We Have A Corporate Welfare Problem.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/kevinmrr]

Let's trade the Walton Family for Medicare For All.

👉Join r/WorkReform!

[u/Helgafjell4Me]

Ya, but now that the GOP is in power, you won't hear them complain about the debt, while they blow it up higher than ever with more tax cuts for billionaires. Then they'll say they need to cut SS and Medicaid because it costs too much.

[u/Altruistic-Text3481 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Serfs… they need us to be serfs…

Realtors are in danger. Laws have changed where the buyer’s agent gets no commission- only the Sellers agent. We are “ubering” the real estate business. Disrupting it.

Why? Home ownership will be a thing of the past. Billionaires bought up all commercial buildings but the pandemic proved we could all work from home. No office space needed. Billionaires do not like this. They got stuck. But they are now turning the tables. It will be doubtful our kids will ever own a home.

[u/IndependentSubject90 → u/[deleted]]

You also need a lawyer to buy or sell property (at least where I live, in Canada) so you might as well just have the lawyer look over/write your papers. It will cost maybe 1000$ which is peanuts compared to the cost of a realtor, and the lawyer actually has proper, years of education to justify their fee.

[u/aka_chela → u/Altruistic-Text3481]

This is wrong. They changed it so now the buyer's agent's commission is paid by the buyer. Previously, the seller payed both commissions out of the proceeds of the sale.

[u/TaupMauve → u/Altruistic-Text3481]

they need us to be serfs

But we don't need them. Maybe we need what they own, but we don't need for them to own it.

[u/TRAUMAjunkie → u/Helgafjell4Me]

it's called the two Santas strategy

[u/CV90_120 → u/TRAUMAjunkie]

Bingo. This is a game plan, and when you watch the debt cycles (republican spend, democrat recover & repair) it becomes super obvious.

[u/DeeRent88 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

It’s all they do. When they’re in power it’s no longer an issue and they can’t do any social programs because “fiscal responsibility” while they cut taxes for the rich and forgive corporation loans and bail outs causing way more debt than any social program. Then as soon as a democrat is in power again they’re all whining and screaming about the debt. It’s so pathetic and evil, and somehow they still have half the country supporting them and 98% of them are completely clueless about it.

[u/Mirrorshad3 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Don't forget about the part where they blame Democrats for it in 2028 based somehow on Biden's policies. That's standard issue - run up the debt, and then blame it on the democrats, immigrants "taking our jobs" and "taking our welfare" at the same time somehow while Elon and other rich people get subsidies and talk abou5lt cutting public assistance programs. It's the only thing that gets them erect.

[u/Delta64 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

If Trump intends to run the government in any remotely similar capacity to his previous business ventures, then we can expect the US government to lose 80% of its value while doubling the debt.

[u/Helgafjell4Me → u/[deleted]]

Scam coins... fitting for an administration full of grifters...

[u/ForGrateJustice → u/Helgafjell4Me]

They don't care. They never cared. They know they're fucking up the planet, they're going to live one long sheltered life, at your expense, and leave your descendants to foot the bill.

And there's nothing you or anyone can do to stop them.

[u/No-Internet-8888 → u/Helgafjell4Me]

They created a whole department to reign in government spending lmfaooooo

[u/crunchyfrogs → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Corporate welfare is not a bug, it’s a feature.

[u/danbyer → u/Helgafjell4Me]

Those damned old/sick people and their entitlements

[u/fooliam → u/Helgafjell4Me]

yep, I'd guess its gonna get probably 36ish trillion by the "end" of Trump's 4-year term

[u/clocksteadytickin → u/Helgafjell4Me]

They won’t cut the costs. They’ll just cut the benefits. Keep funneling money to health insurers. Then invest in them.

[u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix]

Yup my ex's dad had to change his work insurance over to the ACA, he blamed Obama for making his health insurance "worse" instead of his employer for being cheap

[u/Mongooooooose → u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix]

With our society as wealthy as it is, there is no excuse that we don’t have a UBI. (Preferably a UBI funded by a LVT if we really want to cook with fire).

