It is tax time in the USA - How socialist are you?

[Anonymous]

My 1040 this year I claiming $565 in cold hard cash. Not even counting the countless hours working for the mentally retarded, Habitat for Humanity, Knights of Columbus, and local middle school science education programs. It was an iffy year for me. I had to hang on to every dollar from fear of joblessness. Durring a secure year I'm donating x4 as much.

What do you do to make your local community a better place to live?

[Pete]

The Canadian government owes me 400 dollars for taxing a minor. I would wish I could let them keep it (it is illegal not to fill out the T4, and illegal for them not to reimburse me) and spend it on health care or something.

[Anonymous]

Sorry. When I said I'm claiming 565 dollars, in the USA it means that is how much I have given to charities this year.

The $565 was not for me. Hopefully I will be more secure this year and will feel comfortable with a nominal rate of charity this year.

[Hampton]

What he's not telling you is that if you drive by a church you can count that as giving to the church on your taxes.

[Anonymous]

What I asking you was: What have YOU personally done to make your community a better place to live?

Your assesment was fair and so is my question.

[hazard]

isn't better to NOT do anything to improve your community? I mean, if the socialists all contribute their time, free of charge, all we are doing is improving the impression that capitalism is a system without problems.

I urge my comrades to contribute their time only to their respective socialist outlets. you know, the environmentalists and unions and such. to "better your community" means only to save money for the capitalists and spread the illusion that their regime is a good one.

[Dirty Jersey]

i give back to my community. id urge everyone to get into their local big brothers program. im in a big brother program and its pretty cool. i spend alot of time with my little brother. im helping him look for colleges now and im trying to teach him cool stuff along the way. you feel pretty good at the end of the day.

[notyetacommie]

No, hazard, I think when people see the good difference brought to life by this socialist activity, they will no doubt switch more to the left.

[hazard]

you may have a point there, however, the public opinion of socialists, no matter what they do, never changes. it has been the same since the fall of the communist movement in the sixties. socialists are "bleeding hearts". we are "tree huggers". we are useless tits that live off of everybody else's hard work. the common idiot in a capitalist nation doesn't care what good is done, and those that do it for free are just idiots. thats why I say allow the neighbourhoods and the communities to fall apart. just one step closer to revolution.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from hazard on 7:59 am on April 16, 2003
you may have a point there, however, the public opinion of socialists, no matter what they do, never changes. it has been the same since the fall of the communist movement in the sixties. socialists are "bleeding hearts". we are "tree huggers". we are useless tits that live off of everybody else's hard work. the common idiot in a capitalist nation doesn't care what good is done, and those that do it for free are just idiots. thats why I say allow the neighbourhoods and the communities to fall apart. just one step closer to revolution.

Then I should stop helping raise money for the mentally retarded. I should stop building low income housing. I should stop helping to prevent the deaths of migrant workers who die of heat exhaustion trying to cross the border; just for your goals and to prove your point.

[onepunchmachinegun]

To make my community better?

I make ad-busting, hand out flyers and put posters up on the walls (grafitti?). All in the name of anti-imperialism...

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Hazard, I have to disagree with you there, if you make it clear that you're doing humanitarian work in the name of socialism/leftist politics it would make the world a better place and make a name for the left too.

onepunchmachinegun: What is ad-busting?

[革命者]

Quote: from kelvin9 on 6:05 am on April 15, 2003
Sorry. When I said I'm claiming 565 dollars, in the USA it means that is how much I have given to charities this year.

The $565 was not for me. Hopefully I will be more secure this year and will feel comfortable with a nominal rate of charity this year.
i agree with you pete, paying less taxes only 'cause you give to charities is stupid!-- you can give to charity(if you feel bad about yourself-- being a cappie and all) and pay taxes!!

Scotty.

ps. to which charities did you donate money, kelv?

(Edited by Scotty at 6:41 pm on April 20, 2003)

[hazard]

graffiti is an excellent example of how leftists should be contributng to their communities

everything else serves only the capitalists

[Anonymous]

Quote: from Scotty on 5:36 pm on April 20, 2003

Quote: from kelvin9 on 6:05 am on April 15, 2003
Sorry. When I said I'm claiming 565 dollars, in the USA it means that is how much I have given to charities this year.

