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.
taxes and all of that
Tons of people still don’t understand taxes are graduated. So… yeah. You’re going to pay more if you have more to pay with. But it never makes your “poorer”. It’s only a higher fraction on each extra dollar, not the money you already paid taxes on at a lower bracket.
There are a few government sponsored benefits that have a cliff aka welfare trap. In those cases, yes you could be worse off if you step off whatever cliff the program has set. But that’s very different from taxes, it’s something to fix, and was generally something that was helpful which is antithetical to a thesis of government suppression.
Back before I met her, my wife was a server and she would never report her overtime hours. No matter how many hours she put in (and it was often 7 days a week) she would never (on paper) exceed 40 hrs/week because she somehow thought it would put her in a higher tax bracket and she would lose money.
The pub she worked at eventually got into other trouble for labor law issues, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the owners purposely told the servers that just for the free labor.
No
Revolutions never start with the poorest classes. All successful revolutions started with the middle class, and often on the upper edge of it, and spread from there.
Spending all your energy to survive doesn’t leave any energy to organize a rebellion.
Which is probably why governments are not doing everything to take you out of poverty. In fact, the middle class is crumbling in most of the world.
If it is then I’m the leader of the rebellion.
Giving meaning to suffering… An American tradition.
Ain’t everyone try to find meaning behind their sufferings? I am not American but where I live, a lot of people give meaning to their sufferings.
I can’t speak for a people I’m not affiliated with.
lol, the more people that are poor the less resistance there is. You need power to resist.
basically it is correct in the U.S.
the line where they stop helping you is low and the line where you can actually make it on your own is above that. so they stop helping you but you have a very difficult time to get to the point where you can actually survive. so you wind up back on social welfare programs (or homeless). the system is broken in the aspect. has been for as long as i’ve been alive (born in the 70’s) .
they need to use a scale and use that scale to help you move out of the welfare programs. so the more you make the less you get, but it isn’t a hard cut off point. and the program needs to have incentives to help you get training to get a job so you don’t need the help.
not very many people want to live on social welfare, they want to fend for themselves but the system is broken in a way that traps people.
as for it being a form of resistance. that i’m not sure what you mean by that. do you mean a form of the people resisting against the government? then no it isn’t a form of resistance.
while poverty may inspire / force people to act in ways that oppose their government, employers, etc., I don’t think the condition of being in poverty is a form of resistance, as poverty is a necessary product of capitalism.
alternatively, I think spending / consuming less and sharing more may qualify as acts of resistance, since they place power outside of extractive systems.
This is what I was going say: Being low-consumption is a form of resistance. Joining a solidarity network or other mutual aid is resistance. Going vegan, going zero waste, growing your own food are all resistance. And those things will all save you money; but the power comes from rejecting a system that’s not working, not absence of resources.
As many others have said, I don’t see what it has to do with being part of the resistance, but…
It’s partially true. Once you make above a certain threshold, you lose benefits.
Last year I got a raise at work, which put my household above the income limit for health insurance, so even though I only make a few dollars more each check, I now have to pay two hundred a month for insurance that won’t pay for anything until I’ve covered the $3000 deductable.
Well, if at income X you qualify for some particular assistance, and at income X+1, you no longer qualify for that assistance, something like that can be true. Some assistance programs in some countries can work that way.
It’s not resistance, it’s survival.
And what you are talking about is called the welfare trap. That is if, if you make $50 more than the benefit amount, you can lose $80 worth of benefits, therefore it’s better not to make that extra $50. But even if you break even, it’s discouraging. Why are you busting your hump to stay in the same situation? If the work is satisfying or can lead to advancement, it’s worth it, but most low wage jobs don´t fit into that category.
what does busting your hump mean?
Working hard, aka breaking (busting) your back (hump).
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.
Before 2026 maybe. ;)
I don’t get the year’s relevance. I would answer no to being poor as resistance. There can be conditions that aim to keep you poor. Like educational standards, employees rights, minimum wage, unfair distribution of wealth - inherited wealth is part of that aspect. And if one feels that the odds are against oneself, he or she might just give up on the state. But being poor isn’t the goal here IMO.
