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Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting! NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets.
Your supporting statement should always come BEFORE you provide the source.If you have any questions, comments, concern, or feedback regarding the USPMT, then please use this thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/website-feedback/510156-us-politics-thread |
On May 21 2026 18:12 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 18:03 Uldridge wrote:
It's incredible to me that we can have a discussion about the most powerful man in the world, more or less, being let off the hook for making retarded statements... As it turns out in reality, the single most common and effective prerequisite for getting to a position of immense power, is the hunger for power.
Nope, it is the ability to trick most people that you give a damn about them.
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Northern Ireland26854 Posts
So if Trump starts a few more wars and ends them he can claim to have reduced wars by 200-300% right?
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Groceries just had the biggest price hike in years. It’s about to get even worse, experts warn @TheHill
The price of groceries rose 2.9% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, according to government figures released in May. That was the highest year-over-year inflation rate for the category since August 2023.
When compared to the same time last year, fruits and vegetables have seen some of the biggest price hikes. Tomatoes are 40% more expensive now than they were this time last year. Bad growing weather, tariffs, and rising fuel prices have all contributed to the huge change in tomato prices, reports the New York Times.
Coffee, another imported product, is 19% more expensive than it was last spring.
You’re also likely seeing inflated prices at the butcher counter. Meat is up 9% overall, but beef has grown even more expensive. Ground beef is about 15% pricier, beef roasts are 18% more, and steak is up 16%.
What’s contributing to the price spikes? Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products.
....
“Most of what we’re seeing now in the food price chain probably predates the conflict,” Foster, a professor of agricultural economics, said. “We’re cautiously waiting to see what the June numbers and the May numbers might show as they come out in terms of … the extent to which energy shocks in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping blockades and so forth are going to impact food prices.”
“The big story right now is oil, the next story is food,” economist Justin Wolfers agreed in an interview with MS Now.
“You see fuel prices rise, that’s the rock hitting the pond. And then the ripples are that jet fuel prices rise, and air fuel prices rise, and then the price of trucking your groceries to the grocery store rises. That’s the full set of ripples out of this,” Wolfers explained in another segment on the network.
...
If you’re looking for a silver lining in these tough economic times, check out the egg aisle. Eggs are 39% cheaper than they were this time last year, thanks to some normalization following last year’s avian flu crisis.
there is quite a few clips of Trump where he was asked about inflation and affordability and he basically turned into Frank Reynolds+ Show Spoiler + as he proudly declared eggs to be way cheaper under his competent and benevolent rule. too bad all other necessities of daily life got more expensive(tariffs?) and even eggs being cheaper won't be a thing before long it would seem as the economic fallout of the Iran war will have its due.
there's also a good chance we will see some more Trumpian math in action that a lot of people in here are so fond of 
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Prices may have gone up 40% but they would have gone up at 160% if Kamala Harris were POTUS, so because of Trump they're actually down 400%. Have you even said Thank you?
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On May 21 2026 22:11 LightSpectra wrote:
Prices may have gone up 40% but they would have gone up at 160% if Kamala Harris were POTUS, so Trump actually saved you 400%. Have you even said Thank you?
I think despite prices having raised by 40%, it is really safe to say that Trump lowered prices by at least 1600%.
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On May 21 2026 22:00 Doublemint wrote:Groceries just had the biggest price hike in years. It’s about to get even worse, experts warn @TheHill Show nested quote +The price of groceries rose 2.9% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, according to government figures released in May. That was the highest year-over-year inflation rate for the category since August 2023.
When compared to the same time last year, fruits and vegetables have seen some of the biggest price hikes. Tomatoes are 40% more expensive now than they were this time last year. Bad growing weather, tariffs, and rising fuel prices have all contributed to the huge change in tomato prices, reports the New York Times.
Coffee, another imported product, is 19% more expensive than it was last spring.
You’re also likely seeing inflated prices at the butcher counter. Meat is up 9% overall, but beef has grown even more expensive. Ground beef is about 15% pricier, beef roasts are 18% more, and steak is up 16%.
