this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Not The Onion

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I remember when they we attempting to shame Obama with a national debt ticker. Weird how they don't do that now despite it's continuous rise under the last 3 terms of the presidency too. It's not triple what it was at that time

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 9 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Hear me out, what if you took a portion of income from each citizen to pay for the state, and - shocker idea, what if people who make way more than it costs to lived.. gasp PAID MORE!?

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 30 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Inb4 no one contributes voluntarily, so they make it mandatory.

I can see the headlines: US invents taxes.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago

No no no. "King trump invents taxes"

[–] chahn.chris@piefed.social 55 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

If everyone in the US donated 100,000 that would raise 34.2 Trillion.

That’s a nice dent.

If we took all of the wealth from the top 10 billionaires it would equal about 2.5 Trillion.

The combined wealth of the 1%, however, is about 52 trillion.

So, we could pay off most of the national debt by instantly burdening everyone with a one time $100,000 tax bill. If you can’t afford it you have to make loan payments on it.

OR we could confiscate all of the wealth of the top 1%, pay off the debt, and have plenty left over to let the 1% keep some wealth and maybe fund some other things.

None of these options are practical obviously, but it does imply that the top 1% could easily afford wealth taxes of some kind and it would help pay down the national debt and that the non 1% could not do anything other than take on fractional ownership of the debt directly.

This shows one group can afford it, another group definitely cannot.

We probably need to start electing people exclusively from the bottom 99% of wealth holders, or better yet the bottom 50%. Ideally it should be illegal to be allowed to run the government if your net worth or the net worth of your family puts you at all in the top percentiles of wealth.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago

It actually wouldn't be that big of a deal to take the top 1%'s money.

They got it through merit: hard work, discipline, intelligence, etc.

They'd just make it back pretty quick, right?

[–] WantsToPetYourKitty@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Paying it off is only half the battle. If we don’t answer the question how did we get here?, we’re doomed to fall right back into this hole. Fact is, the government simply burns through money like it’s going out of style and until we elect representatives that use our money more responsibly, we’ll keep piling on more debt.

You can only rack up so much of it before foreign holders of US bonds start liquidating their positions or buying less of it. Once that starts happening en masse, all the cards will fall and it will be ugly.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 20 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Why do you think they passed Citizens United? Now that political spending is free speech and corporations are people, elections are expensive enough that the winners are mainly the rich or those propped up by them.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

And foreign interests can just create as much chaos as they pay for.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 1 points 2 hours ago

As long as the apple is golden, it spends

[–] errer@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

We don’t even need to pay off the whole thing, just need to get it back down to a reasonable level. Most countries carry a good amount of debt.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 2 hours ago

The majority is domestically held anyway.

[–] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 47 points 12 hours ago

This will help MUCH MORE then having Billionaires pay a couple Percentages MORE in Tax! COME ON Americans! DO YOUR Part (UNLESS you're a Billionaire then you get a Tax CUT!)!

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 31 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Bankrupted casinos. You didn't think he could bankrupt a country ?

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 hours ago

He's a guy that starved to death sitting inside a vegetable garden. Died from thirst sitting beside a waterfall.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 27 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

About this form

Use this form to donate to the United States Government

https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/708094624

L.M.F.A.O.

Richest country in the world fellas. 🤣🤣🤣

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Probably goes into a savings account until it can pay the debt in full, with interest going to the Trump family instead of accuring.

[–] Eryn6844@piefed.blahaj.zone 21 points 11 hours ago

I thought that was what the taxes were for?

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 19 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago

Hey, if we could get Lindsey Graham with a dildo fucking himself on video, I'd pay $5. Not to watch it, just to know it happened.

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 19 points 12 hours ago

Alms for the ~~poor~~ irresponsible government.

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago