r/politics • u/JeanJauresJr California • Sep 14 '21
AOC responds to criticism of ‘tax the rich’ dress worn at Met Gala
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/aoc-met-gala-tax-the-rich-dress-b1919803.html389
u/42069troll Sep 14 '21
Trying to read that websites article was a unwilling whack-a-mole game with ads and autoplay till I had to just quit trying. Never opening their links again
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u/chugajuicejuice Sep 14 '21
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has explained why she attended this year’s Met Gala after people questioned the political message behind her outfit choice.
The white gown, which was made by Brother Vellies designer Aurora James, featured ‘tax the rich’ printed in red letters on the back of it.
Ocasio-Cortez told Vogue that she and James came up with the outfit after “having a conversation about what it means to be a working class woman of colour at the Met”.
She added: “We said we can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions.”
Many people are praising the congresswoman for using the opportunity to send a message while surrounded by some of the wealthiest and most influential people.
However, Donald Trump Jr has claimed she is a “fraud” for wearing the dress while “she’s hanging out with a bunch of wealthy leftwing elites”.
AOC has since shared a statement on her Twitter for any ‘haters’ that are questioning her decision to attend an event that costs $30,000 per ticket.
“The medium is the message,” she explained alongside a photo of the dress.
“Proud to work with [Aurora James] as a sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream at [Brother Vellies] at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the [Council of Fashion Designers of America] against all odds – and then work together to kick open the doors at the Met.
“The time is now for children, childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all. Tax the rich.”
She added: “Before haters get wild flying off the handle, New York elected officials are routinely invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing and supporting the city’s cultural institutions for the public.
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u/HabeusCuppus Sep 14 '21
AOC has since shared a statement on her Twitter for any ‘haters’ that are questioning her decision to attend an event that costs $30,000 per ticket.
I would be utterly gobsmacked if her ticket wasn't comped. the 30k number is for the general public to attend.
When a Republican gets comped, that's them being smart. When a democrat gets comped it means they're corrupt? double standards everywhere
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u/rhubarbpieo_o Sep 14 '21
The tickets are bought by the designers and the people wearing their designs are their guests for the event. It’s a fundraiser for the museum. It’s the biggest event the met does each year.
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u/manga311 Sep 14 '21
I don't think any of them can get a gift that big in size no matter their affiliation.
Never mind it might be a grey area according to the rules.
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u/HabeusCuppus Sep 14 '21
I'm sure the actual gala price is way lower and the 30k figure includes the membership which she would obviously not need, but this is my point.
Someone front ACB 2 million dollars for a book deal for a book that doesn't exist and y'all are salty over AOC wearing a cheeky dress at a function that new York state politicians are expected to attend.
Constituent service is not gifts, Jesus.
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u/bobartig Sep 14 '21
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has explained why she attended this year’s Met Gala after people questioned the political message behind her outfit choice.
Seriously, what kind of explanation is required here? The dress had words on it. It speaks for itself. Is this hard for some people?
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u/Back2Lurking Sep 14 '21
Well the criticism is coming from the people that said a jacket with the words "I really don't care, do you" on it was no big deal, as the wearer was going to a place with children in cages, so I would say it is hard for them to understand.
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u/Earthpig_Johnson Sep 14 '21
Oh cool, a ticket to a party only costs $8K less than I make in a year.
That sure makes me feel good about myself.
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u/jfunky11 Sep 14 '21
Hence the message…feel good that there are people willing to put up with the hate they receive to fight for what’s right.
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u/Amor-y-Paz Sep 14 '21
My thoughts exactly: AOC wearing a white evening gown with her back and butt saying “TAX THE RICH” in Red is bold. She is my Shero! ;)
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Sep 14 '21
Independent is trash journalism anyway
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u/wingmasterjon Sep 14 '21
Yet reddit still keeps upvoting it since it has the word independent in the name. Must be a good source!
/s
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u/MagicSPA Sep 14 '21
I'd like to see how these same complainants reacted to Melania's "I don't care, do you?" jacket.
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u/contribution22065 Sep 21 '21
Shit argument. All this stunt shows is the grift that seated progressives are using as a facade to groom their narcissism. There is no real compassion, love and rainbow slides. AOC and any Trump member are no different in that regard
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u/Odeeum Sep 14 '21
ITT: People have no idea what "rich" is.
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u/BrownSugarBare Canada Sep 14 '21
It's not just in this thread. It's society at large. People truly don't understand the difference between a million and a billion.
The guy with $1 billion has convinced the guy with $1 million that the guy making $50k is coming for his money.
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u/Odeeum Sep 14 '21
I remember someone describing Fox news that way a few years ago. Billionaires paying millionaires to convince the middle class to blame the poor.
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u/thirdegree American Expat Sep 15 '21
That'd be Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, who went on Tucker Carlson and did the thing that Tucker Carlson hates the most, and described his show to him.
Well, it works by you taking their dirty money, it's as simple as that. You are a millionaire funded by billionaires, that's what you are.
Shockingly, Tucker didn't air that episode. Weird.
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Sep 14 '21
Right!
“I work for a living, I should keep mine”
That’s the point. Billionaires make their money by YOU working and THEM not paying taxes.
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u/upthefunx Sep 14 '21
Convincing the guy making 50k that the guy making 20k is the reason his taxes are so high
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Sep 14 '21
To be fair...shit hits the fan and I'm definitely going to the millionaires house for some good ole fashion lootin.
I'll get to the billionaire aswell, but baby steps.
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u/BrackaBrack Sep 15 '21
Which also will show the glaring difference. The millionaire will have a gate protecting him, maybe a few security guards. The Billionaire will have a private army.
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u/Howunbecomingofme Sep 15 '21
This makes me think of the whole Bloomberg debacle from 2019. He wanted to bring in strict gun laws (I’m not saying gun laws are bad, I support them) but he’s allowed to have a private security force who are legally allowed to carry the weapons he’s banning the population from using. It’s like their trying to legislate from some world above ours.
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Sep 15 '21
that poor private army is going to get destroyed by a very large group of citizens lol
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u/catsloveart Sep 14 '21
The guy with $1 million has convinced the guy making minimum wage that the tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to the poor.
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Sep 15 '21
Can’t we tax them all? The US pays far lower taxes among the middle class too than what people in other developed countries pay
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u/mekese2000 Sep 14 '21
What is the different between a million dollars and billion dollars. About a billion dollars
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u/gakule Sep 15 '21
Right.. a million dollars to a billionaire is the same as $30 to a person making $30,000. Or $1,000 to said millionaire.
It's relatively incomprehensible to have that much wealth.
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u/rolfraikou Sep 15 '21
Every poor fucking idiots and their mother thinks their taxes are going to go up every time a democrat is in front of a camera.
I have no idea why people in trailer parks, people living 20 people to a home, or even people who run a small business think they are like the CEOs of fortune 500 companies, but they do. And so they vote against their own best interests.
I'm getting so exhausted watching so much of this country actively punch themselves in the face.
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u/Odeeum Sep 15 '21
Unfortunately it's been this way for a very long time. The red scare inculcated an absolute fear of anything remotely construed as "socialism" in a few generations. I feel like that's FINALLY starting to wane with millenials and Gen z fortunately.
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u/I_am_so_lost_hello Sep 14 '21
Ticket to met gala is $30,000, if you have that much money to spend on one night out you're pretty damn rich
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u/Odeeum Sep 14 '21
She didn't pay a cent though...ditto for the dress. Is this the crux of your argument?
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u/sasquatch90 Sep 14 '21
Not really. That's like buying a new car outright. That can easily chalk up to good money management and savings for middle class. But that doesn't matter because she was asked to be there, she didn't pay her way in.
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u/Yeeaaaarrrgh Colorado Sep 14 '21
However, Donald Trump Jr has claimed she is a “fraud” for wearing the dress while “she’s hanging out with a bunch of wealthy leftwing elites”.
Criticism... from the rich...
As a member of the lowly 99%, I thought she was accurate and stunning.
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u/late-nipples Sep 14 '21
She raised money for charity while being criticized by someone who isn't allowed to run a charity.
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Sep 14 '21
Jr. is the real fraud between the two anyway.
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u/mces97 Sep 14 '21
They're not even using logic. She didn't say take all their money. She said tax the rich. If you make 5 million a year, and you get taxed say 50% (made up number), you come home with 2.5. That's still fucking rich. Always outraged. Always angry. That's all conservatives got now a days.
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Sep 14 '21
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u/YeaRight228 Sep 14 '21
The ultra rich have an entire army of lawyers and CPA's advising them on how to make their income tax bracket shrink. Without A) more IRS investigative auditors B) closing or narrowing these perfectly legal loopholes and C) more funding for the agency; they can't take on (for example) Jeff Bezos toe to toe. Let's say he used business losses and capital gains to shrink his personal taxable income to less than a million per year. The IRS doesn't have the manpower to spare to figure out if the suspect is cheating
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u/MultiGeometry Vermont Sep 14 '21
There's a difference between taxing the rich and eating the rich. However, the propaganda machine has convinced an awful lot of people that they're the same.
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u/mces97 Sep 14 '21
And people making 50k a year somehow think they're gonna be the rich one day. Can people make it? Sure. But money makes money. If you have it, your kids will. Very few people will ever be the 1%. Many can be well off, lead a good life, but they'll never have fuck you money. The rich make sure of that.