What’s contributing to the price spikes? Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products.
....
“Most of what we’re seeing now in the food price chain probably predates the conflict,” Foster, a professor of agricultural economics, said. “We’re cautiously waiting to see what the June numbers and the May numbers might show as they come out in terms of … the extent to which energy shocks in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping blockades and so forth are going to impact food prices.”
“The big story right now is oil, the next story is food,” economist Justin Wolfers agreed in an interview with MS Now.
“You see fuel prices rise, that’s the rock hitting the pond. And then the ripples are that jet fuel prices rise, and air fuel prices rise, and then the price of trucking your groceries to the grocery store rises. That’s the full set of ripples out of this,” Wolfers explained in another segment on the network.
...
If you’re looking for a silver lining in these tough economic times, check out the egg aisle. Eggs are 39% cheaper than they were this time last year, thanks to some normalization following last year’s avian flu crisis. there is quite a few clips of Trump where he was asked about inflation and affordability and he basically turned into Frank Reynolds + Show Spoiler + as he proudly declared eggs to be way cheaper under his competent and benevolent rule. too bad all other necessities of daily life got more expensive(tariffs?) and even eggs being cheaper won't be a thing before long it would seem as the economic fallout of the Iran war will have its due. there's also a good chance we will see some more Trumpian math in action that a lot of people in here are so fond of
The article cited bad weather, tariffs, and gas prices as key factors for why these prices have increased, and we can definitely connect Trump to his tariffs and his war that's increasing gas prices. Both were unnecessary and voluntarily caused by Trump. He's definitely to blame for contributing to the increased cost of groceries.
I wonder how many of his followers would believe him if he just casually lies and says he's actually made those foods cheaper, even though they're more expensive in real life.
Additionally, I wonder how many of his followers would still believe him if he cited a mathematically invalid percent decrease, like not only did he lower groceries by 50% (mathematically possible but factually inaccurate), but in fact he magically lowered groceries by 600% (factually inaccurate and mathematically impossible, as we've previously established).
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Northern Ireland26854 Posts
On May 21 2026 16:54 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 16:36 Acrofales wrote:On May 21 2026 16:10 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On May 21 2026 15:50 EnDeR_ wrote:On May 21 2026 14:20 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On May 21 2026 06:18 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 06:07 Simberto wrote:On May 21 2026 05:54 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 04:31 dyhb wrote:On May 21 2026 01:58 Razyda wrote:
[quote]
To be fair it is funny, so why not have a little laugh?
I don’t really know! It’s like there’s some people big-mad over others not being outraged enough in their posts. They appoint themselves inquisitors of Trump apologia and if I use words they don’t, my verdict is guilty and my sentence is excommunication from polite discussion. If you can’t laugh at the political parade, you’re just going to end up a frustrated and a bitter old crank. And Trump has another two and a half years in office, and he’ll probably be equally insane outside of office if people are still focused on Trump at that point. So you might as well enjoy the 5,900% savings on your formerly 600$ drugs. Tbh I'm largely in agreement with you here. I think oBlade should just go like 'yeah, Trump's math is obviously stupid and he's barely coherent, but I like his policies so whatever' and then you know, we're still gonna disagree with the part about liking his policies (but maybe not in the context of reducing drug prices?) and it's all good. But with you, you're pretty consistently critical of Trump, so I don't understand why you're getting the pushback you're getting. And while I think there are countless examples of reasons to be genuinely angry about Trump, him not knowing math or numbers isn't one of them. It's in sharpiegate-territory. It's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to use it as a platform for lamenting the death of intellectualism or whatever, fine, not really gonna disagree there, it's genuinely sad that the US has a genuine idiot as president, but we can still laugh at it. Sometimes, I'll even laugh with him - I genuinely laughed out loud at the AI pooping on the no kings protest, for example - I'm not gonna fucking let him take fun away from me in during the attempted destruction of the western liberal world order. Besides, I actually think you guys need to look at the post-Trump future. If Mandela can forgive white people, we can forgive MAGA. I think it is important to keep perspective here. Imagine any pre-Trump president doing this. It would have been an absolutely massive scandal that the president is so uneducated. And rightfully so. The president of the United States of America should be able to somewhat reliably do middle school math. Anything else is just ridiculous and embarrassing. But Trump just shifted shit so far, has so many scandals constantly going on, that this is at best a minor thing with him. We should hold Trump to the same standards that we held previous presidents, instead of holding him to the standard of some angry special needs kid, where you can excuse a lot of things. I could totally see Dubya do something like this. One of our leading newspapers