this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
1365 points (98.4% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

9403 readers
1034 users here now

Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

Rules (Subject to Change)

--Be a Decent Human Being

--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title

--Posts must have something to do with the topic

--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.

--No NSFW content

--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 116 points 8 months ago (17 children)

As someone who has to pay back half of my COVID relief but so many rich people and corporations don't- I feel this deep in my black soul.

$7000 on top of my student loansπŸ‘

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Quick question? How come you gave to pay half of it back? On what grounds?

[–] [email protected] 43 points 8 months ago

They "reassessed" my account and that's all the reason they gave.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

On what grounds? It keeps the rent pigs in line. /s

But also not /s

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 81 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We should subtract from the military’s budget anything they can’t explain on an audit.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago

"Why do we have to explain a $880,000 missile that bombed a villiage full of brown people? Or a $72,000 drone made out of consumer parts but the company is owned by my cousin?"

[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They know exactly where it went. Operation Freedom, abbreviated OF on the ledger...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (7 children)

it's worse than that, they don't know that they don't know. literally no one ever holds them to account, they've never been asked the question so why would they need the answer.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Congress also throws more money at them than they even ask for.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (6 children)

That 'we don't know where 2 trillion went' is a myth--that number represents accounting reconciliations between their myriad of different archaic and highly secured systems. It doesn't mean that actual resources are missing or can't be accounted for.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I remember reports of literal pallets of cash going missing during desert storm

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

It's an infestation of unconnected dots that could hide countless incidents of corruption. Were we to connect them all and compute the sum of adjustments, the discrepancy could be smaller or greater, exponentially.

The problem is our government favors the DoD like a prodigal son and is not eager to facilitate an audit that might reveal trillions in corruption. It already doesn't like the published records of trullions in bad investments while leaving our troopers with insufficient armor and a DVA that leaves IED victims to the streets and the elements.

So until I see otherwise, I'm going to assume that's trillions going to defense contractor lobbyist junkets and bribes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

That doesn't really matter though. The point still stands regardless of if it's explained by money literally disappearing into a hole or huge rounding errors and inefficiencies in their accounting systems.

They are still allowed much much more leniency with much larger amounts of money (aren't they aren't ever properly held to account for it) than regular people are allowed with comparatively tiny amounts of money.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

A big part of it is reporting requirements, despite what some people think different portions of the government have different requirements. The reason a person gets inquiries about Venmo payments is because the IRS requires corporations to report that information to them and it's a mainly automated process.

Regulatory reporting requirements of Corporations to the IRS can't be copy pasted onto Pentagon spending reconciliation.

A better comparison, that is still not accurate, would be a cash business that has to report income to the IRS and has trouble getting granular details organized.

Complaints about transparency and accountability on the Pentagon budget are a valid complaint, but this is a poor example.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago

Ha you can't even receive $50 of digital payments (venmo, cashapp, whatever) without passing an invasive KYC check. Fuck big brother.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'm not reporting that someone sent me their share of the mortgage through an app rather than cash. Get fucked.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (7 children)

That’s a personal transaction and not business so you don’t have to claim it anyway.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

I'm honestly pretty upset about having to report "income" on reselling random old used shit out of my closet and garage on ebay all of the sudden.

Taxes have fucking been paid. This shit is not the same as wages and shouldn't be treated the same.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The $600 paypal/venmo/etc reporting thing has been postponed and is not a thing for this coming tax season.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Good, this is going to be so annoying. If I send my roommate $1000 to cover my portion of rent (which I used to do every month at my last place) it's not fucking "income" for them lol.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Now, my advice for those who die

Taxman!

Declare the pennies on your eyes

Taxman!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Image Transcription: Twitter Post


Brave New Films, @bravenewfilms

The Pentagon: we don't know where $2 trillion went.

The IRS: you sent $600 on Venmo. Don't forget to report it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

It's all Stargate wars obviously.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί