• KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This meme’s text has figures about “now” but doesn’t note that it is mostly a paraphrased quote from Deus Ex, a video game set in a fictional dystopian version of America in 2052. The speaker is not in fact talking about 2024 America. But even for the past figures, I would want citations.

    The first part seems to be talking about tax sources as a portion of total taxes raised, which isn’t easy to search for. I did find a table that cited whitehouse.gov and recorded income collections compared to total GDP at least. It did peak in 1945, but only at 7.1%.

    The US Bureau of Labor doesn’t seem to have records on self-employment before 1948. The only thing I could find talking about self-employment in 1900 was a blog post that said it was 50%. 90% self-employment sounds like a lot of subsistence farming and odd-jobs work, which isn’t exactly the ideal economic model.

    The Deus Ex part is part of a longer conversation, but here is the relevant section:

    JC Denton: Just answer the question.
    Leo Gold: Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people.
    JC Denton: Do you have a single fact to back that up?
    Leo Gold: Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent.
    JC Denton: So?
    Leo Gold: It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time.
    
  • frippa@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    The fact that a worker who barely makes ends meet pays 10-20 times the taxes Amazon pays is… Fascinating in a dark way.

    Similar to feudal peasants that used to pay up in the form of free labor and produce, while their noble overlords enjoyed massive privileges and zero taxes.

  • Juice@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I got a coworker that does this without drinking 😆 Most of us kinda check out until he picks up that we’re not engaging