had a column called 'Bush of the day' during his first term at least (I stopped buying the paper regularly at some point, so I dunno when they stopped), and well, that column consisted of one stupid quote by Dubya per day, like 'I know the man and fish can coexist peacefully'. I'd laugh at that, and then participate in marches against the invasion of Iraq, because that shit actually pissed me off, but the dumb incoherent statements were ridiculous. And yes, it's ridiculous - and even embarassing. I see dyhb as being entirely in agreement with that. But while there's a bunch of shit Trump does that is outrageous, this, to me, isn't one of them. To be fair I can understand how math teachers might have grounds to be more appalled than others. I can't believe I'm on this side of the issue... but... yeah, I'm not that surprised or outraged at this either. Sure the late night talk show hosts and the era relevant equivalent of John Stewart would have mocked said previous president... but I don't think it would have been a big scandal. Maths, even very basic stuff like simple arithmetics, algebra or even times table are a 'use it or lose it' thing. Trump's main skill seems to be marketing/reading the room. His main strength is promising things, and knowing what to promise his target audience, in essence he is a salesman. Just going off many salesmen (eg marketing, representatives etc) I've met and worked with in the past. People not being able to do very basic maths is depressingly common, people who are otherwise smart, capable, articulate people. People, who I'm pretty sure, have at some stage have been taught this at school and were at some stage able to answer questions on tests on this stuff. Sometimes I still double take when it becomes apparent when seemingly normal people around me don't know even their high single digit times tables. Possibly more than half of all people where this has come up with, who do not specifically work in a technical field, cannot do very very simple algebra in their head. Not knowing how percentages work? Eh I think you will be suprised how common that is. You know that age old question of 'when will I ever use this' when it comes to maths in school? As it turns out, we are surrounded by people who genuinely have no intention of using maths at all in their lives, short of counting, and very basic addition/subtraction. I mean, sure, but he said in the same line that he wasn't going to just lower prices by 30-40%, he was going to reduce them by 1000%. If you are dividing initial price by final price and multiplying by 100 (I keep picturing him using an oversized calculator with bright buttons and looking at the result with a puzzled expression), then a 33% decrease is actually a tripling of the original price. You can't have it both ways. I'm not having it both ways, he either doesn't know, or doesn't care how percentages actually work. If he doesn't care, again, he's primarily a salesman (and one that is liberal with obvious, observable, demonstrable truth), he's just going to go with big number. Very likely, he actually doesn't know how percentages work, again, this is surprisingly common among non-technical people. It could very well be a combination of both, in that he neither knows, nor cares how percentages work. He has made up in his head some way this is a 1000% reduction. (it's obviously not actually correct, and even doing percentages wrong there is no guarantee he even did the arithmetic correctly while doing percentages wrong, there is, additionally, no guarantee he did any maths at all, and could have just picked a number that sounded nice and big). And in the great American tradition of being loudly and confidently wrong, he just rolled with it, loudly and confidently, it's a modus operandi that has worked well for him so far. And this would've died with this very obvious conclusion if we didn't have a few "but akshually the math totally makes sense" walls of text from oBlade. This is far less about the president. He's dumb as a brick, and very arrogant about his utter ignorance. That was already established in his first term when he extended the hurricane's projected path with a sharpie. Him just throwing out big numbers to sound impressive is fully on-brand and quite unsurprising. It's the cult of MAGA the argument is with, who are increasingly incapable of saying "yeah, he doesn't know math, or understand basic science, but we don't care", and instead double down on that what he says must be correct and sensible. I mean, did you open that spoiler oBlade wrote to "prove" the math is correct? It's impressive in its gishgalloping length and gibberishness. I am not sure an LLM is capable of creating that level of word soup, so I err on the side of him actually typing all of that. I mean, yes, I opened up that spoiler, there just wasn't anything there I cared to engage with . After seeing the claim I'm just working under the assumption that Trump is one of these non-technical people who can't do basic maths. Past that point, he might have, again, done something wrong with calculating percentages, done something wrong AND also did the arithmetics wrong or picked a number out of the thin air that he liked, there's basically no meaningful information on what he actually did if you can't assume someone is using either the correct method OR did the calculation correctly. I was mostly agreeing with Drone that this is not that outrageous, disagreeing with Simberto that this would have been a scandal in the past. Hilarious and inviting ridicule? Absolutely. Scandal? meh, elected officials have not been technical folk in the US in any meaningful numbers for a very long time, if ever. If anything not understanding percentages might, for a depressingly large (and sometimes wealthy/successful!) portion of the population, not just the US population either, be relatable.
