You can’t cut any taxes or programs to fund your idea. Nothing else in your government is going to change. It can’t be a tax that you avoid somehow. The money comes from you and similar people in your situation. Don’t try to get around it in some way.
What would you pay more taxes to support?
Universal Health Care
This. Absolute game changer. If my job gave me the money they spend on my behalf for the crappy health insurance they provide, it would likely result in an actual increase in my net pay after the increased taxes to pay for the program. Cut out hundreds of thousands of parasitic middlemen, like insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. Throw out the crazy quilt of non-doctors who decide what medications and procedures are are covered. Reduce billing staff because of the major paperwork reduction (don’t need to deal with hundreds of different insurance plans). And do away with coding - the letters and numbers on a bill that can drastically change a procedure’s cost to the patient.
“Everybody who supports single-payer healthcare says, ‘Look at all this money we would be saving from insurance and paperwork.’ That represents 1 million, 2 million, 3 million jobs of people who are working at Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser or other places. What are we doing with them? Where are we employing them?”
The same things were said when industrial robots replaced assembly line workers, when farm equipment replaced agricultural labor, and now with AI systems. People still need jobs. But looking at the big picture, those improvements made sense. Most displaced workers found other employment.
Our medical system costs much more than it needs to, creates anxiety about long term medical needs in “at will” employment, has forced millions to declare bankruptcy over medical debt, destroyed the financial security of millions more, and in some cases, has lead to patients who opted to forgo medical treatment because it wasn’t covered. And when payment for care is tied to a job, that leads to age discrimination - older employees cost more to insure.
Taxes were meant to pay for things everyone needs. I can’t think of a better example of that than medical care.
(Edit for clarity)
Single p(l)ayer healthcare.
Pre-k childcare
Court room staffers
I haven’t seen much discussion about the third one, what would that be about?
One of the reasons billionaires can “clog up the system” is because Judges are actually really overworked.
In Trump’s Florida case there were only 5 judges who could potentially handle the case, 2 of them were retired and temporarily filing in to keep the system moving, and 3 of them were already booked out for the rest of the year, Eileen Cannon was a 50-50 draw for Trump in that district.
Many cases plea out because it would take so long to go through the system, that between the waiting for the start of the trial and not getting time served it’s less time to just take a plea.
Bi-partisan bill to change temp judges to full time judges heading to the house. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/senate-passed-bill-on-judgeships-aims-to-help-overworked-courts
More lawyers than judges has created a 2-tier justice system some world war 2. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/our-overloaded-judicial-system-what-cause-there-remedy
Pandemic broke the system that was hanging by a thread. https://stateline.org/2024/01/25/shortage-of-prosecutors-judges-leads-to-widespread-court-backlogs/
Jury duty stipends indexed to cost of living.
Today, in my county, you get $20 a day. That won’t even cover parking near the courthouse.
Serving on a jury shouldn’t prevent you from being able to make rent for the month.
I recently found out that if you’re in casual work that is enough to be excused in Australia. It’s not on the paperwork they send you so most people don’t know.
Funding the IRS to go after rich tax cheats.
Public healthcare, public education, public internet
Let’s do one that wouldn’t end up saving the taxpayer in the long run.
Universal access to legal council.
Too many matters are not brought to the court which probably should be because of costs to the litigants, and far too many times are costs to the litigants used as a weapon to keep people from exercizing their rights under threat of getting buried.
It’s the worst kept secret that whoever has more money is gonna win the case 9/10 times and making lawyers salaried public servants as opposed to hired mercenary litigants, and providing access to legal services and council for free at point of service, would go a long way towards balancing the litigious inequality that is often experienced in the US.
So yeah, I’d pay more in taxes for the little guy to have the deck not be so blatantly stacked against them in the judicial system.
Education. Mental health facilities. Drug treatment. Healthcare.
Improved access to mental health treatment. We have free healthcare here, but the mental health side isn’t great. This would also include support for those who are neurodivergant, suffering from trauma, experiencing gender dysphoria, etc…
Honestly, I think something that would be good as a policy is that at least once a year schoolchildren see a counsellor. Just to talk about anything that’s bothering them, and give them help for things that are happening in their home life.
While I agree with this, I’m a bit hesitant of the implementation. I have received mental health (MH) care from the Veterans Affairs (VA) and private providers. Private providers are in another level of care to the point that I pay out of pocket rather than go to the VA where they basically treat me like a problem to their life, liar seeking disability and drugs, and child that needs babysitting. They can be some gaslighting jerks. If we get universal health care including mental health, I would hope that it would follow something like Medicare that pays for private providers of our choosing rather than setting up a government agency that provides it directly.
For example, I received VA MH care for about 7 years. They declined to give me an ADHD assessment when I told them I have considerable attention issues. The psychiatrist literally looked away from his computer, looked at me, and said, “I’m not going to give you stimulants.” I was then diagnosed with bipolar 2 and placed on antipsychotics for 5 years until I insisted against medical advice to come off of them. I also sought care for traumatic events, which they told me weren’t traumatic. A friend that is a psychologist then told me that I was autistic. I asked the VA for an autism assessment. The VA psychologist already agreed I was likely autistic, but told me that her supervisor declined to allow an autism assessment, “Since [I] was in the military, [I] can’t be autistic.” After telling friends this and listening to their advice, I sought private care. They assessed me thoroughly and diagnosed me with autism and ADHD. I was then referred to a psychiatrist and prescribed ADHD meds. My life hasn’t been this put together ever. I honestly think VA MH made my life worse, resulted in poor relationships, hampered my career, and caused some deep trust issues.
That’s a problem here as well. I’m hoping that if we invest more resources into it, they’ll not feel that they have to withhold and prioritise treatment. Give them the resources to treat everyone, rather than the few who tick all the right boxes.
Although that’s just wishful thinking on my part, most likely. And probably also requires social change as well as economic…
It’s not so much about paying more, but rather directing where my taxes go. I already pay out the ass in taxes where I live, I’d just rather see my hard-earned income spent on public comprehensive healthcare… primary and undergrad education… automating as much production as possible… universal basic income.
Not blowing people up. Not digging for oil. Not bailing out corporations. And CERTAINLY not funding police with military surplus used to oppress and murder our very own citizens.
The people using my money for those purposes, and more, can go Fuck themselves to death. Preferably in the least enjoyable way possible.
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Better public education
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Better public transit
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Fully funding the IRS to go after tax evaders
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Public healthcare
Transit is a big one for me. I firmly believe a lot of things get better for people when you can just get around easier. No requirements to be able to drive, no requirements for licenses, you can live in more affordable neighborhoods while working Ina completely different place. The list goes on
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Every social safety net we can get. I’m in the US with near zero safety nets.
Universal access to quality food and shelter.
Funding for public defenders. They’re chronicly overworked and understaffed.
An few orders of magnitude more IRS agents and people armed with pitchforks pointed at the oligarchy and corruption.
Anything that doesn’t just funnel money back to millionaires. I’ve never understood people’s aversion to tax, especially when they should be focusing on the rigged two party system that is at the core of the wastage.
If I have to choose one, universal basic income, it solves a lot of problems. It can help people in need, but if you want to be selfish about it, at least it lowers the odds that someone will rob your house.
As for people worried about making sure it goes to the right people, I would rather pay a few scammers than risk having someone in genuine need suffer