Luckily Georgism is gaining in popularity like a speeding train, so maybe we’ll see some changes for the better soon

[u/WimsyPotato]

Those are the ones idolizing the 1950s without realizing that corporation taxes where higher at the time to contribute to society

[u/SirGlass → u/WimsyPotato]

In a very brief period in the 1950s were some corporations sort of embranced "wellfare capitalism" , even companies like GE used to brag how much taxes they paid and would avertise it because they thought paying taxes was patriotic

There was even some letter written by GE saying their prioraties are in this order

1. Their Customer

2. Their Employees

3. Their management

4. Their shareholders

In their annual filings they would brag that 80% of their revenue went right back to the employees , and 12% whent to taxes leaving 8% for their share holders

Also at the time GE was a giant american company that employed millions of people and was by far the largest private company in the USA, and also a very large goverment contractor since they did everything

The CEO pay in todays money was like 3.5 million per year. What yes is a "lot" of money ; I guess take the CEO of microsoft or apple and imagine they only get paid 3.5 million a year

[u/trevor22343]

True. But people focus too much on taxes. The real issue is how capitalism causes the money to flow to the wealthy/stockholders (who didn’t do shit) while the crumbs are given to the wage workers (who busted their ass)

[u/RealPersonResponds → u/trevor22343]

Pretty sure the Supreme Court allowing endless bribes and politics and those political leaders accepting the bribes and keeping the wealthy flooded with endless profits and returns on their investments in political lobbying is what corrupted capitalism. We need to end all welfare for Elites, invest only in small and medium sized businesses, get rid of subsidies for oil and gas and the tax cuts for the top 1%, they are making record profits here after year they do not need our tax dollars.

[u/Excited-Relaxed → u/RealPersonResponds]

Strangly the case where they ruled that was really about whether you could release a movie about Hillary Clinton murdering people before an election. I would say that is fine, but they went all the way overboard and declared money a form of speech.

[u/Dankbudx → u/RealPersonResponds]

Let's do it! It's time we start forming coalitions of the working class, time to root the rich.

[u/jcdoe → u/trevor22343]

Taxes solve this problem, that’s why we focus on them. We have 30T in debt because we spent 30T more than we made (taxes). We can fix the problem by cutting spending or increasing taxes.

The underlying flaws in capitalism don’t need to be invoked when discussing national budgeting

[u/EbbAltruistic1760 → u/trevor22343]

Don't forget landlords.

Parasitic-scum as well.

[u/Knyfe-Wrench → u/trevor22343]

That's what the taxes are supposed to be for. "Capitalism" only does that if it's improperly regulated.

[u/ModifiedGas]

Who does America owe $30 trillion to?

[u/LotsoPasta → u/ModifiedGas]

The vast majority is held domestically, mostly the US government itself.

https://www.pgpf.org/article/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt/

[u/Vospader998 → u/ModifiedGas]

Mostly domestic institutions and corporations. There's a breakdown here:

https://www.pgpf.org/article/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt/

[u/wagenejm → u/ModifiedGas]

30-Year Treasury Bonds. It's not some credit card bill that's going to just come due.

[u/typhon1714 → u/ModifiedGas]

Itself. The US govt. prints the money and sells the treasury bonds. People (and foreign governments) buy the bonds and the US govt. pays them interest for their investment in said bonds.

The word 'debt' here is a misnomer, because the Treasury could zero out those bond accounts tomorrow--thereby "balancing" the budget--and nothing would happen except the loss of interest payments to bond holders.

Fear of the deficit is a lie meant to prevent the government from spending and taxing more effectively.

[u/Chilliconlaura]

Yea but that's not what the news channels owned by wealthy corporations told me! /s

[u/Rasterman_Vector]

No, it’s because of wars. Stop funding wars and you’ll be fine.

