestcides to help them produce the best out of their gardens as well combat climate change through tree planting. Do you have such initiatives there?That sounds a lot like this:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiffeisen
(translate the German page into English, the English page is only about the banks)
During the industrialization, there were many initiatives like this for cooperative associations in Germany, along with social reforms and worker associations, aka unions. Germany is the land of cooperatives anyway. Which the Americans would call "socialist" (which it is not) because they are conditioned that you have to be "better than everybody else and fight alone" and not collaborate to make it better FOR everybody. But what happens there is that the individual is weak and is exploited by corporations who tell them that "SOSHALISM" is bad. Talk about propaganda by the ruling class...For Germany (and, in similar ways, the rest of Europe), this is exactly what brought prosperity to the communities of farmers and also workers. Cooperate, bundle resources, knowledge, and money.
I think it's a great thing you are doing because poverty is best fought together.
-
That sounds a lot like this:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiffeisen
(translate the German page into English, the English page is only about the banks)
During the industrialization, there were many initiatives like this for cooperative associations in Germany, along with social reforms and worker associations, aka unions. Germany is the land of cooperatives anyway. Which the Americans would call "socialist" (which it is not) because they are conditioned that you have to be "better than everybody else and fight alone" and not collaborate to make it better FOR everybody. But what happens there is that the individual is weak and is exploited by corporations who tell them that "SOSHALISM" is bad. Talk about propaganda by the ruling class...For Germany (and, in similar ways, the rest of Europe), this is exactly what brought prosperity to the communities of farmers and also workers. Cooperate, bundle resources, knowledge, and money.
I think it's a great thing you are doing because poverty is best fought together.
@HarryMutt
If people we're not affected by the capitalistic mindsets, the world would be better. Our initiative is currently under a crisis where we have been forced away from the land we have rented for two years to do our activities. We're doing our best tj raise funds and purchase pur own land which would be a big step towards making our dream a reality. Your support via our gofund.me page would make a significant impact towards that goal. -
@HarryMutt
If people we're not affected by the capitalistic mindsets, the world would be better. Our initiative is currently under a crisis where we have been forced away from the land we have rented for two years to do our activities. We're doing our best tj raise funds and purchase pur own land which would be a big step towards making our dream a reality. Your support via our gofund.me page would make a significant impact towards that goal.@HarryMutt
We all would like to form such initiatives and unions to make our countries better places but since people are so divided, it makes it hard for them to join efforts towards a common cause. We have many different tribes, ideologies and the worst of all, we have democratic dictators and oppressors who keep people divided intentionally in order to stay in power. Within such a divided nation, what can make people united? -
@HarryMutt
We all would like to form such initiatives and unions to make our countries better places but since people are so divided, it makes it hard for them to join efforts towards a common cause. We have many different tribes, ideologies and the worst of all, we have democratic dictators and oppressors who keep people divided intentionally in order to stay in power. Within such a divided nation, what can make people united?If I knew the answer to that, I'd earn a Nobel prize.
I can only look back at our own history, and I have to tell you, it took a long time, and also many wars and conflicts. My country alone is the best example. Divided into up to 300 states, from small city states to large ones like Prussia, it was often the place of proxy wars between the big powers. Most notably the war of 30 years where they all fought on German soil, in volatile coalitions, and pretending it was about religion, which, of course, was an excuse to gain power. England, France, Austria, Sweden, and a few others who sent their armies. And as if this hadn't been bad enough, after that war, some of them just took a piece out of the cake and kept it. If that sounds familiar for you, well, I guess, there is a reason for it. Then, the first, nationalist, unification of Germany was a reaction to the Napoleonic occupation which led to nationalism all over Europe, which also fired up the wish for a strong and united Germany. And it was not a peaceful unification. Where this all led to in the 20th century can be read in history books.
Tribalism still exists in Germany, and in the whole of the EU, of course. But at least the latter is not a forced unification, although it was a reaction to the terrible wars before. Sometimes, reason does work.