How does a guy who made his name as a business mogul, who went to business school not know how percentages work? Perhaps how that explains how he can bankrupt a casino!
I’d largely agree it’s not individually some massive scandal, but it’s symptomatic of things that are problematic in sheer volume. It’s a near stream of consciousness of either bullshit, incompetence or both that is so disgraceful. On top of that there’s this infuriating handwaving, which as Acro said has people arguing over things they’d happily move on from in its absence.
I view the political class (in theory) as a middleman between the kind of moral wants of the population, and addressing those problems with recourse to ye olde technocrats. They need the ‘people skills’ to connect with the former, whoever they are, outsource that to the policy wonks, and come up with ways of packaging policy and selling it. You still get the odd technocrat politician but they’re a relatively rare beast, but you don’t need to be an expert, just savvy enough to be able to delegate properly.
Dave American works damn hard, but he’s getting poorer and doesn’t like this. He’s a good lad, good dad but hey he doesn’t understand percentages, much less complex macroeconomics. He shouldn’t need to know the mechanics to be able to seek redress, so Jane politician should be able to listen to such folks and consult John Economist etc to figure something out.
With recourse to my crude model, essentially the worst possible politician if you want good policy is one who’ll just lie to the wider populace on the regular, and either lack the ability to assess policy, or actively just disregard genuine expertise to play to the gallery even if it’s shite actual policy.
Purely a hypothetical creature of course, I can’t think of any contemporary politicians who tick those boxes.
As an aside I think many politicians are considerably smarter than their public facings which I think ties back into your talking of relatability, which definitely is a thing. I just think there’s a meaningful difference between simplifying or ‘dumbing down’ for a wider audience and chatting outright bullshit
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On May 21 2026 14:20 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 06:18 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 06:07 Simberto wrote:On May 21 2026 05:54 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 04:31 dyhb wrote:On May 21 2026 01:58 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 23:35 dyhb wrote:On May 20 2026 22:52 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 06:47 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On May 20 2026 06:05 EnDeR_ wrote:
[quote]
How does that particular math work? Let's aim for a trumpian 1000% decrease. Say the current price is 100 dollars. What number would that trumpian decrease be? Like, if I'm using a baseline of say 90 dollars, what is the final number that I'm arriving at?
