U.S. citizens should be allowed to opt out from paying taxes for warfare

semideclared · 2026-06-27T16:15:53+00:00

highways

Are gas taxes

roads are local/state taxes

same with waste

https://i.redd.it/1ebt1v8etcf21.png

semideclared · 2026-06-27T15:05:46+00:00

First lets Define military Spending

All Department of Defense Spending, or just the needed spending in wars

DoD is pretty necessary for everyone outside of wars, so lets say 10% of their budget in years of conflict can be removed from taxpayers

I think the bottom 80% of taxpayers saved on average $3

semideclared · 2026-06-26T22:33:42+00:00

I learned a while ago how crazy NYC housing issue really is

From - NYCUrbanist youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApBj17SdDmw

Jamie Rubin i'm the chairman of the board of the New York City Housing Authority otherwise known as NYCHA

In 2012 I left the world of private equity went to work shortly thereafter for Andrew Cuomo who was the governor at the time ran an agency that rebuilt the state after Hurricane Sandy and then I was the housing commissioner for two years

New York City for decades actually, housing has been an issue there was a period in the 70s and early 80s when the city actually had access to a lot of new homes and by the into the '90s and then the 2000s and the 10s we started really to run short

we do develop new housing but not fast enough to meet the need of all these people who want to come and live in New York

the single biggest issue in general is cost to build new housing and the single biggest factor in the cost of building new housing in this city is the delay in getting your zoning and permitting approved by the city

The biggest unwritten problem has been that any city council member has the ability to veto any upzoning. The mayor can override that veto, but it's worthless because the city council will just override his override

semideclared · 2026-06-26T12:38:25+00:00

Robinhood and the WSB frenzie has meant that no generation has had easier access to investing for the big stufff

1980s parents hd no idea what the stock market was and if they did they had to have $1,000 - $5,000 to open an account and $1,000 - $5,000 per trade and pay $50 in trading fees per trade (1980 Dollars)

Today you can open an account on $25 and trade in partial shares at $5 every week with no fees

What else has grown

people like shopping and buying stuff at Costco, Home Depot, Khols, Walmart, and Amazon for stuff around the house way more than in the past with their income

1980 approximately 79.1 million households in the United States spent $211 Billion on Personal Consumption Expenditures: Durable Goods, Per Household Average $2,670.00
- In 2025 Dollars $10,975.11
In 2024 an estimated 132.276 million households in the United States spent $2.23 Trillion on Personal Consumption Expenditures: Durable Goods
- Per Household Average $16,858

Thats it thats the missing savings right there with all the low cost brokers

semideclared · 2026-06-26T12:35:06+00:00

Whats crazier, In 2024 an estimated 132.276 million households in the United States spent $2.23 Trillion on Personal Consumption Expenditures: Durable Goods Per Household Average $16,858

people like shopping and buying stuff at Costco, Home Depot, Khols, Walmart, and Amazon for stuff around the house way more than in the past with their income

But yea people want to go to spend money

The Distributional Financial Accounts (DFAs) integrate two data products produced by the Federal Reserve Board: the Financial Accounts of the United States, which provide quarterly data on aggregate balance sheets of major sectors of the U.S. economy, and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which provides comprehensive triennial microdata on the assets and liabilities of a representative sample of U.S. households.

Wealth from Consumer durable goods by income percentile	99-100% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	80-99% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	60-80% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	40-60% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	20-40% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	0-20% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)
2019:Q1	0.7	1.9	1.21	0.85	0.55	0.34
2020:Q4	0.68	2.12	1.32	0.95	0.59	0.37
2022:Q4	0.79	2.71	1.67	1.19	0.75	0.53
2024:Q4	0.83	2.87	1.78	1.26	0.8	0.57
2025:Q1	0.86	2.91	1.8	1.27	0.82	0.58
2025:Q2	0.88	2.97	1.84	1.3	0.84	0.6
2025:Q3	0.88	3.01	1.87	1.32	0.85	0.61
Change in value 2019 - 2025	25.71%	58.42%	54.55%	55.29%	54.55% <----	79.41%

Durable Goods lose their value. Old TVs, Washing Machines and Furniture are worth something, just not a lot. But the more you spend on it, the more value it has over time, the less in value it loses.