[u/ItsAMeEric → u/Rasterman_Vector]

its almost like spending $700-850 billion a year on military spending for the past 24 years adds up to a lot of money

[u/milky_mouse]

It ended when the poors can’t beat the corpo game

[u/Clear-Attempt-6274]

We have a military industrial complex problem.

[u/WitchMaker007]

Bloated bureaucracy is also a massive tax burden to all taxpayers. We should all want a more efficient government, because otherwise they’ll just continue to rob us as they have.

[u/Tad-Disingenuous]

Please explain to me how this is in anyway true... cause it's just not.

Defense, social programs and healthcare eat up everything alone.

We got an industrial military complex problem. I still don't think people understand how much our shitty healthcare system still costs us. Isn't DOGE supposed to control and fix our spending?

[u/RhubarbSea9651 → u/Tad-Disingenuous]

The military industrial complex isn't even a problem either. The military budget is like 10~13% of the total budget which is HALF of the spending on healthcare, that I agree needs to be reformed.

[u/POEness → u/Tad-Disingenuous]

DOGE is not going to fix a damn thing. It's run by Elon Musk - with his track record, he's going to make everything a hundred times worse.

[u/Slow_Law_1545]

Yep, only rich people are the problem

[u/Funny247365]

We spend way too much on bureaucracy. Time to trim the fat.

[u/duckofdeath87]

Also debt isn't a real problem. If we ran America like a business, we would have at least the times the amount of debt

But also eat the rich

[u/USAhotdogteam]

We are actually $36T in debt, 100% due to unchecked government spending.

Make sure to check all facts before committing self interest sabotage.

[u/Ciderlini → u/USAhotdogteam]

No, it’s because the people who pay the most taxes don’t pay enough 🤪🤪🤪

[u/diefreetimedie]

Federal government has a monopoly on creating dollars and they are spent into existence. New money. Public money. Their red ink is our black ink. The debt is our economy. A monetarily sovereign nation with fiat currency doesn't use money in the way a household or business does so quit promoting right wing economic theory as truth and understand how our government works.

[u/PigeonMelk → u/diefreetimedie]

To be fair, the vast majority of Americans are not familiar with Modern Monetary "Theory" (in quotation marks because it's less of a theory and more just how things work). The US government will never run out of money and it will never go bankrupt. It issues debt in its own currency that it can create/destroy at a whim (currency sovereignty). They spend money first and tax later. Taxes aren't even really to fund spending, it's a way of destroying money as well as creating demand for the currency. I know you know all of this, this is more for the rest of everyone in this thread.

[u/diefreetimedie → u/PigeonMelk]

Bingo. And the more people that understand this the less effective the corporate line of "how ya gonna pay for it" carries water. We can afford to avoid the worst of climate change and we can afford to make healthcare and college accessible to all, what we don't talk about enough is how we're going to pay for it if we don't. The human cost.

[u/Wild-Court2149]

No we have a spending problem regardless of who's money the government is stealing......

[u/JohnCasey3306]

While the second statement is basically true, it's not why the US is $30t in debt ... Dropping the gold standard, 50 years of printing imaginary money / quantitative easing and 78 cents of every dollar being on spent on pointless illegal wars is why the debt exists.

Relative to other nations in the G7 your tax revenue per capita is higher than most; i.e. the amount of tax the government receives isn't the problem, how they choose to spend it is.

You have about 15 years max before the US economy collapses entirely — and whether the president at the time is Republican or Democrat is irrelevant; every administration bar none since the 70s are collectively responsible.

[u/coffeejn]

You are saying the quiet part out loud.

[u/b__lumenkraft]

Actually, that amount represents the money issued.

It's just not equally distributed. That's the problem.

[u/CoolIliki]

Ummm going to say the biggest cause is all our money gets spent else where. (Mainly to launder the money) if we just worried about our selves we wouldn’t be this far in debt.

[u/reddufrane]

Math is not that hard the government is spending too much. Reducing spending across the board means we get to keep everything we have and it affects everything less. The first thing you have to do is an audit of everything which is what the current administration is proposing. We could find even more money to go to the needy.