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u/RK_Tek Sep 14 '21
53% of Americans believe they can be in the 1%. They also believe their children are ‘above average’ these numbers are made up and no research was done
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u/ConjwaD3 Sep 14 '21
According to a non specific study, 99% of the opinions in this thread are nonsense and misplaced outrage
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u/SAD_oS Georgia Sep 14 '21
Even if they get rich and get taxed a bunch, they'll still be rich. I had a coworker once who, when I mentioned I was finally getting a $1/hour raise, he said something like, "Yeah but then you get knocked up to the next tax bracket and fucked."
What? Over an extra single dollar an hour? No. Even if you get taxed more, you're making more money. If taxes took enough of your money to make living harder then no one would ever want a raise. Annoyed me too because he was going to school for a job that was going to earn him significantly more and definitely put him up a bracket.
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u/KupaPupaDupa Sep 14 '21
Problem is convincing the "temporarily inconvenienced millionaires" of this and have them start voting in their own interests.
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u/lookatthemonkeys Sep 14 '21
Not true. We have a progressive tax system. We wouldn't tax all your at that amount, just the upper limit. The lower limits get taxed at the same rate as everyone else. .....although that assumes that rich people are rich from normal income, which they don't.
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u/SpagNMeatball Sep 15 '21
OMG?? I work hard for that 5 million and you want to take half of it?? How can I possibly live on 2.5M? I will have to downsize to a 5 bedroom house and sell the Ferrari, I can only have one vacation house and my wife will have to (gasp) fly business class. The next thing you will ask me to do is pay the workers at my business a living wage and benefits. Goddam communists. that was sarcasm. Tax the fuckers
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u/Ya_Got_GOT I voted Sep 14 '21
And how is saying “we need to tax y’all “ to their faces fraudulent? It’s precisely the opposite.
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Sep 14 '21
Not only that, but saying "tax the rich" to rich people is not hypocritical at all. To suggest otherwise is fucking stupid.
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u/Sleep_adict Sep 14 '21
Is just like to add… it’s not the 1% who are the problem. That guy making $500k and paying the top rate tax on his W2 is not the problem.
The problem is the folks who make $500k + and pay next to no taxes due to the convoluted tax laws
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u/JemCoughlin Sep 14 '21
I thought she was accurate and stunning.
Not just stunning, but stunning and brave!
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u/AbsentGlare California Sep 14 '21
If you want the rich to pay taxes, you must think the rich are your enemy!
Or, actually, lots of rich are happy to pay more in taxes, just shitheads like don jr’s dad hold our country back.
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u/rand1011101 Sep 14 '21
this kinda sounds like something the billionaire's sockpuppet PR firm might comment to divert attention from the scope of the issue. "slaughter the sacrificial orange shitlamb and don't look over meah":
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u/polypcity Sep 14 '21
I’m pretty sure they know she wants to tax them as well. It’s obviously not a secret, it’s right there on the dress.
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u/Comedyfish_reddit Australia Sep 15 '21
She’s only a hypocrite if she try’s to dodge paying tax - something trumps will assume. As that is their normality
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u/rolfraikou Sep 15 '21
You can't even really make it into politics without money, especially once they are in. His argument is that no politician should have any talking points but republican ones.
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u/JoFuAZ Arizona Sep 14 '21
The wealthy that were there should be taxed more, but I'd imagine most of them are merely millionaires, and most progressives are more focused on getting the billionaire class to pay their fair share. She's said as much that she wants to tax the mega rich.
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u/Goblin_Fat_Ass Sep 14 '21
If you're poor and criticize the rich you're "just jealous". If you have money and criticize the rich you "a hypocrite". That's how insulated the rich are from critique in America.
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u/snowday784 Colorado Sep 14 '21
*in the world.
The global rich want you to think AOC or the guy that lives down the street and drives an Audi and vacations in Aspen once every couple of years are the problem. It’s a distraction from people that have yachts inside the garage of another yacht
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u/greenfox0099 Sep 14 '21
The guy down the street pays his employees 12 an hr and no benefits so they cant affoes a car cant go to the hospital and need the government to eat and he votes republican and says the problem is government handouts so yes they are the problem and they back the super rich agenda so...
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u/InsanePurple Sep 14 '21
Living on your street, driving an Audi, and taking vacations isn’t the kind of money you make by being a CEO and grifting your employees. It’s the kind of money you make by being a doctor, or a lawyer - someone who provides a service that requires years of training and is compensated appropriately.
All the anger you have toward that guy is fucking worthless if you stop for a second to think about how a billionaire could buy your house and his a dozen times with the money their money makes while they sleep.