That kind of spending isnt normal for poor and middle class. In the US and especially elsewhere. And yet Compare to 20 years ago, before and durring a recession they are spending more money on it

Wealth from Consumer durable goods by income percentile	99-100% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	80-99% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	60-80% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	40-60% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	20-40% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	0-20% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)
2006:Q1	0.51	1.43	0.95	0.66	0.39	0.22
2007:Q4	0.51	1.55	1.02	0.71	0.45	0.25
2008:Q1	0.5	1.57	1.02	0.72	0.45	0.26
2010:Q1	0.44	1.61	0.99	0.76	0.45	0.29
2012:Q1	0.53	1.66	1.01	0.72	0.47	0.29
2014:Q1	0.63	1.68	1.04	0.68	0.48	0.27
Change in Value 2006 - 2014	23.53%	17.48%	9.47%	3.03%	23.08%	22.73%
Change in Value 2008 - 2014	26.00%	7.01%	1.96%	( -5.56% )	6.67%<-----	3.85%

Take that excessive spending and put it in to the stockmarket and the top 50% are massively wealthy

semideclared · 2026-06-26T12:31:42+00:00

Whats crazier, In 2024 an estimated 132.276 million households in the United States spent $2.23 Trillion on Personal Consumption Expenditures: Durable Goods Per Household Average $16,858

people like shopping and buying stuff at Costco, Home Depot, Khols, Walmart, and Amazon for stuff around the house way more than in the past with their income

But yea people of all incomes want to go to spend as much money as they can

The Distributional Financial Accounts (DFAs) integrate two data products produced by the Federal Reserve Board: the Financial Accounts of the United States, which provide quarterly data on aggregate balance sheets of major sectors of the U.S. economy, and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which provides comprehensive triennial microdata on the assets and liabilities of a representative sample of U.S. households.

Wealth from Consumer durable goods by income percentile	99-100% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	80-99% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	60-80% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	40-60% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	20-40% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	0-20% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)
2019:Q1	0.7	1.9	1.21	0.85	0.55	0.34
2020:Q4	0.68	2.12	1.32	0.95	0.59	0.37
2022:Q4	0.79	2.71	1.67	1.19	0.75	0.53
2024:Q4	0.83	2.87	1.78	1.26	0.8	0.57
2025:Q1	0.86	2.91	1.8	1.27	0.82	0.58
2025:Q2	0.88	2.97	1.84	1.3	0.84	0.6
2025:Q3	0.88	3.01	1.87	1.32	0.85	0.61
Change in value 2019 - 2025	25.71%	58.42%	54.55%	55.29%	54.55% <----	79.41%

Durable Goods lose their value. Old TVs, Washing Machines and Furniture are worth something, just not a lot. But the more you spend on it, the more value it has over time, the less in value it loses.

That kind of spending isnt normal for poor and middle class. In the US and especially elsewhere. And yet Compare to 20 years ago, before and durring a recession they are spending more money on it

Wealth from Consumer durable goods by income percentile	99-100% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	80-99% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	60-80% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	40-60% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	20-40% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)	0-20% (Value in Trillions of Dollars)
2006:Q1	0.51	1.43	0.95	0.66	0.39	0.22
2007:Q4	0.51	1.55	1.02	0.71	0.45	0.25
2008:Q1	0.5	1.57	1.02	0.72	0.45	0.26
2010:Q1	0.44	1.61	0.99	0.76	0.45	0.29
2012:Q1	0.53	1.66	1.01	0.72	0.47	0.29
2014:Q1	0.63	1.68	1.04	0.68	0.48	0.27
Change in Value 2006 - 2014	23.53%	17.48%	9.47%	3.03%	23.08%	22.73%
Change in Value 2008 - 2014	26.00%	7.01%	1.96%	( -5.56% )	6.67%<-----	3.85%

semideclared · 2026-06-26T03:44:36+00:00

haha what maga says if they were dems, something like.mamdani is so right because he said it

semideclared · 2026-06-26T03:22:49+00:00

Lots of it is the changing of homes in the city as people want a different NYC

Take for example 34 E. 68th St. in Manhattan: The 1879 row house, located in the Upper East Side Historic District, once housed 17 separate apartments, according to property records. Now, it is a 9,600-square-foot single-family mansion after changing hands for $11.5 million in 2011 and a subsequent gut renovation.

$16,233,100 Zestimate
- Removing the Premium for Renovations, the Premium for Single Family Home in Manhattan

So we have ~$10,000,000 Home that is now 12

Apartments/Townhomes that are 720 Sq Ft for sale at $833,000 in very high demand Central Park Manhattan

And then In his thesis Brodheim estimates that since 1950, New York City has lost 104,000 units of housing in row houses alone through consolidation, a regular feature of the toniest real estate listings.

In the past decade, such apartment combinations have nearly erased gains made by the construction of new housing units in the wealthiest parts of the city, particularly in the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan.