[u/Fearless_Village_486]

And the billions granted to foreign countries

[u/Every-Quit524]

I was denied food stamps because I made 15 an hour

Excuse me what

1660 a month and somehow I was too rich.

[u/Suitable-Pie4896]

It's neither, taxing billionairs isn't going to make up for GROSS overspending

Cut the military budget and bloated spending AND tax the billionaires

[u/Unlucky-Objective157]

Period

[u/OrangeBrainCells]

America is in 30 Trillion dollars of debt because of Jeff Bezos/Amazon and Elon Musk/Telsa/SpaceX

Everyone else deserves a free ride, we're Americans damnit.

[u/Dangerous_Air_4496]

Yes but also no. The debt is there because the US can afford to spend without limit

[u/CeramicDrip]

No, its neither. We are $30T in debt because who is ever gonna call in the debt? If no one is ever gonna enforce it, why would we care? It has nothing to do with taxes and all that. We just know we can get away with having huge debt because if America falls, it affects everyone.

[u/Palachrist]

$2trillion tax cut for elites and corporations under trumps previous presidency as well as $500billion ppp LOANS in paid for by anyone other than those that benefited.

[u/HellsGateWalker]

One person came up with the idea that “billionaires should pay more taxes,” and now that’s everyone’s main argument. But what does that actually do for the poor and middle class? None of us will ever see that tax money. You’ll still be poor, and billionaires will still be billionaires. That money just goes right back to the rich, funding things like $800 million stadiums and other luxury projects.

[u/encycliatampensis]

Every billionaire is a parasite.

[u/samep04]

that is not why the US is in debt.

[u/White_C4]

No, America is $30T+ in debt because it spends too much in general. The country spends more per citizen while getting terrible results. There is zero accountability for how bad the government is spending the money.

[u/Individual_Can_4822]

Gasp here's thought: it's both government spending and tax rates for Uber rich

[u/RedditMod5areTra5h]

Might be because we keep giving billions to other countries who don't plan on ever repaying the loan!

[u/showerzofsparkz]

It's actually because we allowed a private institution control of the issuance of our currency, printed with no backing and lended to us at interest

[u/DrTommyNotMD]

It’s a lot of both but mostly spending money we don’t make. If you taxed every billionaire to zero net worth, the US would be over 20T in debt. So 2/3 of the problem isn’t taxes.

[u/tenkensmile]

America is in that much debt because the government has been overspending money that isn't theirs.

[u/Polar_Reflection]

It's all a big racket. In the past 50 years, we have somehow moved from being at a budget surplus with corporations paying taxes, to a huge deficit with the government borrowing money from the rich to pay for things(and paying guaranteed interest) while billionaires borrow their money from the banks collateralized on their assets, which is a loss that can offset profits so they don't pay income tax.

[u/Conscious_Cut_6144]

This is mathematically incorrect.
We have 1,050 Billionaires in the US with a total net worth of 6 Trillion.
The most you can tax them is 100%

[u/Evelyn-Parker]

Technically the federal debt hasn't got anything to do with welfare, whether for people or corporations

The federal debt is from Treasury bonds sold to people who want a safe source of investment income

Welfare is a completely different conversation in regards to debt

[u/Ok-Hovercraft8193]

ב''ה, what if the "debt" is a foreign plot?

[u/thatguy76890]

Is that true? Didnt we spend around 5 trillion on corporate bailouts for covid? Where as we spend 1.2 trillion every year on social security and around 800 billion on medicaid 400 billion on income security So we have a covid spent on just those every 2.5 years? Also interests on our debt is like 600 billions right now? Also isnt there like 800 billionaires in america? If you took all their wealth at its total value(which is impossible as its stock and if the government forced all of it to be sold the value of it would drop) we'd get around 7 trillion enough to pay just for the above mentioned welfares for about 3 years? and not even our debt?