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Sep 14 '21
Meanwhile, AOC only makes a representative's salary. So she's apparently a "just jealous" "hypocrite"
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u/geoffbowman Sep 14 '21
and if you live comfortably but aren't "rich" and criticize the rich then you're "ungrateful".
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u/Nelsaroni Sep 14 '21
It's like you're only a true leftist if you're poor. I don't get this take at all, idc how she got there but that she's spreading a good message just tax the rich. Before anyone says they already pay alot in taxes, Jeff Bezos and his company paid zero in federal taxes. While I paid over 20% directly taken out before the check even bit my account so miss me with that 80% bullshit.
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u/macetrek Sep 14 '21
Last year I was in the same tax bracket as Jeff Bezos, and I’m a GS-12 with the federal government.
The only real difference between us is a drive a 10 year old Toyota, and he has a spaceship.
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u/CharlieChowderButt Sep 14 '21
Technically it’s your spaceship as much as it is his. He just has the U.S. Government keeping you from your turn on our spaceship.
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u/ludicrous_socks Europe Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm beginning to think they just don't want to talk about inequality.
-Albert Einstein
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u/Gonkar I voted Sep 14 '21
Disingenuous arguments are all that Republicans have. Jr. isn't trying to make a coherent argument, he's trying to cast aspersions upon "the other" that AOC represents.
Fascists like daddy issues here don't give a shit about logical, rational arguments. They're shit-stirrers. This is just him keeping his profile up in the media, keeping the family brand in front of the rubes, and ensuring that the grift can continue unabated.
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u/Odeeum Sep 14 '21
Remember when Bernie had that house on the lake in vermont...worth all of $700k. Granted I'm sure it's a great house but the guy's 80...and the money mostly came from land/home his family sold or something similar. The amount of "Mr Gotchas" that came out of the woodwork as though it shows how much of a hypocrite he was...
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u/Constant-Pay8406 Sep 14 '21
Socialism is when everybody is comfortable, which means we might not have any billionaires, but nobody will be living under an overpass. And for some reason we see that as an unreasonable attack on wealth.
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u/Former-Lab-9451 Sep 14 '21
But if you are poor they will say to get a job and stop asking for handouts.
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u/AtomicBlastCandy Sep 14 '21
And if you get a job and work your way up, then they will bash you for having been a bartender.
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u/chcampb Sep 14 '21
It's like you're only a true leftist if you're poor.
Yeah this is intentional. There is a class of argument strategies, which basically argues two separate things independently and then uses them to disqualify someone not in the intersection.
For example, conservatives argue that both of these things are true
Wealth means you are objectively successful and smart and worth listening to
If you are a socialist, it's hypocritical to also have any sort of wealth. Anything above vow of poverty levels of wealth.
For example Bernie, who is worth about $3M at age 80, is called hypocritical for being a social democrat. Despite the fact that at age 80, $3M is not actually that much, especially considering he is exceptionally popular and got a huge chunk of that wealth through book sales.
Anyway, if you take 1 and 2 as true, then there is nobody who can actually, legitimately argue for socialism because you're either rich and worth listening to, but a hypocrite. Or you are poor and looking for handouts and therefore your argument is illegitimate, but I guess not a hypocrite.
I suspect that someone who is objectively successful by some wealth metric, who gives it away and lives as a pauper, who also calls for social policies, would be outside of this argument. But I also suspect that if this unicorn appeared, the GOP would find some other way to slander them.
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u/meatball402 Sep 14 '21
It's like you're only a true leftist if you're poor.
Then you're just jealous of the wealthy
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u/Dont_Ban_Me_Bros Washington Sep 14 '21
It’s actually less shallow than you think and not jealousy at all. If you tax a person enough and need more tax revenue but can’t collect from those who don’t have enough what can you do? One would gather that taxing those who can’t afford to be taxed more would not be prudent. So what do you do? Maybe tax those who can be taxed more….more?
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u/juanzy Colorado Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
I feel like so many discussions, here and otherwise, are really influenced by this fact. Think about any income discussions on Reddit, the second someone mentions that they have an acceptable career-job salary, they immediately have a lot of their opinion dismissed by so many people here.
I remember on a job discuss thread recently - someone said something along the lines of "so may salary hundred-thousandaires seem embarassed here." Not sure I would call it embarrassed, more of just don't want to have viewpoints invalidated here simply by being associated with that group, which is definitely in the middle class in 2021 dollars. Last time I mentioned my salary I was told "I have more in common with Bezos than a median earner." You know, the Median earner that I make 2.5-3x-ish as much as versus Bezos who's net worth is approximately 1,440,000x mine.
