They pay $34 for burgers.
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@mekkaokereke it's just infuriating. it's not free! it's tax-supported, and if the system is working right, rich people pay more in taxes.
@portlandy @mekkaokereke Rich people don’t necessarily pay more in taxes. There are clever loopholes for rich people to use to avoid paying taxes, where working folks usually bear the biggest burden of taxation
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@dlakelan @futurebird @mekkaokereke
Can work it out with pencil amd paper but popular econ mythology in service of avarice blinds us.
It's like "old time religion."
@Doug_Bostrom
You can, except you need to first shovel all the bullshit out of the way before you can see the sunlight. Try to read what the Fed writes about the origin of money and its intentionally obfuscational. The Bank Of England published a paper a decade ago and its still actively opposed by that "old time religion"
@futurebird @mekkaokereke -
@mekkaokereke Another angle: What about the children of rich parents who are abused or neglected? The parents may be rich, but that doesn't mean the kids automatically are. What if the parents forget to pay the bill for school lunch? What if they choose not to?
It's not like there aren't high profile cases of ludicrously rich parents who hate their own children.
@sabrina @mekkaokereke This is such an excellent point that I'm shocked I've never heard anyone make before.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.
The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.
️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke New headline: "They use our roads, they use daycare - should they not pay at least some taxes?"
That's the means test in every situation. Claiming something is a 'free' service is glossing that the entire taxation question.
Tax the rich.
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@mekkaokereke Another angle: What about the children of rich parents who are abused or neglected? The parents may be rich, but that doesn't mean the kids automatically are. What if the parents forget to pay the bill for school lunch? What if they choose not to?
It's not like there aren't high profile cases of ludicrously rich parents who hate their own children.
@sabrina @mekkaokereke and all those "successful self-made small business entrepreneurs" who got where they are through child labor violations against their own children.
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@portlandy @mekkaokereke Rich people don’t necessarily pay more in taxes. There are clever loopholes for rich people to use to avoid paying taxes, where working folks usually bear the biggest burden of taxation
@wendinoakland @mekkaokereke oh I know. The system isn't working right. But heaven forbid they see fixing that as a viable solution to their made-up problem
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@rlonstein @futurebird @mekkaokereke Right. When I get food at teh food co-op, I like what I am paying for.
@rlonstein @futurebird @mekkaokereke When I don't get shit from Amazzzz....
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.
The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.
️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke I love how we in this country love minding everyone's business but our own. Fuck means testing.
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@futurebird
Medicare for ALL
Housing for ALL
Healthcare for ALL
Education for ALL
Food for ALL
Pricey Burgers (from time to time) for ALLProgressive taxation and regulations that ensure good living wages are the right ways to deal with income inequality NOT withholding services from people because they are "too rich" to get them.
@camille @futurebird @mekkaokereke I worked with a corporate attorney who was losing her eyesight, and she was awarded SSDI at the hearing stage. Between her and her husband, I reckon their wealth was around $10 million. Family of four.
Clearly, she didn't need SSDI.
Yes, ensure the health and well being (housing, school, wages, etc.) for all, w/o means testing.
But the point is that while I do not favor means testing, the wealthy should not available themselves of these public goods.
Because they do not need them.
This is economic efficiency on the one hand, and compassion on the other.
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Now why exactly is a $34 burger incompatible with having excellent public services your pay for with taxes?
Schools aren't charity operations, this isn't a band-aid for the desperate. It's something people should look from other cities at and say "I wish my city had that"
Drop of your kids and trust they are safe AND learning while you are at work. Pick them up and have a $34 burger AND avocado toast. Let's live well together.
This must scare them to death.
@futurebird @mekkaokereke well, yeah; if the servant class isn't constantly under the kind of pressure that makes them submit to the authority of extreme wealth, then, from the perspective of the ruling class, extreme wealth loses some of its value (even if their purchasing power goes up).
(fwiw, a quick googling of "${nyt_board_member} net worth" suggests they're not billionaires, but like 8 to 9 figures, so still pretty comfortable. it seems as if it's just a rag by the rich, for the rich.)
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@mekkaokereke I love how we in this country love minding everyone's business but our own. Fuck means testing.
@silver_huskey @mekkaokereke I think that's what you get when the founding culture was that of fun-hating Puritans.
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@silver_huskey @mekkaokereke I think that's what you get when the founding culture was that of fun-hating Puritans.
@klausfiend @mekkaokereke Absolutely! We've been this way for literally centuries. Pulling people out of that thinking has been a constant tug of war.
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@mekkaokereke one of the core lessons of public health is that bureaucracy is _expensive_. The entire “Who should pay what!?” Exercise slows the systems down and costs a ton of money and basically all it produces is spreadsheets that cruel selfish people use to be cruel and selfish, and that crowd can’t wrap their heads around the fact that the other thing that’s great about public services being public services is that it’s cheaper.
@mhoye @mekkaokereke The efficiency experts can't conceive of themselves as a cost center. -
Trying to carve out a "special" class who are entitled to school lunch has always been a foolish approach that just adds layers of expensive policing that INEVITABLY wind up costing more than they save, and preventing some number of eligible students from getting serviced.
Unfortunately, some people are always more focused on the remote or insignificant risk of cheaters, than they are on make sure that they are servicing those who need it
Just make it free to all
@screwturn this.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.
The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.
️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io I mean, what do they think Mamdani should build there? A Turkish embassy?
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.
The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.
️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke that type of framing assumes that rich families must be happy and healthy. My parents struggled but made just enough money, yet I went without food so much because of their abusive behavior. How many kids could be helped when _everyone_ gets child care and lunch?
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@camille @futurebird @mekkaokereke I worked with a corporate attorney who was losing her eyesight, and she was awarded SSDI at the hearing stage. Between her and her husband, I reckon their wealth was around $10 million. Family of four.
Clearly, she didn't need SSDI.
Yes, ensure the health and well being (housing, school, wages, etc.) for all, w/o means testing.
But the point is that while I do not favor means testing, the wealthy should not available themselves of these public goods.
Because they do not need them.
This is economic efficiency on the one hand, and compassion on the other.
@Bartok
I say tax them higher or means test/sliding scale. I am NOT in favor of shutting anyone out NOR am I in favor of just not having it for fear a rich person gets access. If everyone gets it, everyone gets it. I don't care what rich people have if ny needs are more than covered.Also that person paid their SSDI contributions. Fair is fair. I like fairness.
@futurebird @mekkaokereke -
@heathen_cat @mekkaokereke exactly! My mom had me on my first diet at age 10. And it took me a looooong time as an adult to learn I actually do like grapefruit.
In high school, a family friend (I called her "aunt" but we weren't related) worked in the cafeteria, and she would often sneak me soup or a sandwich. It was sometimes the only time I ate in the day.
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