I was lurking on Reddit and I saw someone claiming that nowadays governments will do everything to make you out of poverty but moment you went above poverty line, taxes and all of that will make you way worse than what you were initially. I wonder if that is true.
Here’s a recent breakdown of which groups pay what in taxes and what they make roughly per year (Household USA 2023)
Bottom 20% about 1% or negative 30k-ish and below
20–40% about 6% 48k-ish
40–60% about 6% 70k-ish
60–80% about 16% 110k-ish
Top 20% about 70% 250k-ish top 1% being about 27% 580k-ish Top .1% 2M-ish
Being poor means you’re not paying as much or at all into the system. So I guess if your ultimate goal is to contribute as little as possible, sure being poor is a way to do that. But, being poor has plenty of pretty severe negative impacts on your life. Others here have described how taxes work as you make more so I won’t get into that. Long story short, if you’re being poor strictly as a way to “resist” you’re just choosing to have a worse life with less options. Especially in the USA. If you have the intellectual and/or physical ability to be employed, try to be at the highest level/pay as possible. Money doesn’t solve all your problems but it makes most solutions easier to obtain.
It just feels to me that more up you go into hierarchy, more you become responsible for the wrongs done. More you lose life when you become more up in hierarchy. I feel with poverty, you get genuine people who will not be around me for money. Food is already being given and like some sort of clothing can be achieved or like can be tried out. Internet and other sort of luxuries are just useless and more stripping away the natural human in us. Painful truth is that governments are trying to kill the poor but not the poverty. I heard that in many places in US, you cannot just sleep on bench and roads anymore and like more and more public spaces are getting poorly funded or entirely replaced by private alternatives. Entertainment has become what some AI bots have generated. I am 18 so I think that too that I am being emotional maybe and not thinking long term but given the wars and disillusionment I have seen and heard, I don’t even think that life itself is worthy, let alone living a poverty-full life.
Yeah, you have a lot of living to do. Spend less time on the internet, especially doomy places like Lemmy. The world by and large is a fantastic place where you can build a fulfilling and happy life.
Lemmy is less doomy than Reddit and I use Reddit although banned from there. And for happiness, I believe it is a mirage. Life is not meant to be anything other than life itself and world is just a random atomic mess.
Yeah, like I said, you have a lot of living to do. A period of misanthropic negativity is pretty normal. You’ll be okay and the world will feel brighter the more positive experiences/relationships you have. Less internet, more life.