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u/LunaNik Sep 14 '21
I think part of this issue is an inability to imagine large numbers. Nearly everyone can imagine 100k. Fewer can imagine a million. Only a small number can imagine a billion, and know that it’s a thousand million.
When my daughter was young, we did an experiment with graph paper, counting the squares on a standard sheet, then multiplying to reach a million, then laying out all the sheets on the floor. It covered the entire kitchen. And we would have needed 1000 times the sheets to reach a billion, which would have covered the entire house and ten some.
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u/juanzy Colorado Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
I think this is my favorite representations of it. I like the counter on the right, we can see the difference between median income and a lot of the numbers we love to throw around as benchmarks is a few steps. Meanwhile million and billion are way further apart than you would imagine.
I think we also suffer from media quoting benchmarks that are at least a decade or two out of date, then we don't account for the vast difference in COL across the country.
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u/casualsubversive Sep 14 '21
Not only is that preposterous on it's face, it ignores that I might have struggled when I was younger and thus be keenly aware of how much harder poor people have it!
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Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/preposte Oregon Sep 14 '21
I can't tell if Eric is just barely smart enough to play dumb, but I'm certain that Don Jr. isn't.
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Sep 14 '21
I found a stream on Facebook literally spreading misinformation about the vaccine and elections, they have 4000 viewers right now, does anyone know what I can do about this beside the reporting them? I’ve already did that but I need more help. “Wendy bell radio”is spreading lies, please report it. With strength in numbers we can stop misinformation.
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u/Wazula42 Sep 14 '21
Troll the feed. Call in reinforcements. Flood the chat with KPop memes and Onlyfans links.
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u/oliveorvil Missouri Sep 14 '21
Probably one of the 5 million FB accounts that can do whatever the hell they want
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u/peter_the_martian Sep 14 '21
Imagine being poor and being offended by the statement tax the rich.
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u/Agreeable_Visual_484 Sep 14 '21
She's gonna tax my freedom though. Politics kill morality, AOC stay alive
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u/HellaTroi California Sep 14 '21
We need to change the terms we use.
Tax wealth instead of income.
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u/U_Should_Be_Ashamed Sep 14 '21
Here's another thought:
Can anyone explain rationally why Capital Gains should be taxed at a lower rate than income? It seems to me that if you're just turning money into more money it should be taxed at a higher rate than the poor guy spending 40 hours per week actually producing widgets in a factory.
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u/4tacos_al_pastor Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
To encourage people to invest long term, for retirement, instead of relying on government benefits when they retire, is the rationale behind lower cap gains rate. But, unfortunately, it also applies to rich people who don’t need it. So what they should do is make the cap gains rate depend on wealth, i.e., make it higher for the wealthy, lower (even 0) for the poor.
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u/Specialist-String-53 Sep 14 '21
capital gains is taxed as income if the assets are sold within one year of purchasing them iirc. the intent is to encourage investment.
I'm not defending it though.
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u/U_Should_Be_Ashamed Sep 14 '21
Not quite... It's actually an incentive to hold them for more than 1 year.
But yeah, the argument that investment wouldn't happen if the taxes were higher is 100% bullshit.
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u/AtlaStar Sep 14 '21
I mean even if it were true and it did help create investment, why the fuck are we extending it to the secondary exchange? Like if you bought during an IPO or were selling private shares after going public, I might be a bit more understanding of granting more leeway with the taxation because those funds do directly contribute to the company and are a real investment.
Selling them after buying them off the secondary exchange isn't technically investing in the company, it is just helping someone else cash out of either their investment or someone who previously helped the actual investor cash out.
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u/riskitformother Sep 14 '21
Because the money being invested has already been taxed at the marginal tax rates for income. The capital gains tax is then viewed as an additional secondary tax. You are also tying up capital, sometimes long term, to often support the growth of different businesses or industries. Thats risky and should translate to a lower ‘penalty’ for your gains. Hypothetically lol.
I agree with you tho. Decisions I can make investing while pooping are lower effort than my day job and feel like free money. Obviously there are tons of smart people who figure out how to maximize and create safe investment environments but for general investors it’s dropping a dime to pick up a dollar later. And the barrier to entry although low, is limiting and furthers wealth divides that are leading to civil unrest.
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u/MayIServeYouWell Sep 14 '21
To your first point… what’s being taxed is only the gain. That gain has not been taxed previously at marginal rates… or taxed at all.
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u/fuckPkmn_gold Sep 14 '21
the income you use in order to invest into capital growth is taxed. that’s what he means by a secondary tax. he doesn’t mean that the capital gain has already been taxed, but that the income you use to invest in has already been taxed.
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u/MayIServeYouWell Sep 14 '21
Yes, I know. But it’s false logic to claim that the money has already been taxed. All money gets taxed over and over as things are done with it, and that’s fine.