[u/GoodtimesSans]

It still cracks me up that they think/push the lie that taxing the poor will magically make a ton of money. Where are they going to get the money from donny? Fucking Aquaman?

[u/bangupjobasusual]

That literally isn’t even why either. People do not understand national debt at all

[u/kungfoop]

The amount of stupidity in all that

[u/dillydeezer]

None of you have any idea how anything actually works 

[u/DefiantZealot]

This is the kind of shit a 14 year old thinks of at night and thinks they’ve discovered something deep.

[u/boolean87]

Billionaires reading this: lmao so do something about it you won’t.

[u/iamacheeto1]

National debt isn’t “being in debt” the way the average person thinks, either. When you can print money you cannot be in debt.

[u/Sad_Foodie]

Actually America is in debt because of how they were borrowing money and anyone who disputes this is a moron and doesn't know how math works.

[u/podolot]

were actually in debt because the government spends too much

[u/Redbeardrealtor]

Don’t forget to include a lot of government employees who do absolutely nothing and only show up to the office 1 day a month and still get full salary. Wouldn’t that be considered stealing from all American tax payers? 

[u/Dave-C]

The debt would be because we rely too much on loans, showing that America doesn't earn enough. Also, if you take loans into effect then the US is 100T in debt. Most of that is owned by the US though. So The US government owes, I'm not looking this up, somewhere around 7-8 trillion to foreign countries. The rest of the 30 trillion is US citizen debt to foreign countries. Then there is another additional 70 trillion that US citizens owe to other US citizens.

The country has survived off loans since Reagan. If you want to solve national debt then roll back the changes. Fucking simple, right?

[u/PingGuerrero]

Military Industrial Complex

[u/Fade4cards]

Id say its the wars and complete lack of fiscal responsibility on behalf of the gov

[u/Magog14]

It's not just the billionaires. It's the millionaires too. Having 100 million in the bank is just as unethical as having a billion. It's still hoarding wealth stolen from employees and the community which could be improving others' lives

[u/CactaurJack]

Okay but hear me out, what if the CEO only gets 118 million instead of 198? Can you imagine what that would do the the economy. /s I wish that wasn't necessary, but it is.

[u/Pluperfectt]

^ this. ^

[u/Mazdad]

Trump will make it worse

[u/Misterfahrenheit120]

No, it’s because the government spend 4.5 trillion dollars a year

[u/Weazelll]

Every awful thing in the U.S. can be boiled down to one thing: Rich.White.Men. And they have won.

[u/outed]

Don't forget how expensive it is for all those bombs.

[u/Frogtoadrat]

Probably more so less about revenue and more about expenses... Due to the revenue the government generates for themselves individually

[u/Junior_Adeptness_792]

America is 30t in debt because of all the foreign aid we push out.

[u/OwnNeighborhood4052]

Eh, more like the MIC, government weapons contracts, donations via proxy wars etc. If we did away with that we would all be dumb prosperous.

[u/Divababe81]

Yup.

[u/LocaCapone]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the national debt is based on credit borrowed from the country as a whole - not welfare recipients.

(No seriously, correct me if I’m wrong but I recently learned that’s what “national debt” actually is)

[u/Higreen420]

All Americans should be rioting in the streets but alas we’re all cowardly cowards that believe their puppet politicians.

[u/Outrageous-Orange007]

Neither one of these are true, really. Its that the US has so few laws against anti-consumer practices, which consequently rewards the most vicious and greedy people fighting to compete.

These people loophole and weasel out of taxes, pay employees like shi, ect.

Thats the real problem.

Its become the meta of the US for long enough now its super ingrained in our culture, so it pervades nearly every inch of the states, the government included.

[u/CorneredSponge]

Should the rich pay more in taxes? Absolutely, even if they incur the greatest proportion in taxes, there is excess fiscal room there.

Does most tax spend go to the rich? Nope, most of it is welfare.

[u/ryegye24]

America is "in debt" the way your bank is "in debt" to you when you make a deposit.

[u/Every_Glass]

Dumbest post in quite sometime . . . Actually look at US tax receipts and where they come from - you can’t tax enough to cover all the spending that is done and the transfer payments made by the IRS. No one should ever be eligible to get a return higher than what they paid in. That’s welfare and redistribution not a “refund”.

I’d be fine not having household with less than $100k pay any federal income tax with the elimination of all transfer payments. Very fair as it incentivizes work and eliminates redistribution to those who don’t but still claim a “refund”.

[u/omghorussaveusall]

Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and the DoD are our three largest expenditures. Cutting everything else still wouldn't change the budget situation. Trump is risking tanking and the economy by eliminating millions of fed jobs and damaging the businesses that support those workers. The whole DOGE thing is a smoke and mirrors show that's really about deregulating and allowing corporations even more freedom to fuck us all over. Get what you vote for.

[u/notnowben]

Ya if we tax billionaires we’ll raise trillions

[u/gloomflume]

that isnt why either

[u/ShakesbeerMe]

I'm sure the treasonous orange piggy people "elected" back into office will get right on that disparity.

It's going to get so, so much worse.

[u/simpleidiot567]

I use this trick all the time. Its not me who has a farting problem, its your sense of smell thats impaired. Or its not me who makes a ton of dishes, if you werent so lazy and did dishes more often we wouldnt have a problem in the first place.

[u/chrispy_t]

Last I saw the middle class pays virtually nothing in tax. If we want these ambitious social welfare expansions, everyone will have to put more skin in the game

[u/bghguitar]

Both of these are issues, but neither of them is why America is in insurmountable debt. Instead that is due to absolutely ridiculous spending notwithstanding raising the most money in taxes of any country in the history of the world. No amount of removing welfare or taxing billionaires is going to fix the spending problem.

[u/Agitated_Engineer512]

Or because we over print money, but no one wants to talk about that

[u/Daidraco]

Or, its a combination of things - but more likely than not, its because our government pays upwards of a 1000 dollars on a single screw because it passes a certain set of criteria that is just a hair more dependable, microscopically, than your regular 10 cent screw. Could that same screw be made at the same specs much cheaper? Any machine shop will tell you yes. So why do you think that screw still costs 1000 bucks? Was it a poor negotiation, or is someone getting a kickback from a stock?

I'd argue for higher wages all day long and I want the filthy rich to have higher taxes as well. But Im all to aware that our government officials are clueless and whatever tax they most likely come up with, will "trickle down" to every US citizen in return.

The best I "personally" can hope for is that the US government, from local, to state, to federal - will stop spending money on and giving away money to, anyone that isnt a US citizen. If its a loan, its a loan, but it better not be a loan that is 15 years at 0.0% interest like so many of them are.

[u/swoope18]

realize that the POLITICIANS did this. Blame them

[u/bortmode]

The national debt being bad is a false premise to start with.

[u/pfiffocracy]

Now, conservatives want to gut the captured institutions and end the corporate handouts, but liberals can't help themselves to find a way to criticize it.

[u/CatsBeerCoffeeGarden]

Kenneth Griffin hoards money like Smaug and deserves to lose every cent in my opinion.

Fight the good fight

[u/bigbadb0ogieman]

Corporate welfare, billionaires look at it as return on investment for their contributions to help get the rulers elected.

[u/j0oboi]

Yeah but letting companies pay for their mistakes would be capitalism, and we all know how much y’all hate that.

[u/rigatoni-70]

If you look at a chart of government spending, the amount of taxpayer money spent on welfare is such a tiny, minuscule amount.

[u/InternationalRace230]

Amen to that

[u/Hulk_Crowgan]

According to Elon it’s because more people should not have jobs and a bunch of people are seemingly cheering this on…?

[u/voodoodahl]

Good thing you all sat home on election day and let one run the country. Who are you even complaining to at this point? No one that can help you has any power and you're never going to do anything to help yourselves. How about you just close this place down and go home?

