Exactly. The IRS has TONS of information on every individual and business. There may be some unreported items, but that’s the exception to the rule.

The IRS has a “transcript” with all of the many reported transactions associated with each person/entity. And you can request this transcript, which many people with complicated tax situations do so they can verify that everything is reported correctly and their records match the IRS data.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

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That’s a good point, but for Sweden, it is indeed 480 paid days. It’s a government calculation related to your income and there is a point (after 390 days) where it drops to the minimum payout, but it is still paid leave.

There are also government-mandated options in Sweden to receive a slightly lower pay in exchange for working fewer hours. I don’t have the exact details here, but it’s something like 75% pay for 75% hours.

Pretty incredible coverage for new parents in that specific country.

This article has a great summary for a lot of European countries’ parental leave laws. And yeah, quite a few are less than a year of paid leave:

https://www.eurodev.com/blog/maternity-leave-europe

They’ll also use the customer donations in their own marketing materials with carefully chosen wording.

“We put $X in the hands of X charity!” Sounds cute, until you realize why they don’t say they “donated $X” instead. It’s because it’s often not their money or donation.

I know your comment isn’t truly asking, but I want to answer just because there was a time when I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to generate something truly insightful, creative, deep, etc. before voicing my thoughts or opinion. Then I realized you don’t need to do that. I still have a tendency to - and I’m not saying everyone should just voice their loud-ass bullshit without thinking.

You likely have an insight that someone would find interesting, even if it seems entirely obvious to you. Great conversation can sometimes be a very simple volley back and forth of extremely basic observations.

Run with whatever logic this makes your mind go to… even if it’s something like “crazy that people vote to give rich people more money” or another basic interpretation of this. It gets the ball rolling for other people, let’s them put a new spin on it, and may be that little spark needed to create something more impactful.

The worst part is that many of those who fall for this lie are some of the worst off, financially speaking. And they’re often surrounded by people in similar positions.

They know they’re fucked. They’ll watch neighbors lose homes, avoid doctors, go through times when they can’t pay bills, etc.

Then they’ll turn around and vote against their own interests. Against the interests of those they’re close to.

Fucking wild that the propoganda machines are that powerful.

Yep. There’s a fuck-ton of power in implementing a proper road tax structure. It should also factor in the increased likelihood to cause harm to other people and damage to other vehicles. Hell, traffic infractions should also be more serious in a larger vehicle. All easy to implement and completely reasonable.

It’s sickening that over 42,000 people (more than 110 people PER DAY) were killed by vehicles in the US in 2022. This is a public health crisis that’s rarely discussed.

I’m not saying that’s all caused by big vehicles, but there’s undeniably more risk when larger vehicles are roaming the roads. And the ever-increasing blind spots of these big vehicles mixed with the irresponsible driving behavior is a recipe for disaster.

https://www.ghsa.org/resources/news-releases/NHTSA-2022-Traffic-Deaths23