Elon & Twitter

[ElectricIAC]

Could just simplify the tax code and go to a flat tax and make the IRS smaller in the process by not rehiring outgoing hands.

Good savings potential there but as we know, it’s not about the money since they pretty much just print more of it for the lulz. — It’s about weaponizing yet another federal agency against “undesirables”

 

[Crutonius]

What I'm trying to say is the following:

People (here and elsewhere) seem to think that the "rich" must all cheat on their taxes, and that's how their are rich. Sure, that happens, but my POINT is that there are a lot of "checks and balances" in place to already catch that.

No, the RICH are rich usually because they take advantage of the tax code and know how to (legally) use it.

You want the rich to "pay their fair share" (huge debate on how you define that, we'll shelve that), then hiring 80k more auditors isn't going to do jack. You should instead change the tax code to tax real estate and investment transactions at higher rates. That will bring in multiples more income than those 80k IRS agents.

It's an interesting point. I definitely agree on taxing real estate much higher. However this is a separate problem. We do have checks and balances but these are meaningless unless than are adequately enforced. Are you saying the IRS as it stands today have adequate resources to enforce these checks and balances?

 

[JRP3]

hiring 80k more auditors isn't going to do jack.

Good thing that's not what's happening, which has been so often debunked one wonders why you'd repeat it.

The 87,000 figure refers to a May 2021 estimate from the Treasury Department of the total number of employees — not just auditors — the I.R.S. proposes to hire over the next 10 years with funding requested by Mr. Biden.

The majority of those new employees will replace the 52,000 expected to retire in the near future, the officials said, and many will focus on customer service and updating the agency’s technology infrastructure — not investigating the finances of ordinary Americans.

Fact-Checking the Misleading Claim About 87,000 Tax Agents

The claim, which has been debunked numerous times, has resurged ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s why it’s still wrong.

www.nytimes.com

 

[ElectricIAC]

Good thing that's not what's happening, which has been so often debunked one wonders why you'd repeat it.

Fact-Checking the Misleading Claim About 87,000 Tax Agents

The claim, which has been debunked numerous times, has resurged ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s why it’s still wrong.

www.nytimes.com

How about zero.

Zero sounds much better.

 

[STS-134]

How about zero.

Zero sounds much better.

So you're advocating for defunding the (tax) police and expecting that (tax) crime will go down after doing so?

 

[Crutonius]

Typical liberals. Always calling for maximum lawlessness.

 

[ElectricIAC]

So you're advocating for defunding the (tax) police and expecting that (tax) crime will go down after doing so?

Taxation is theft, so eliminating the IRS would literally be taking a bite out of crime.

 

[STS-134]

Taxation is theft, so eliminating the IRS would literally be taking a bite out of crime.

View attachment 911809

I suppose so. Other ways of taking a bite out of crime:
- Change the laws to make murder, extortion, rape, armed robbery, etc., legal.
- Define the speed limit to be 299,792,458 m/s in any reference frame. A speed limit (and a law) that literally cannot be broken!

 

[ohmman]

The reason the IRS should audit people with higher incomes is math. Your ROI is going to be better. It's not a conspiracy, it's math.

I've been enjoying the mountains with this record snowfall and haven't been spending time on TMC. I come back and check in, and boy - at least a few people here need to find their own mountain, don't they?

 

[ElectricIAC]

The reason the IRS should audit people with higher incomes is math. Your ROI is going to be better. It's not a conspiracy, it's math.

Audit the spenders, not the contributors.

But that’s not how a kleptocracy works.

 

[jabloomf1230]

It's not common knowledge, some people think the benefits outweigh the risk. Everyone agrees that scientists in virology labs should avoid getting infected with viruses, man-made or natural.

And I thought that you liked the old Chicago Cubs radio announcer.

 

[STS-134]

The reason the IRS should audit people with higher incomes is math. Your ROI is going to be better. It's not a conspiracy, it's math.

Yep, bottom 60% is almost not worth going after: The distribution of wealth in the United States and implications for a net worth tax - Equitable Growth

The most you're going to get, assuming all of them cheated 100% on their taxes, is ~20% of tax revenues. Well actually no, it's much worse than that, because income taxes are progressive, and that 20% of income that is shared across the bottom 60% of people (10% for the 40-60% group, about 6% for the 20-40% group, and maybe 5% for the bottom 20%) would be less than 20% of tax revenues. Of course, you still need to do some audits of people reporting 0 income and people in the bottom 60% to make sure that they're not cheating, but it's just not worth focusing intensely on that group beyond what's required to keep them honest. Meanwhile, going after just the top 20% gets you more than 50% of total income in a lot fewer audits. In addition, just the top 1% have more income than the bottom 60% and have far more opportunities to cheat because of where their income comes from, and a much higher motivation to cheat because of the large amounts of money involved.

 

[SO16]

So "overreaction to Dave Chapelle" is a big, earth-shattering, deal in your world? Really? Who gives a ****?

That was just one example of people getting “canceled”. People have been fired from TV series like Mandalorian (Gina Cerano), Roseanne, etc. over a stupid tweet.

You may not give a **** but I bet they do. And let’s be honest, you would give a **** if you were on the receiving end of it.

I don’t agree with all their tweets or stances either but to demand firing over something like that is again, overreaction.

And… that was just one example in a list of other items I mentioned. Not one single thing is “earth shattering” but it is a “death by a thousand cuts” type of scenario.

 

[advocate8]

Being “woke” isn’t the problem.

It’s the extremes and what they advocate that are the problem. (Ie cancel culture, overreaction to Dave Chapelle, going back and shunning everything that was considered comedy in the past, getting people fired, quietly suppressing views they don’t agree with, etc.)

Audit the spenders, not the contributors.

But that’s not how a kleptocracy works.

The correlation between actual “contributors” and wealth is hardly one to one. There’s a lot of wealth out there that is just gained by financial slight of hand. Renaissance Technologies for example, contributes essentially zero to the real GDP.

 

[advocate8]

I hope we can all agree that these are good Tweets. I know there’s nuance, but I want to stop and appreciate for a minute when he’s got his head on straight.
More of this sort of thing would be great.

 

[ElectricIAC]

View attachment 911931
I hope we can all agree that these are good Tweets. I know there’s nuance, but I want to stop and appreciate for a minute when he’s got his head on straight.
More of this sort of thing would be great.

There’s a difference between feedback and unbridled vitriol much like what’s seen in this thread.

 

[DrGriz]

...

And… that was just one example in a list of other items I mentioned. Not one single thing is “earth shattering” but it is a “death by a thousand cuts” type of scenario.

Death of what? I would ask.

I have no problem believing that the off color jokes I may have laughed at in the 1970s were actually racist and have no place in today's culture. And if someone posts a stupid tweet when they are drunk or whatever, and it gets them fired, again, it's not the "end of civilization." I am simply not feeling threatened by those things or any of your other examples.

From where I sit, the most egregious example of cancel culture is the war on wokeism itself. And, sadly, the warriors appear to have no level of insight about that.

 

[Krash]

There’s a difference between feedback and unbridled vitriol much like what’s seen in this thread.

Hopefully this is merely a bridled vitriol tolerant thread. For unbridled vitriol see Snippiness 2.0 or Political Quarintine.

 

[T3SLAROD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629764614870167552

It’s pretty sad what Tesla is becoming. It had such a great future…

 

[JRP3]

It’s pretty sad what Tesla is becoming. It had such a great future…

It's what Elon is becoming, Tesla is a separate entity, though obviously heavily identified with Elon.