This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while, and I’m hoping some Lemmy geniuses can poke holes/ flesh it out with me.
Every person I’ve ever heard of works for and gets paid by some form of company. So instead of the company paying the workers and then those workers getting taxed, why not just tax it all to the corporations to begin with? Instead of hundreds of millions of individuals to think about, the IRS (in US) could just focus on a few million companies.
We the people democratically decide what we think is needed for a functioning society, and charge it to the corporations.
I’d say each company should be responsible for paying the same percentage of the bill as percentage of total “profits” they made. Like, if Apple makes 10% of all the combined profits of all the companies this quarter, they are responsible for paying 10% of the bill. Highest paid employee can make 10x what the lowest paid employee (including contracted and foreign workers) makes; more than that gets included in the calculation as part of the company’s “profits”. (So that CEO can still get paid absurd amounts of money, but the company will still pay taxes on most of it)
What if we created some sort of secure opinion/voting app where people go to cast their vote on whatever people think needs to be voted on. Should there be UBI? Should it be a token, living, or thriving wage? (Personally, I’d go with thriving and tie it to inflation) Single payer healthcare? All education paid for? Stop funding genocide? No more polluting the planet, or at least force companies to pay to clean up their own messes? When and where are companies allowed to market to us? Where should the threshold of agreement be to enact changes, 40% 50%+1 60%? Etc etc
Then we elect people who agree to simply enact what the people democratically agree on… And if the people don’t agree, they’ll stay away from it or leave it to the states. And hopefully someday we could build it out so that state and local governments work this way too.
I think we get bogged down on the 2 or 3 things we disagree on and allow that to mean we never get the things we DO agree on. Let’s get the things we agree on first, and then continue debating the things we disagree on.
Also I think this would be a long term plan. 12 years would give us 2 full election cycles here in the US and would give zoomers time to grow up, settle, and start to really vote (hopefully with this new system).
Anyway, like I said, let’s poke holes and figure out solutions. Thanks
Even if you could get it done.
They’d just pass the cost on to their customers.
That’s the way it used to be. Before WW2 we didn’t have personal income tax, it was all on businesses and the costs of doing business were passed to the consumer.
That would be fine by me… Especially with a living wage UBI tied to inflation. I’d also end subsidies for profitable corporations. $760 billion to fossil fuel companies in 2022 alone… Just in the US… It might keep prices lower at the pump, but we’re paying for it anyway. Why should someone who drives an electric vehicle be subsidizing gas for people who don’t? (As one example). Maybe if we started seeing the real cost of things at the register, we could actually “vote with our dollars”
I don’t disagree, in anything in particular. I just think it’d be a very high hurtle to get done. They’re already paying rather little in taxes to start with.
Personally… subsidies should only be used for things that provide direct benefits. Simply costing less at the pump isn’t it- but things like subsidizing research grants that then go to produce new technologies for Americans (or inexpensive drugs… but not expensive drugs…. Grrrr)
I’d consider research grants to be part of the cost of a functioning society. Society should own that research though, not just give it to corporations for a pittance… Right now the public funds most basic research but the corporations get all the rewards
Definitely a high hurdle and a long process… But if we start getting the next generations to sign up now then maybe in a decade it’ll grow to a point it matters… Start getting people to agree that they will vote for the people saying they’ll do the things we agree on and leave the things we don’t agree on to continued debate
Start building until we reach a critical mass in any particular state. Then activate people to vote for candidates running on the new system… Focus on states where Senate seats are up since those will take the longest to turn over