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ok so if I'm paying for stuff from the government why don't I get it
Yes, let's just ignore the fact that working class people already pay taxes for (underfunded) public services and bloated police and military agents that exist to oppress them, and that they can't tolerate paying mcuh more in taxes because they're too busy paying down their mortgage/rent/student loan debts, and producing surplus value that they never fucking see because that goes towards their bosses' profits. The point is to tax the wealthy to recoup some of that value lost to surplus value extraction through government services.
The framing that the proverbial working- or middle-class "you" would necessarily have to pay more in taxes hides the implicit premise that progressive taxation is impossible or unsustainable because it's impossible to circumvent the threat of capital flight (it isn't, when the workers are organized enough to build a state capable of actively pursuing tax evasion), that even making a dent in bloated military and police budgets to fund public services is impossible (again, the solution is building working-class power, including a workers' party, then eventually workers' councils in every community, and eventually a workers' state).
Smug reactionary propagandists so often act like Marxists have none of the answers to these problems when we often have all or most of the fucking answers to the most common arguments, or worse, they'll substitute us for social-democratic, "progressive"-liberal, and ultraleft utopian strawmen who don't have the answers to these problems. Few accusations piss me off more than reactionaries and liberals calling Marxism utopian when we're actually fucking trying to work from existing conditions.
We DID our fucking homework, we understand what drastic measures have to be taken to make all of this possible, and what the current objective and political barriers are, we know the real reasons why Venezuelans are struggling. We know this is thinly-veiled global class war, motherfuckers, we see the implicit threats of open state violence and implicit economic violence - presented as "this is just the way things are" - for what they really are.
And if you're still a baby leftist or zoomer who isn't familiar with economics or the overwhelming gravitational force of imperialism, one who still might be vulnerable to attacks like "you don't understand economics", including from people who've only taken a couple entry-level courses in undergrad or high school, know that there are older Marxists who've studied economics - both those who've studied neoclassical (aka neoliberal) economics and those who've studied Marxian economics - who've got your back, who can arm you with the counterarguments.
That’s why I’m glad my taxes go towards a 789 billion dollar military budget and not healthcare, infrastructure, public housing, public transportation, TRAINS, etc.
While not necessarily an immediate demand that we should lead with, revolution in the US will eventually require the working class to nationalize the Federal Reserve banks and all of the mega-banks that the Fed often lends directly to overnight at almost zero interest: Citibank, Bank of America, etc.
Taxes aren’t the problem, it’s what they’re spent on. Healthcare, public transportation, and environmental support should be valued more than a bloated police and military budget.