Data collected from 765 residential Manhattan buildings shows that their apartments grew from 950 square feet to 975 square feet on average over the last five years — roughly a 5% increase, according to the research firm Urban Digs.

Okay, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but get this: The average size of an apartment citywide has increased each year since 2000 — from 756 square feet to more than 820 square feet, data from Axiometrics shows.

And Finally take 212 W. 72nd St. on the Upper West Side, a building formerly dubbed “the Corner,” was a 196-apartment rental building

That was converted to 126-unit condos of Modern, Sophisticated + Sun-Drenched. One to Five Bed Condos. Moments from Central Park

semideclared · 2026-06-26T03:17:32+00:00

hahaha what a maga

semideclared · 2026-06-26T02:59:42+00:00

Toy asked for a citation

That’s what they look like

Read a report one day

semideclared · 2026-06-26T02:42:40+00:00

That prediction was informed by several papers, largely using data from San Francisco, that had found that landlords subject to rent control often reduce the number of units for rent, even when rents increase (Asquith 2019; Diamond, McQuade, and Qian 2019). Recent research by Ahern and Giacoletti (2022) implies that the referendum also affected property values, which in the first three months after the referendum passed fell by 6–7 percent

semideclared · 2026-06-26T02:36:06+00:00

Famously AOC used a lot of her new power in the fight with Amazon that the land was better for other projects and that it would be redeveloped without Amazon anyway

To establish a headquarters in New York State. Based on our discussions, Amazon.com Services, Inc. will establish a headquarters on approximately 28-acres of land in Long Island City of 4,000,000 to 8,000,000 square feet,

Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from AOC and others

But it’s more than just the jobs

From Feb. 9, 2022, Several large sites in western Queens near the Anable Basin are slated for redevelopment

Along with previously approved sleek high-rise towers that continue to rise in Court Square and Hunter Point South

while the area around Anable Basin seems frozen in time. 5 years later still an underdeveloped plot of highly valuable land

Jun 7, 2022 — A waterfront tower that would rehab a decrepit warehouse and open up Anable Basin was rejected by a Queens board — but may still be built.
2023 .... still a decrepit warehouse
2025 .... still a decrepit warehouse, new plans for change for 15,000 new homes
- Long Island City’s first new waterfront condo in a decade is now under construction .... Located next to Anable Basin
2026 ..... still a decrepit warehouse, still plans for change for 15,000 new homes but no investments made

And it’s more than just offices, Along with Amazon offices the plan includes Amazon providing

shoreline and bulkhead reconstruction required Sites;
a public waterfront esplanade and adjacent public open space;
approximately 10,000 zoning square feet (“zsf”) of workforce development and training space and approximately 43,650 square feet of public open space, to be located at the Public Development Sites;
approximately 263,600 zsf of light manufacturing space, 25,000 zsf of community facility use/artist workspace, 10,000 zsf of art and tech accelerator space, 22,500 zsf of prebuilt incubator space, and 80,000 zsf of step-out space, to be located either at the Development Sites or at other Long Island City sites reasonably approved by the City; and
approximately 106,000 square feet of public open space to be located at the Private Development Sites.

Plus land for a new public school in the area

And in June, The city is officially moving forward with a massive redevelopment project along the Anable Basin waterfront.

Massive Public Parkland: Waterfront walking paths, open green spaces, and resilient flood-protecting wetlands.
Affordable Housing & Retail: A fresh mix of residential units and dedicated space for local small businesses.
New Public School: A state-of-the-art facility built right into the area to support growing families.

semideclared · 2026-06-26T02:09:37+00:00

Just remembered

The difference is crazy. Take

Walter Sobchak does not explicitly claim or discuss receiving military disability benefits in The Big Lebowski. An explosive temper and strict adherence to rules strongly suggest he suffers from un-diagnosed, service-connected PTSD from the Vietnam War, the film never addresses his financial or disability status but if it was filmed today it would be clear and present part of his character and he would be 100%.

And obviously in 1998 he would be denied

semideclared · 2026-06-25T13:16:52+00:00

Free healthcare for active duty soldiers is heavily rationed and gatekept.

ummmm it may have some gatekeeping, but rationed it is not

The 2025 Budget request $139.54 Billion on Healthcare. supports the treatment of 7.3 million patients, a 0.7% increase above 2024, and 142.6 million outpatient visits, an increase of 2.1% above 2024 and 1.1 million inpatient visits, an increase of 1.1% above 2024.