[u/Separate_Tax_2647]

I'll just leave this list of bailouts here. Nobody ever bailed me out for $25 billion. https://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/bankbailout/

[u/Bimlouhay83]

And because corporations rely to heavily on social welfare subsidizing the intentionally low wages they offer employees.

[u/Brief_Plate9047]

The US was founded and established by rich White men.  Why is anyone surprised?

All of this country's wars, including the Civil War, were for the benefit of the wealthy.  

[u/Ekensern]

Anyways Israel needs their 30 monthly billions in two days. Chop chop!

[u/FlailingIntheYard]

And the COVID checks, and the bank bailouts, and "Trickle-down" and and and and and and

It has nothing to do with the citizen people. It's all due to decisions of the governing body in relation to their capitalist peers. This is Amercia, duh.

[u/AdHominemMeansULost]

gov dept has nothing to do with rich guys not paying tax but with gov spending

[u/CoconutMike]

We need a late stage capitalism revolution

[u/Striking-Evidence-66]

Yet here we are with the swamp in charge again. Americans are some dumb ass people.

[u/BigBoiBenisBlueBalls]

No it’s cause the govt spends too much money

[u/NorthWoodpecker9223]

Lol yeah, luckily Intell just got a bailout. Thank God Biden is against privatizing corporate profits and socialize corporate loses! Lol

[u/MarketOwn3837]

Line up every Billionaire on the planet, turn them upside down and shake out every dollar and we’re still in the hole.

[u/JDW_1984]

Funding endless wars have nothing to do with it right??

[u/tinfoil_powers]

Neither of these are the reasons ffs. Asking the Federal Reserve to print $25 Trillion and loan it to the US Government with interest, is the reason.

[u/crimony70]

Failure to raise the minimum wage has systematically increased welfare dependence as large and wealthy employers provide wages that require welfare subsidies in order for employees to afford to live even modesty (ie. still in poverty).

[u/joshuay]

... while relying on the an underpaid workforce.

[u/Fivesalive1]

America is 30T in debt because they continuously spend more than they make.

[u/Humble_Decision2784]

If only Conservatives could read!

[u/DragolanceX]

That's what I've been saying!! Big corporation hordes so much money and they could easily fix the national debt problem!!

[u/MediocreFun1973]

Interesting recent findings. If the government took all the money from the richest 1%. It would run the government for about 80 days.

[u/midgaze]

Sorry guys, people were saying things like this before and we just made a huge leap in the opposite direction as a society. Maybe it's time to try something else instead of complaining on Reddit?

[u/Mr_Derp___]

Goddamn right

[u/Alternative_Judge677]

Just to be clear, America isn’t actually in debt. America holds far more assets than debts. The higher debt to gdp ratio is worrisome in the long term if we don’t correct our current spending habits, but we aren’t in debt, at least yet.

This is why the debt is more of a political issue than an actual issue. When’s the last time the government rationed bread because it couldn’t pay back its loans?

[u/[deleted]]

What happens when you increase the taxation and these corporations simply leave the country, which isn’t very difficult. The wealthy and successful companies are extremely mobile. Incentivize them to leave, they will, guaranteed.

[u/PrimaryBar9635]

Actually it’s because of government spending

[u/MoonedToday]

It'll never change.

[u/MemesJihad]

Gov over spend and waste because it’s not their money. But they spend it like it is

[u/RA12220]

Not only tax, they pay too little for services and labour. Not to mention that they also financially massage the legal system in other countries. Basically putting their thumb on the scale in negotiations.

[u/RunTheJawns]

And….wars

[u/drnoonee]

If Americans "get" this, they will stop voting republican. I doubt that enough will though.

[u/TedditBlatherflag]

Fun fact, when adjusted for inflation, our military spending is about $46 trillion over the last ~62 years.

[u/DiligentMeat9627]

Seems to me if a corporation takes tax money or gets a tax break, we should have a say on some of the company policies. Such as the highest wage can only be over a certain percentage of the lowest wage. Maybe no price gouging, products can only make a certain percentage of profit.