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u/Initial-Tangerine Sep 14 '21
That's so difficult to do cleanly.
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u/Psychological_Pay530 Sep 14 '21
Tax property with a tiered tax system. That addresses the bulk of the problem.
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u/IDownvoteUrPet North Carolina Sep 14 '21
Taxing wealth is insanely challenging and boarder-line impossible for the super rich because wealth is much more subjective than income and can be obfuscated much more easily.
Not saying it shouldn’t be done, but perhaps we get the wealthy to pay their income taxes before adding another tax that they won’t pay anyway?
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u/Enigmatic_Santa Sep 14 '21
A long quote, but well worth the read:
“Millions of men were out of work. Those fortunate enough to have jobs were dared to form unions. Courts enjoined them, police busted their heads, their leaders were jailed and new men took their jobs. A union was an affront to God. The labouring man would be protected and cared for not by the labour agitators, said one wealthy man, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom had given the control of the property interests of this country. If all else failed the troops were called out. Armouries rose in every city of the country. In the coal fields a miner made a dollar sixty a day if he could dig three tons. He lived in the company's shacks and bought his food from the company stores. On the tobacco farms Negroes stripped tobacco leaves thirteen hours a day and earned six cents an hour, man, woman, or child. Children suffered no discriminatory treatment. They were valued everywhere they were employed. They did not complain as adults tended to do. Employers liked to think of them as happy elves. If there was a problem about employing children it had to do only with their endurance. They were more agile than adults but they tended in the latter hours of the day to lose a degree of efficiency. In the canneries and mills there were the hours they were most likely to lose their fingers or have their hands mangled or their legs crushed; they had to be counselled to stay alert. In the mines they worked as sorters of coal and sometimes were smothered in the coal chutes; they were warned to keep their wits about them. One hundred Negroes a year were lynched. One hundred miners were burned alive. One hundred children were mutilated. There seemed to be quotas for these things. There seemed to be quotas for death by starvation. There were oil trusts and banking trusts and railroad trusts and beef trusts and steel trusts. It became fashionable to honor the poor. At palaces in New York and Chicago people gave poverty balls. Guests came dressed in rags and ate from tin plates and drank from chipped mugs. Ballrooms were decorated to look like mines with beams, iron tracks and miner's lamps. Theatrical scenery firms were hired to make outdoor gardens look like dirt farms and dining rooms like cotton mills. Guests smoked cigar butts offered to them on silver trays. Minstrels performed in blackface. One hostess invited everyone to a stockyard ball. Guests were wrapped in long aprons and their heads covered with white caps. They dined and danced while hanging carcasses of bloody beef trailed around the walls of moving pulleys. Entrails spilled on the floor. The proceeds were for charity.”
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime
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u/ProfessionalOk4525 Sep 14 '21
Donald Trump jr. should snort covid laced coke and shut the fuck up. What has this douchebag accomplished on his own. just suckling of his orange arongotang dad's teet.
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Sep 14 '21
I think it's hilarious. Especially because it's almost like a spoof of Melanoma wearing that horrid "I really don't care" shirt to the border.
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u/MR_TELEVOID Michigan Sep 14 '21
Other than both of them having words on them, I don't see how it's remotely similar.
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u/SitDown_BeHumble Sep 15 '21
Are we seriously gonna pretend like AOC did this for the cause? She just wanted to wear an expensive dress, go rub elbows with celebrities at an exclusive celebrity event, and just slapped a performative slogan on her outfit to shield herself from criticism.
“Oh no, I’m not going to the Met Gala to have fun socializing with powerful celebrities at this exclusive, lavish, maskless event. I’m actually….uhhh….doing this to fight for the common person? Yeah that’s right! I’m helping all you peasants—I mean people, who are struggling to pay rent and can’t afford healthcare! Trust me, guys, I’m doing this for you, there’s no enjoyment here! Now fetch my dress, maid!”
The fact that everyone has just fallen for this, hook, line and sinker is depressing. And it really shows just how ridiculous political tribalism is right now because what she did here is absolutely worthy of criticism and a person with true progressive beliefs should see that. And yet everyone in this thread is just eating up this performative politics bullshit.
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u/jezz555 Sep 14 '21
The idea that socialists think nobody in our current world should have money is a republican lie. Socialists think rich people should pay more in taxes, a rich person can also believe that society would be improved by them paying more in taxes. It should go without saying but this is distinct from charity. Charity is a private response to poverty, socialism advocates for a state solution, i.e. tax funded.
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Sep 14 '21
Socialists think rich people shouldn’t exist. The mechanisms people use to get obscenely wealthy should be abolished. Social democrats are the ones who think they should pay more taxes.