The $565 was not for me. Hopefully I will be more secure this year and will feel comfortable with a nominal rate of charity this year.
i agree with you pete, paying less taxes only 'cause you give to charities is stupid!-- you can give to charity(if you feel bad about yourself-- being a cappie and all) and pay taxes!!

Scotty.

ps. to which charities did you donate money, kelv?

(Edited by Scotty at 6:41 pm on April 20, 2003)


The same ones that get my time, get my donations.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from hazard on 1:40 am on April 21, 2003
graffiti is an excellent example of how leftists should be contributng to their communities

everything else serves only the capitalists


Your really a fine example of humanity. Part of a common arguement I get from communist is the moral superiority of communism. You have none of it.

[RedCeltic]

What I give to the community is not a tax write off, because I give of myself, rather than out of my pocket. In the Past I have helped out in a local soup kitchen. This year I helped out in Food Not Bombs, I helped a friend who has organized a local alternitive to Habitat for Humanities, and soon plan on organizing a group to help the community learn to live cooperatively, and not be dependant on capitalism.

[hazard]

ck:

it comes down to what you're in it for. most of these "communists" you refer to are a little green. their ideology hasn't lead them to the conclusion that only through revolution can change be meaningful. wouldn't revolution be more easily achieved if the white supremicist suburbs looked like the inner city? why is it okay in some parts of the country and not in others? two reasons. race and property value. when combined the answer is capitalism.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from hazard on 1:54 am on April 21, 2003
ck:

it comes down to what you're in it for. most of these "communists" you refer to are a little green. their ideology hasn't lead them to the conclusion that only through revolution can change be meaningful. wouldn't revolution be more easily achieved if the white supremicist suburbs looked like the inner city? why is it okay in some parts of the country and not in others? two reasons. race and property value. when combined the answer is capitalism.

Read the orginal post. This is not within the scope of the orginal post.

What do you do to make the world a better place to live? You already answered that just fine. Your answer was not only less than nothing, but advocating making the world even more ugly place to live.

(Edited by kelvin9 at 2:02 am on April 21, 2003)

[hazard]

ck:

sometimes you have to get a bloody nose before winning the fight. damage to material possessions, to private property is the goal of communism. all lessor stages of this that leads to a revolution do better society, only in the long run.

your type don't ever see the big picture. you'll throw on your designer jeans without any thoughts towards how they got there.

[Harmless Games]

I have to say im a bit torn between you two on this discussion. I agree with Kev when he says it is not ok to destroy the earth and make others suffer to prove a point, but i also agree with Hazard when he says that if leftists work unanimously (the way volunteer work should be) then it only goes to improving the capitalist regime's appearance. Well good luck because im stuck.

[Exploited Class]

Well for starters last year we figure around $6,000 or more dollars could have been deducted from my taxes through charitable contributions. Gave a way a car to an organization, consulting computer work and various second hand item donations. Then we have direct contributions, Green Peace which alone was 240 dollars, local independent radio station recieved close to that. Then there is exploitedclass.org that made direct money donations, which really is me giving exploitedclass.org money to operate and to be able to hand out and donate to other charities. So those essentialy come from me, but immediatly go to equipment upgrades, bandwidth and software. The initial donation for just exploitedclass was around 1200 in hardware, 2000 in software, 1200 in bandwidth. Its cost have tapered off now and anymore donated to it, goes directly to other organizations. I claimed none of it on my taxes and stuck to only the standard deduction. Already this year exploitedclass.org has made 0% intrest loans, 400 dollars in direct donations. Then ytou can always say when I help with computers, since that is about 40 dollars an hour worth of work, I donated to other individuals well over 4000 dollars worth of contributed time.

I say it is a sign of how weak a society and economic structure is when we depend on charities to fix or help people. We shouldn't have to have march of dimes asking us for extra money when we have a 400+ Billion dollar military budget. We have Cancer walks, when we should be spending all our efforts on solving those problems, and not trying to outspend the whole world's military budget combined.

