In democracies money going to governments isn't sucked to some kind of vacuum. It's reinvested in infrastructure, social programs, investment programs, etc.

The US would be better off if it had more money to invest in healthcare and education, and Gabe would still be fine living in a house worth a few millions instead of on a half billion yacht.

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AnthonyMouse 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> In democracies money going to governments isn't sucked to some kind of vacuum. It's reinvested in infrastructure, social programs, investment programs, etc.

In practice it mostly goes to other rich people/corporations and affluent retirees.

Around half of federal revenues go to retirees (and disproportionately to the affluent ones), another trillion+ dollars goes to defense/VA contractors, another trillion dollars goes to interest (i.e. other rich people/corporations), and then all the rest of it combined is less than any one of those things individually.

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Hikikomori 2 days ago | parent [-]

That the American system is broken doesn't mean we shouldn't have a government.

	▲	AnthonyMouse a day ago \| parent [-]
		If the money is currently going to the wrong places, and collecting more money only causes it to go to the same places, then you need to focus on getting the existing money to go to the right places and prove that you can actually accomplish that before "just collect more money" becomes anything resembling a reasonable proposal. At which point you wouldn't need to collect more money, because there is already scads of money being collected, it's just going to the wrong things.

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preisschild 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I live in a democracy (central Europe) and too much is spent on subsidizing farmers and useless social programs.

	▲	account42 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You don't think food security is something a country should invest in? Sure, let's have everything we need to live be produced in China, what could possibly go wrong.
	▲	wolvoleo 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Where do you think your food comes from? Why do you think we don't have to worry about someone shooting us for 20€? These things are not wasted money. They could be spent more efficiently, but I don't think they are a waste at all.