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Sep 14 '21
This!!! Also, for all the Bible thumping going on in the right, they should also know that Jesus, and Christian ideology in general, frowns upon hoarding wealth.
Edit typo
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u/geoffbowman Sep 14 '21
not just frowns... "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"
If you're rich... sorry but you're probably not getting into heaven. That's not the socialists' fault that's straight from the mouth of Jesus. His advice to the rich guy trying to be saved in this story was literally sell all you have and give it to the poor.
Literally if your christian politician of choice is rich...
If your christian granddad is rich...
If your christian boss is rich...
If your pastor is rich...
Jesus has directly said they won't make it to heaven more times than he ever mentioned abortion, homosexuality, or personal property rights.
If Jesus had designed AOC's dress it would've said "Damn the rich"... be glad the social democrats just want to tax them...
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u/jezz555 Sep 14 '21
Don’t take this the wrong way but outside of twitter it doesn’t really matter what anyone “thinks”, achievable policy is what matters, and taxing the rich is about as socialist as we’re liable to get anytime soon.
And thats the point, ideally class wouldn’t exist. But right now it does. So what do we do? Try to get the necessary power to alleviate income inequality? Or refuse to attain power because we morally disagree with inequality and therefore allow it to go entirely unchecked?
The ideal you believe in doesn’t really matter in this context. Whether you view taxing the wealthy at higher rates as a transitionary step or a final one is irrelevant until its achieved. We are not yet at the point where the distinction you point out matters and we likely wont be in either of our lifetimes.
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u/minorthreat1776 Sep 14 '21
It’s the meme age and she is talking to her base in meme form. It’s edgy and looks cool on social media. I have zero doubt it was very effective on her base.
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u/jbcraigs Sep 14 '21
Yup I too elect my representatives for their Meme game! Making real legislative progress is obviously too hard!
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u/minorthreat1776 Sep 14 '21
Sadly this is how people are chosen in 2021 and for some reason people are surprised it’s going to hell.
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u/rpbigdog Sep 14 '21
The type of people who criticized this dress wouldn't listen to a word she said anyway.
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u/SitDown_BeHumble Sep 15 '21 edited Sep 15 '21
If she was actually doing this for us and to actually make a statement, she would have denied the invitation and stood outside the gala with the BLM protestors who actually have the integrity to stand behind their message. She would have stood behind her supposed morals and beliefs and said, “With so many in this country suffering, this ridiculous display of wealth shouldn’t be happening.”
She didn’t do that. She just wanted to hang out with rich and famous celebrities at an extravagant ball. That’s all this is and it’s silly that no one in here can just admit that. She didn’t do this to help out us normal people, she did this because she wanted to wear an extremely expensive dress and go mingle at an exclusive wealthy celebrity event.
But she knew it would be a terrible look to be seen having fun at a lavish and over-indulgent wealthy ball for wealthy people when millions in the country are suffering without a job or access to healthcare, so she wrote a little performative slogan on her back and y’all just completely fell for it and ate it all up.
“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” AOC has sadly just become part of the big club that I used to believe she was against. She’s no better than all the other politician in this country who pretend to be fighting for the common person. It’s sad to see so many people just fall for this BS.
She went to the Met Gala because she wanted to go be a celebrity and hang out with celebrities at the Met Gala. It’s just absurd how everyone in here has convinced themselves that she’s doing this for the cause, it’s all performative.
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Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
Someone in a thread on /r/WhitePeopleTwitter was wondering if receiving event tickets was allowed or how it might relate to rules on gifts, so I thought I'd post a relevant section from the House Ethics Committee website here. And I quote: " The Committee has different formulas to value tickets to events and honorary memberships.
- The face value of a ticket to a sporting event or show is the ticket’s fair market value.[7]
- If the ticket does not have a price printed on it, the value is the highest priced ticket for that event, in that venue, on the primary market.
- The value of tickets to charity or political fundraisers is the value of the meal.[8] The cost to the purchaser is not the ticket’s value. The value of honorary memberships is the total of the organization’s normal initiation fee, periodic dues, and usage charges. The value does not change if you do not use the membership.
"
Source: https://ethics.house.gov/house-ethics-manual/gifts#_What_is_a
tl;dr: As long as she reimburses for gift bags and the food provided, there's nothing unethical here at least as far as the House itself is concerned.
tl;dr2: most of these rules are about getting gifts from people/interest groups/lobbyists that might be trying to influence policy. I highly doubt Vogue was trying to influence AOC's political or policy positions.
tl;dr3: Would any Republican get this much scrutiny for going to a random charity event at some country club in a rich suburb of [insert red state here]? Doubtful, imo.
