this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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A Boring Dystopia

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[–] SlopppyEngineer@discuss.tchncs.de 80 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Brexit was the best experiment for that. They kick immigrants out so all jobs went to the local population. People didn't want them, produce was left in the fields, deliveries were not made, tables were not waited on and some companies folded. Anyway, immigration is now back and higher than it used to be, but from other countries.

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[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Illegal immigrants actually pay into state and local taxes way more than legal citizens and green-card holders do.

And since they're here undocumented, they can't get anything in return for paying those taxes.

[–] ShortFuse@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I looked up the numbers a while back but this 2017 study says at least 50%, meaning the majority pay taxes.

https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-state-local-tax-contributions-2017/

Also, note that only 59.9% of households pay taxes, which means legal status isn't that important in terms of whether people pay taxes or not. They also won't likely get any social security money either.

[–] systemglitch@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

They pay more huh? That's some magical shit right there lol

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[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 49 points 9 months ago (3 children)

This one also surprises a lot of people: They pay taxes. Undocumented Immigrants in the USA paid about 11.6Bn USD in taxes in 2019 according to ITEP.

[–] theUnlikely@sopuli.xyz 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

How are they paying though? That requires some kind of identification.

[–] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Their employers pay taxes on their wages through their fake ss numbers. They pay sales tax when they buy things from the store

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a Social Security number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Perhaps not income taxes, but maybe taxes on goods and services, property taxes, etc? Can't say for certain though.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 6 points 9 months ago

If you don't have an SSN then you still need to pay income taxes via ITIN. You don't want to be caught for Tax Fraud as an immigrant.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 40 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I have SSI it pays peanuts, if I didn't have a job ontop of it, I'd have nothing.

The rules are overly strict and an absolute poverty trap. I cannot legally have 2000 dollars to my name and anything I earn through ANY means must be reported meaning I CAN'T have a side hustle.

I need to stay on the program because my health insurance is tied to it, if I ever lost it I would be physically and mentally near death within a month.

I'm one of the people they're talking about when they mention Welfare Queens

[–] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Definitely need Medicare for All. This is such BS.

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[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right-wing ideology doesn't have to be consistent - it merely has to shift the blame for society's ills away from those who caused them.

[–] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The short answer is - yes.

The long answer is - also yes.

[–] Shapillon@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

The long answer is yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.

[–] HooPhuckenKarez@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Mass shootings in the news came up a couple o' days ago at work. It quickly devolved into it's all n-words shooting eachother, because that's what n-words do.

Did you know trump is gonna eliminate the income tax once he's elected?

I hate being in a red corner of a blue state.

[–] Waldowal@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

People at your work just drop n-bombs in casual conversation? I'm in Georgia, and even the most inbred rednecks here aren't bold enough to do that at work.

[–] Rediphile@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 months ago

And yet the mass shooting record holder is a white guy who was shooting at a country music festival ffs...

"Damn whites always shooting each other, because that's what white people do"

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 17 points 9 months ago

They shouldn't come here (but they're necessary to run my Florida landscaping business)!

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago (3 children)

As such lovers of free market capitalism, shouldn't Republicans want immigrants to come here and compete for work so that corporations can get employees for the lowest wages possible?

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 10 points 9 months ago

Which is ironically the classic leftist argument against free migration until the one world economy is realized. Constant immigration of low skilled labor serves the capitalist class by suppressing wages and stirring up resentment amongst the rabble so they turn on each other instead of their oppressor.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

shouldn’t Republicans want immigrants to come here and compete for work

Yes, they do - which is why they do everything in their power to keep that disempowered labor disempowered by hysterically painting them as an "other" that must be repressed through every means available.

It's just how right-wing ideology has always worked.

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[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Terking all er jerbs!*

FTFY

[–] CaptainEffort@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

Derk a derrr!!!

[–] syd@lemy.lol 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

I’m from a country that people wants to immigrate away. Even I do sometimes.