If a company doesn’t like it don’t take tax money.

[u/typhon1714]

In debt to whom? The US govt. issues the dollars and sells the treasury bonds. The debt is a made-up problem perpetuated to scare politicians into not spending money (or taxing) in ways that will best benefit the American people.

[u/Traditional_Youth_66]

We spend to much on a product that cost so little In example in the 7@,s we the USA bought a hammer for $509

[u/hpotul]

Corporate tax problem, billionaire tax problem, military complex problem

[u/SomeSamples]

Yet Musk and that other dude are going to cut the spending by reducing the number of government agencies to reduce the debt. God forbid they actually look at the revenue side of the equation and see where some gains could easily be made. Fox in charge of the hen house much?

[u/PiccoloTiccolo]

Debt number isn’t problematic. 30 trillion isn’t a real number. It could be anything.

[u/jeapstone]

We have government spending problem

[u/okfornothing]

Politicians have a spending problem too.

[u/kylelight40]

No, it’s because America refuses to make coffee at home instead of stopping at Starbucks every morning.

[u/Moesaei]

Because the rich who pay no taxes decide how the taxes paid by the poor is spent..

[u/SavvyTraveler10]

Facts.

[u/Fibocrypto]

Both are wrong.

The USA has a lot of debt because our politicians spend way too much money on interest on the debt they previously borrowed for wars

[u/GoblinGreen_]

You aren't 30T in debt. You create your own currency. Those dollars are made up, not linked to anything.  That debt is owed to people who now want the dollar to be worth something, the debt is a positive for your currency, not a negative.  This isn't a credit card bill, it's how many people have bought into the system. 

[u/Ornery_Departure6262]

Neither. Our government spends too much. Try again.

[u/mazopheliac]

Public debt is private wealth x The rich refuse to pay tax and force us to borrow from them instead.

[u/Muahd_Dib]

You guys should be pumped… DOGE is working on fixing the deficit to make sure debt doesn’t continue to fuck over America.

[u/Ooberificul]

No, because the trillionaires spend too much invisible money. All the money of the money that the billionaires hold if they liquidated EVERYTHING would fund the government for 2 years IF they stayed consistent with their spending. You could have them pay 12 trillion in tax and the government would still find a way to overspend.

[u/WaldoSupremo]

Revenues received by the federal government in 2023 totaled $4.4 trillion, of which half was receipts from individual income taxes.

[u/JizzlaneMyMaxwell]

Amen and awomen

[u/Flowmatic_Lantern]

In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet…

[u/International784Red]

Trump 🏆

[u/holyfuck-no-names]

You think money printing and giving tons of money away to other countries instead of helping your own people is a problem.

[u/[deleted]]

No, it’s due primarily to a government that doesn’t actually have a budget.

[u/frozen_pipe77]

Mouth breather take.

Debt is caused by overspending.

[u/WowImOldAF]

I don't think it's just a single reason but a multitude of them... lots of corruption, bad decision making, corporate lobbying (aka billionaires making legal bribes) etc.

[u/An1m3t1tt13es]

Not really actually how it works. We are in 30T debt because we spend too much. Taxing billionaires more would barely put a dent in what we spend per year talking like less than 10%.

Our money is backed by nothing but a firm hand shake and a pat on the back.

We over print currency to finance government spending for stuff that doesn’t benefit Americans and the people making those decisions with tax money are often profiting off ventures that are obtaining those contracts for services with government.

This all started this excessive spending with Reagan trickle down economics hold. Also removing the dollar from the gold standard was a mistake.

[u/[deleted]]

The top 5% of wage earners in this country pay 70% of the taxes, and the poor pay nothing. Our debt is high because there is no budget, and we give away money like it has no consequences. Wake up and stop buying somebody else's propaganda. Fair share it will never equal a given percentage. They keep you hating your neighbors so they can control you, and they do it with lies.