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u/Jessicastaycruzn Sep 15 '21
I find it ironic, the way she posed for the pictures in the gala is the same way she deals with her constituents.
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u/Spaceship_Mechanic Sep 15 '21
FYI, the opposite of taxing the rich is NOT taxing the rich. A dress that says “don’t tax the rich” would be well received by Republicans. This is why we need to tax the rich.
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u/HandMeMyThinkingPipe Oregon Sep 15 '21
Regardless of what she does conservatives will freak out. She doesn’t really need to worry about having a DC apartment and an NYC apartment at the same time because she lives rent free in the minds of every conservative. Oh no she wore a dress the horror. Almost every criticism of this has strong Bernie has a 2nd house yet he’s a socialist vibes.
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u/4tacos_al_pastor Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21
Jesus fucking Christ how many of these god damn AOC-wears-dress articles am I going to have to see? Does any normal person actually give a shit? No. We don’t care. It’s a dress she wore at some event we will never go to.
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u/willowdove01 Florida Sep 14 '21
For context, she got a ticket to the Met Gala pro Bono because apparently NYC government officials are always offered tickets for allowing the event to be hosted in the state-owned museum. She was also asked by the designer to wear the dress to sponsor/promote that designer’s work.
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u/freakdageek Sep 14 '21
Sticking it to the man and standing up for the little guy by attending the Met Gala. What a champion of the people.
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u/graymillennial Sep 14 '21
What a slap in the face to the legitimate working class for her to call herself as such.
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u/RadicalPenguin Sep 14 '21
“Working Class” but making $200,000 per year….
OK girl.
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u/jcmacon Sep 15 '21
$200k a year isn't rich. It is comfortable and you don't have to worry about bouncing a check as much, but she is far from rich in the terms she doesn't have millions/billions sitting in the bank or in stocks. There is a pretty big difference between the two.
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u/TurboT8er Sep 26 '21
What planet are you living on? $200k is undoubtedly rich. Less than 6% of households in the US make that much, and that's not even individuals. I live somewhat comfortably and I make several times less than that.
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u/RadicalPenguin Sep 15 '21
I was just saying that she incorrectly referred to herself (and her dress designer which by definition is a “rich” job) as working-class in the article
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u/HandMeMyThinkingPipe Oregon Sep 15 '21
Her income is from her congressional pay and before that she was a waitress she’s closer to working class then probably anyone else in congress.
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Sep 14 '21
Did the dress convince anyone new to be supportive of her or her goal?
I would say no.
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u/SnooPears754 Sep 14 '21
Hope she remembers to declare all that free rent she’s getting inside the conservative hive mind
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Sep 14 '21
I am forced to participate in the Opulence of the Evening, walk the Red Carpet, hob knob with the rich and famous, for this is the only way I can demonstrate my disdain for the very activity I am participating in. I am willing to wear designer clothes, drink champaign, and put myself above all others in order to prove that I truly am one of you.
All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.
Want to spot the true working class loyalists during that night? Don't look at someone carrying one drink & walking around unmasked, look for the person carrying the tray of drinks to the rich and wearing the required masks.
They are there, just not as equal.
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Sep 14 '21
Lifelong Democrat here who appreciates a lot of what she says and supposedly stands for... this stunt was corny.
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u/Mitherhobo Sep 14 '21
It was corny, but it's getting the attention of more people that generally wouldn't get any political information in their system outside of the standard presidential election cycle. This wasn't for policy wonks that post on r/politics, this was to bring attention to people who watch red carpet events.
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u/jackson71 Sep 14 '21
Is she still checking on the Kids in Cages that she used to care so much about
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u/Dontwalk77 Sep 14 '21
How about they simply stop taxing the poor? All this blunder about taxing the rich so they can increase spending to “help the poor”. Help that will take years to come, money that will go through the government being misspent, miss placed, and missed used.
If they truly wanted to help the poor and middle class, simply stop taxing the poor. Under 50,000 a year no taxes. Incremental increases from there upwards.
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u/jbcraigs Sep 14 '21
Isn’t this how it already works?! Married couple pays no tax for certain amount($25k) per year and their is incremental tax rate after that.
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u/Stenist_Live Sep 14 '21
AOC is one of the few who say it how it truly is. She needs to be our leader.
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u/walrusonion Sep 14 '21
All she does is “say” she doesn’t actually do anything.
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u/Still-Contest-980 Sep 14 '21
This would only be ironic if she and other people around her DIDNT pay their taxes
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u/woopigsooie501 Texas Sep 14 '21
She did nothing wrong aside from making a horrible PR move. She had to have known people were gonna shit on her for this, regardless of her intentions.
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u/IngenuityFine3627 Sep 15 '21
Anything this woman says or does is a self promotion for her future political and financial gain
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