Students in Massachusetts will get free lunch and breakfast at school thanks to a new 4% tax put on people who earn more than $1 million.

  • Gsus4@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s easier to sell a tax hike if you know exactly where it’s going :)

    • theragu40@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Unless you’re Waukesha, Wisconsin, where they specifically voted to stop giving kids handouts (i.e. free lunch). Because, you know, kids should work for their food or something instead of using their energy to learn.

  • Kage520@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    We need different terms for people who HAVE a million dollars and people who MAKE a million per year. Lots of people will read this millionaire’s tax and think it will apply to them when they are nearing retirement since they finally have a million dollars after saving all their life.

    • abraxas@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s what the campaign to quash the bill did. That, and tried to convince people that they might have a single multi-million-dollar transaction in their life (like selling a large successful business) and have to pay an extra 4% on it.

      Always a push to get the “temporarily embarassed millionaire” to support the reach. “Yeah, yanno. My little lawmowing operation that makes me $20,000 coild sell for over a million and then I’m fucked”

      • Hoomod@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ah, the Philip J. Fry mentality

        “someday I might be rich, and then people like me better watch their step”

  • Dark_Lords_Servant@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    A European here. Aside from going in the right direction, I have a question: Don’t the rich already pay most of their earnings as taxes? So the problem is not that they are not getting taxed, but rather that they avoid paying them through loopholes? Or is that a billionaire problem?

    • Gyoza Power@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah. The problem is that the richest people have many loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Getting a minimal salary and then just taking loans against their assets is one of them.

      • Mindlight@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        This.

        And to add to it. If you were making 10 million dollar and someone approached and said that they could make it so that you keep 1 million in taxes if you pay them 100 thousand you would most likely be one of the ones doing it.

        If you make enough money you can afford hiring people to find new ways to keep your expenses down. Tax is an expense as any other to many rich people.

        “After all, you made your fortune without getting any help so why should your earnings go to p1eople who use the system”

  • sQuirrel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Free school meals should be a given since our taxes should go to what our elected officials have so thoughtfully decided where to apply them. What no one rarely brings up let alone tries to solve is the disgusting and unsafe food that the local, state and fed officials decide to make available. There’s too much politics in cafeteria food. They should focus there budget in getting healthy food not the cheapest, uncles cousins or corporate friend contract.

      • pedro@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think what is missing is control over the representatives. When you elect someone, you give them your power, you should be able to take it back when they abuse it.

        In a representative democracy, transparency and control are key and when this is not enforced, people tend to think the system is broken and does not work. It would work if that is fixed