General Politics Discussion (XI) [ARCHIVED] World • Page 1280

On the rare occasions we go out to eat I try to tip in cash specifically because I know servers often don't have to claim it. That could come back to bite them in old age with social security, but yeah.

But generally I'm not in favor of tax cuts for most anyone because we have a lot of shit we want to pay for lol. I'd rather give people services and make up for any income they lose in taxes on that end. Health care, education, transportation, etc.

 

I just think it’s super silly to see a bunch of people who don’t know what it’s like to make a living on tips dismiss it outright and make fun of it as a policy while having no idea how difficult tax season is for us. no it’s not a policy that would work but some kind of system to make taxes easier to navigate for tipped employees is desperately needed

 

There’s a little Republican in all of us.

 

I am in favor of not taxing tips (unless your tips put you at a high income which is not the vast majority of service workers) and have worked in service for years I just think we’re waiting for big policy positions and that’s what we get I mean come on

 

you'd still some rules on who can claim taxless tips though. otherwise a high income people will find ways to abuse the system like they always do. don't want a situation where a client is paying someone 100k for a job but they agree to call 90k of it a "tip" just so it won't be taxed. suddenly a person who was making 500k is magically only making 50k

to some degree, I think "where did you get your money" should matter for tax purposes. Passive income should be taxed higher than active income, for example. I could also totally get behind arguments that certain jobs should be taxed less as a way to encourage people to go into those fields

But personally if two workers are working the same service job, one in a tipless restaurant, and one in a tipped restaurant; both taking home the same money each overall week (one through higher salary, the other through tips) -- even if one of them is getting that money from the customer not their employer, I think they should pay the same in taxes. Otherwise you're encouraging the problem of low wages + high tips which is bad for customers because it tasks them with the responsibility of doing the companies job for them and punishes good people while rewarding the cheapasses who still refuse to tip

 

I’d be more sympathetic to the argument we need taxes if they weren’t used to bomb countries to oblivion more than they were used to give people basic needs. Also if we are going to allow people to hoard a billion dollars please go after that before you go after working class wages and tips

 

when you get paid non-cash tips, does some of that money get withheld like normal income does? Or do you still get the full tip and then at tax season the government is like "lol remember all that income you made pay your taxes now!"?

 

I'm all for a system to make taxes easier to navigate for tipped employees but I think it has to be a bit different than "no tax on tips". Just because you are making the majority of your income on tips doesn't mean you shouldn't have to pay taxes. I'm sure there's been some analysis done on how much less tax revenue a policy like that would result in

 

as long as the total amount generated from taxes remains the same or goes up, isn't it fine? just raise taxes on the rich a bit more to pay for it.

 

I think tipping activates a wild combo of lizard brain and conditioned wiring in our brains, since money is such a gnarly thing that we all have very personalized and toxic relationships with AND we all have the sense memory of literally handing OUR money directly to the recipient in a socially-enforced bonus transaction with no strict rules on exactly how much is required.

So, unlike the compassion and empathy we feel when we imagine an individual below the poverty line receiving a free phone or other government assistance, the people receiving the tax-payer-funded handout are those adversarial individuals who we are already being forced to insecurely and literally hand OUR money to and who we’ve heard brag when the tips are great so we don’t think they deserve to receive special privileges from the government. What about me? I’m the one giving them their money. Why don’t I get a tax break????

I understand those takes people post online but to me it’s a similar lizard brain view as when people tell UPS drivers to stop striking or advocating for higher pay because they already make more than me/people who are even more underpaid. No. Every move toward giving working class folks a better deal, even if it’s portions of those folks at a time, is good, IMO. No one gets a break until we all get a break is an offer the ruling class is more than happy to accept.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/technology/google-monopoly-antitrust-justice-department.html

 

She won by 10 percent lol

 

Huge difference between working for tips and actually making a living with tips but I don’t wanna talk about this anymore

 

It is normally the latter

 

That looks like it could be a 90s Brit Pop album cover from a band called Dogue

 

I’m getting boring new pop rock band on a traditionally pop-punk or math rock or harder indie rock label vibes from that Dogue cover. You hear one song and it sounds interesting then you play the album and it’s not it.

 

I think a lot of people were reacting based on this coming out of nowhere from the democratic side without much detail and the republican version coming along with a draft bill that basically just made it a huge loophole for hedge fund managers and the like.

 

boomer Dems

 

Arsenio Hall stans.