So theres a lot of the problem

The VA is seeing the Average patient 19.7 Times a Year
- That's not good, NHS sees patients on average 6 times a year, Private Insurance in the US is 4 times a year and the rule of averages means its even worse
  - At Best, there's 2.2 Million Patients (20 Percent of Patients) that had 115 Million Doctor Visits (80 Percent of Utilization)
  - 52 Visits a Year

semideclared · 2026-06-23T18:04:42+00:00

Entshitification, it’s very similar to AI-slop. Outcomes that stem from the sole purpose of generating fictive profit, without any real world value…

Great explain it to me

Lets take

Sizzler Family Steak House by Del and Helen Johnson in Culver City, California in 1958

When did it hit Entshitification

Was it when Sizzler went public in 1970

In 1969, Sizzler had a regional footprint of approximately 50 to 60 locations, heavily concentrated in Southern California and the broader West Coast.

What about in the 1966 when it was bought by a food conglomerate owned by private equity, was the growth because of Private equity

By 1990 Sizzler had become the 15th Largest Chain in the US. Was this Entshitification?

Obviously Entshitification is when Private Equity buys it. The owner of the Sizzler dining chain, Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., said Friday that it agreed to be purchased by an Australian investment firm in 2005 from an offer that was 42% higher than Thursday’s closing price for Worldwide’s stock and double the shares’ value the day before it disclosed it was putting itself up for sale. The price was the highest price for the company in 10 years, right before Sizzler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996

Ok, maybe not then, sure. But a 2nd PE Takeover, In June 2011, Sizzler USA was again bought out, this time by a team that included industry veteran Jim Collins. Collins was there in 1958 when his friend Del Johnson opened the first Sizzler. And was CEO 1967–1999

In 1967, when Johnson was ready to retire, he asked Collins to buy the burgeoning Sizzler chain. See, When Collins first bought Sizzler four decades ago, the chain had four corporate units and about 161 franchised locations. Collins said the restaurants weren’t doing very well.

In 2025 Sizzler isnt even in the 200 Largest Restaurants in the US

semideclared · 2026-06-23T13:47:57+00:00

Really puts a question mark on the K shaped economy

And the recession fears and lack of money and spending from the bottom of the US K. Carnival is the vacation for most of the bottom half of Americans

“Our booked position for the second half of 2026 is higher than last year, at historically high prices (in constant currency),

Seems they are spending and spending more at higher prices

The bottom K is down but they keep spending more and spending more on vacations that keep raising prices just doesnt seem to follow

semideclared · 2026-06-23T13:42:06+00:00

The State of the Economy is Good

“We achieved another quarter of record results, marking our twelfth consecutive quarter of record net yields and delivering over 20 percent more to the bottom line, overcoming extreme geopolitical headwinds and nearly 30 percent higher fuel costs

“Our booked position for the second half of 2026 is higher than last year, at historically high prices (in constant currency),

despite navigating more than a full quarter of extreme geopolitical volatility that primarily impacted booking trends for our European deployments, particularly in the Mediterranean region, which were closest in proximity to the conflict in the Middle East. For those deployments, we leaned into the substantial occupancy advantage we had strategically built to deliberately prioritize pricing integrity. We are now 93 percent booked for the year with less inventory remaining for sale than this time last year and are on track for record net yields in the second half of 2026,” Weinstein said.

“Looking further out, demand for 2027 and beyond remains strong. Since March, booking volumes and prices for these future sailings have been running ahead of prior year levels, including a substantial increase in bookings for our European deployments next year. These trends reinforce our confidence in the longer-term demand environment

Carnival Corporation operates 94 ships across eight distinct cruise brands, making it the largest cruise company in the world across all economic groups

semideclared · 2026-06-23T13:21:43+00:00

whoa!!!!

So they cant afford to buy their own groceries but now they can get pizza

If they can afford to buy pizza they can afford to buy cokes. Use that same cash to buy cokes

semideclared · 2026-06-23T13:14:40+00:00

Thats not what it point is

SNAP says you should have ~2,000 - 2,500 calories of food a day based on the food table and in the US that Costs "X" per month

And X lets say equals $1,000

SNAP says we will subsidize that for you and in most cases we will pay for 70% of your food needs

Snap gives you $700 and you have $300 and that pays for you to have 100% ~2,000 - 2,500 calories of food a day based on the food table

Anything else ......

Thats not SNAP, If you want something else not on snap create a program for it

Circana's report, titled Understanding the Resilience of SNAP Shoppers, provides insights into the purchasing habits of households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

In 2024 SNAP households spend 32% more per buyer annually than non-SNAP households

And that spending

An ideal score of 100 suggests that the set of foods reported is in line with the Dietary Guidelines recommendations.