We see tax breaks for the rich for this sorry excuse of a trickle down effect, corporations going over seas to avoid taxes, buisnesses that make 6 Billion a year gross, getting breaks in taxes for advertisment campaigns, when we have people making 20 to 30,000 a year being asked to cure some of the hardest disease.

We have so much energy going to into the 40 various shampoo and conditioners, TV manufacturing, 100 different cars and SUV's to choose from, lawn care, sports equipment, fast food, bigger sky scrapers, better furniture than last years furniture.

All that energy wasted on personal possesions, misdirected for others contribution. Communist society it would just be a matter of directing resources and not actual money amounts, for good causes, neccessary causes.

It is good as a communist/socialist to pick the correct charities to contribute to. I don't think it is right to put a band-aid on the suffering to help prolong the suffering. It is like the kid with the finger in the leaky dyke. You are just holding back the future to come, and easing it when it should just come down and start over so others don't have to go through the same pain in the future is just not good.

And if the cappies can say that the liberation of Iraq the price to pay is innocents dying then I can say that the price of a revolution is innocent people starving and dying of malnutrion and curable diseases. It has to get worse before it can get better.

[nz revolution]

Premier Hazard (RA2 avatar, nice!)

I definately agree with you, if things get harder, then things will change, REVOLUTION MY FRIEND!

I give my silver coins to charity and spray paint the suburbs. We haven't got to the rich side of town yet, prolly patroled by the cops every 5minutes.

So what am I kind of inbetween?

or more hazard-like than kelvin-like lol.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from exploitedclass on 10:25 pm on April 23, 2003

All that energy wasted on personal possesions, misdirected for others contribution. Communist society it would just be a matter of directing resources and not actual money amounts, for good causes, neccessary causes.
ough the same pain in the future is just not good.




Sounds great, but that is not what really happens in a communist system. In China and the CCCP, party members enjoy the material things not allowed to the masses.

In Cuba where food shortages continue to be a problem, Fidel has never lost any weight.

[Exploited Class]

Quote: from kelvin9 on 5:22 pm on April 25, 2003

Quote: from exploitedclass on 10:25 pm on April 23, 2003

All that energy wasted on personal possesions, misdirected for others contribution. Communist society it would just be a matter of directing resources and not actual money amounts, for good causes, neccessary causes.
ough the same pain in the future is just not good.




Sounds great, but that is not what really happens in a communist system. In China and the CCCP, party members enjoy the material things not allowed to the masses.

In Cuba where food shortages continue to be a problem, Fidel has never lost any weight.

Yes, I guess it is better to die of starvation and malnutrition in a capitalist system, as millions are doing currently and in the past.

Personally I would rather starve when there is a resource problem than because the system just doesn't fucking care about people. A system that is no damaging that people doing all the charity they can to make up for the system still can't get to all the people it hurts.

Should we really mark the on and off problems of Cuba's ability to feed all the people, any different than our own inability to feed our people? Study the depression, study the numbers of people in the most successful and rich country in the world going hungry everyday. Our number of hungry greatly outweigh theirs.

And as far as comparing communism to the Soviet Union, just give up that tired comparison. That isn't what people here, minus the stalinsist, want to create, so bringing up that argument is moot.

And staring at this pissing contest of yours with donations, mine greatly outwiegh yours.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from Harmless Games on 12:36 am on April 23, 2003
I have to say im a bit torn between you two on this discussion. I agree with Kev when he says it is not ok to destroy the earth and make others suffer to prove a point, but i also agree with Hazard when he says that if leftists work unanimously (the way volunteer work should be) then it only goes to improving the capitalist regime's appearance. Well good luck because im stuck.


Another thing to ponder. After the revolution, will Hazard care about the masses? He has proven by his own actions that at this time he doesn't. All you have is a promise. Does a person who spray paints graffiti sound like someone will step forward and help the needy? By his own claims, he does not.

[hazard]

ck1:

jackass. the reason why I endorse graffitti and the negligence of excessive charity work is because I care about the massess. what they need is a good dose of reality, away from their prison homes and prison offices. if making their prisons look like such does the trick, then by all means...

otherwise, they will lead their sleep walking lives until they die. not a moment spent awoken, not one. some say he best thing to do with a sleepwalker is to let 'em walk. not me. a good, hard, slap to the face. everytime.