But at the same time I am disturbed by some actions of the minority of the immigrants who come to my country. I am leaning to be an anti-immigrant and because of that I feel hypocritical and xenophobic.

Sometimes I think it is cruel to be against immigrants because people do not choose their place of birth and their family, just like me.

I'm just not sure what is right, and this loop bothers me.

[–] STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's good and bad in every group and race. Just out of curiosity what country are you from. In some countries the news media and people in general will just latch onto anything bad done by migrants. Like in my country, Ireland, there's been much ado about a couple of cases where immigrants have committed heinous crimes but there's been very little coverage of the groups that are going around Dublin basically terrorising immigrants.

[–] syd@lemy.lol 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I guess you are right. I am from Turkiye and our leader, Erdogan is a pro-immigration. It bothers me to agree with him on something :)

Normally I believe in human rights but he accepts undocumented refugees from ME in order to bring the Sharia. So his purpose is not to save those people but change average society habits. I think we are different from European countries in this regard. I think Europe accepts immigrants in a more refined way.

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

There are absolutely other European countries that handle immigration in one way or another depending of the ruling party's political goals. There was a relatively recent period of time in Spain where the right wing immediately stopped to casually drop racist remarks against Latin Americans because they realized that Latinos, usually being Christians, were more likely to vote for them, but they still paid lip service to Anti-Arab xenophobia.

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[–] LazyBane@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

This kind of reasoning is consistent across all forms of bigotry. Having self contradictory believes about a demographic just so nothing they can do will be the right thing for them to do.

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

It's especially ironic to hear that from Americans lol my house is older than your country, what "immigrants" you are talking about

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[–] buzz86us@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Loads of xenophobic idiots laugh at me for this, but I'm noticing a lot of migrations due to climate change. Honestly IMO it will only get worse as time goes on.

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[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is absolutely possible when people receive welfare and simultaneously work without paying tax. I live in a neighborhood where people are doing this and they are quite open about it, too.

The trouble is that people either do A) deny their existence and everyone who claims differently is a Nazi. Or B) become a right winger or demand there shall be no welfare efforts.

[–] Undaunted@feddit.de 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

There's an estimation done in Germany every year. And the result is always that only around 4% of the the people on welfare abuse it. Compared to the damage that is done to the state by clever tax evasion of super rich people, these are peanuts. But going after these 4% of welfare abusers is of course easier so that's why they put a lot effort into it.

[–] dmention7@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It is kind of strange how much more of a visceral reaction people have to the idea of poor people cheating the system, compared to rich people cheating the system. Logically, it seems like the latter should get people a lot more riled up, which I guess speaks to the power of their propaganda.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

See there's this idea that when rich people cheat the system, they are being intelligent and finding proper loopholes, and by showcasing enough diligence and intellect to find these loopholes they are proving why they deserve to be rich in the first place.

Poor people who cheat the system, often so that they can stay alive. They are seen as inhuman and the idea is that if they weren't cretins they wouldn't be so poor as to need to cheat to begin with.

Admittedly, this seems to be changing as the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider and wider and wider, with the temporarily embarrassed millionaires now becoming Furious and hungry.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago

I think you're very right. But there's also something that makes one change how they see rich doing "tax optimisation", that I know because I now see it as something amoral, which I didn't before.

But also, the difference between poor and middle was bigger thatln middle and rich at some point in time. Now that is the opposite, any one from the middle class is closer to being poor than to being rich, that also may affect opinion shift

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[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

Oh but you see, the rich guys are resourceful and clever while the poor are lazy criminals.

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[–] Saltblue@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

A couple year ago I volunteered to a community school kitchen, funded by taxes, a lot kids didn't need the food, some leaved things they didn't like, one or two straight up throwed food in the trashcan, but for those 5-10 little shits there was always one kid who would eat all his food, and he did because he didn't have food at home, and I know what is to be hungry as a child. That program is worth every fuckin cent just for that child, and many more like him.

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