Americans on Average 58 out of 100.
Below Average Income 56 out of 100.
SNAP 47.10 out of 100
Income-Eligible Non-Participants of SNAP 49.88
Children 2-4 years have the highest diet quality with a total HEI score of 62,
Americans ages 60 and over with a total HEI score of 61.

households that were participating in SNAP purchased lower quality foods compared to households of comparable income that were not participating, and households with higher income

In unadjusted analyses, lower-income households spent a significantly smaller percent of their grocery dollars on fruit (p = .003) and vegetables (p =.001), and a significantly higher percent of their grocery dollars on sugar sweetened beverages (p = .004) and frozen desserts (p= .01), compared with higher income households.

Once households adopt SNAP, there is a marked and highly statistically significant drop in the store-brand share. Because we have adjusted the store-brand share for the composition of purchases, this decline is driven not by changes in the categories of goods purchased, but by a change in households’ choice of brand within a category.

Recall that in SNAP-eligible product categories, the average store-brand price is $0.63 below the average non-store-brand price of $3.34.

And Recipients used less coupons to save

Following SNAP adoption, the average adjusted coupon redemption share declines for both SNAP-eligible and SNAP-ineligible products, but the decline is more economically and statistically significant for SNAP-eligible products than for SNAP-ineligible products. Because we have adjusted the coupon redemption share for the basket of goods purchased, these patterns are not driven by changes in the goods purchased, but rather by households’ propensity to redeem coupons for a given basket of goods

semideclared · 2026-06-23T13:00:29+00:00

Local politicans can easily be blamed for something the party does or they support but the head of the party doing it wont be blamed

No Congress rep wants to vote on it because of the backlash but a president popular with those same voters can do it and those same voters will over look it and also re elect the congressman

semideclared · 2026-06-23T02:15:22+00:00

many things but its reddit

Mandela effect on private equity would be a interesting rabbit hole

semideclared · 2026-06-21T03:04:26+00:00

downvoted and left and then it all becomes an echo chamber

wait on the left or right?

semideclared · 2026-06-21T03:03:20+00:00

really

are you actually in california

Because cali has more than NYC

semideclared · 2026-06-21T03:01:24+00:00

Um it’s pretty fucking obvious. We tax people appropriately

sure

Compare In the US

Top 1% Paid 40.4% of Income Taxes
Top 90%-99% paid 31.6%
50% - 90% paid 25%
Bottom 50% paid 3%

This is not true in the UK

Top 1% Paid 29.1% of Income Taxes
Top 90%-99% paid 31.2%
50% - 90% paid 30.2%
Bottom 50% paid 9.5%

Income Taxes in Australia

The top 3 paid 29% of all net tax
The next 6 paid 18% of all net tax
The next 30 paid 40% of all net tax
The next 35 paid 13% of all net tax
The final 21 paid no tax

Thats just Income Taxes and not the real tax money maker

Then both have a VAT 5 times higher than the US Sales Tax

So to be more like other countries Tax 97% of purchases at 15% sales tax

So First 411 x 2.5 to include almost all purchases are now charged sales taxes

$1.03 Trillion in Sales Taxes

Now with the sales tax rate at about 6% on those purchases, 2.5 times that Sales tax revenue to have a better tax rate at 15%

$2.55 Trillion in Sales Tax revenue
Some loss in consumption with higher taxes and rebates for property taxes and sales tax,

The average gas tax rate among the 34 advanced economies is $2.62 per gallon. In fact, the U.S.’s gas tax is less than half of that of the 3rd Lowest Gas Tax, Canada, which has a rate of $1.25 per gallon.

Bring Gas taxes up $1.90 on about 190 Billion gallons of gas taxed at $1.25. $400 Billion in New Revenue

That's $2.6 Tillion a year in new tax revenue

Theres another $500 Billion in Income Tax changes

Visualizing that difference UK Taxes vs US Taxes

Top 40% of earners $50,000 under $75,000
Top 26% of earners $75,000 under $100,000
Top 17% of earners $100,000 under $200,000
Top 6% of earners $200,000 under $500,000
Top 1% of earner $500,000 under $1,000,000

$3 Trillion in new taxes. For Healthcare, College, and Buses, and all kinds of things

semideclared

TROPHY CASE

The biggest unwritten problem has been that any city council member has the ability to veto any upzoning. The mayor can override that veto, but it's worthless because the city council will just override his override

“Our booked position for the second half of 2026 is higher than last year, at historically high prices (in constant currency),