Ninety would probably reduce by nine hundred, I guess? $900 off a $90 item, so a free item plus 810 free additional dollars? "Buying" an originally-priced $100 item costs you zero dollars and you get an additional $900 with that now-free item? Since $100 would reduce by $1,000? (A discount of more than 100% is typically nonsensical in most real purchases. Obviously, Trump doesn't understand middle school math, which is why even his niece said he had to cheat on the SATs.) And you complaining about US healthcare... On even less serious note, since I enjoy math puzzles, and now apparently also dissecting logic of stupid people, it seems like Simberto was closest. quotes of trump statements are from AI so may not be perfect. "A pill that costs $10 in London costs $130 in New York or Los Angeles." that would be 1200% increase "A drug that costs $86 in Berlin cost $1,300 in New York." that would be roughly 1400% increase So I would guess in Trump mind if you take away the difference you decreasing by the same percent. May be completely wrong, however this seems most probable. It also sounded like a sloppy description using percentages to me. The original markup was 500%, so when you slash the markup you claim you've reduced it by 400%. But that's sloppy language on reducing the percentage of increase, not the actual price. Which I do think people know, but the temptation to transition to the dunk phase, or the mock and gawk phase, is great. To be fair it is funny, so why not have a little laugh? I don’t really know! It’s like there’s some people big-mad over others not being outraged enough in their posts. They appoint themselves inquisitors of Trump apologia and if I use words they don’t, my verdict is guilty and my sentence is excommunication from polite discussion. If you can’t laugh at the political parade, you’re just going to end up a frustrated and a bitter old crank. And Trump has another two and a half years in office, and he’ll probably be equally insane outside of office if people are still focused on Trump at that point. So you might as well enjoy the 5,900% savings on your formerly 600$ drugs. Tbh I'm largely in agreement with you here. I think oBlade should just go like 'yeah, Trump's math is obviously stupid and he's barely coherent, but I like his policies so whatever' and then you know, we're still gonna disagree with the part about liking his policies (but maybe not in the context of reducing drug prices?) and it's all good. But with you, you're pretty consistently critical of Trump, so I don't understand why you're getting the pushback you're getting. And while I think there are countless examples of reasons to be genuinely angry about Trump, him not knowing math or numbers isn't one of them. It's in sharpiegate-territory. It's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to use it as a platform for lamenting the death of intellectualism or whatever, fine, not really gonna disagree there, it's genuinely sad that the US has a genuine idiot as president, but we can still laugh at it. Sometimes, I'll even laugh with him - I genuinely laughed out loud at the AI pooping on the no kings protest, for example - I'm not gonna fucking let him take fun away from me in during the attempted destruction of the western liberal world order. Besides, I actually think you guys need to look at the post-Trump future. If Mandela can forgive white people, we can forgive MAGA. I think it is important to keep perspective here. Imagine any pre-Trump president doing this. It would have been an absolutely massive scandal that the president is so uneducated. And rightfully so. The president of the United States of America should be able to somewhat reliably do middle school math. Anything else is just ridiculous and embarrassing. But Trump just shifted shit so far, has so many scandals constantly going on, that this is at best a minor thing with him. We should hold Trump to the same standards that we held previous presidents, instead of holding him to the standard of some angry special needs kid, where you can excuse a lot of things. I could totally see Dubya do something like this. One of our leading newspapers had a column called 'Bush of the day' during his first term at least (I stopped buying the paper regularly at some point, so I dunno when they stopped), and well, that column consisted of one stupid quote by Dubya per day, like 'I know the man and fish can coexist peacefully'. I'd laugh at that, and then participate in marches against the invasion of Iraq, because that shit actually pissed me off, but the dumb incoherent statements were ridiculous. And yes, it's ridiculous - and even embarassing. I see dyhb as being entirely in agreement with that. But while there's a bunch of shit Trump does that is outrageous, this, to me, isn't one of them. To be fair I can understand how math teachers might have grounds to be more appalled than others. I can't believe I'm on this side of the issue... but... yeah, I'm not that surprised or outraged at this either. Sure the late night talk show hosts and the era relevant equivalent of John Stewart would have mocked said previous president... but I don't think it would have been a big scandal. Maths, even very basic stuff like simple arithmetics, algebra or even times table are a 'use it or lose it' thing. Trump's main skill seems to be marketing/reading the room. His main strength is promising things, and knowing what to promise his target audience, in essence he is a salesman. Just going off many salesmen (eg marketing, representatives etc) I've met and worked with in the past. People not being able to do very basic maths is depressingly common, people who are otherwise smart, capable, articulate people. People, who I'm pretty sure, have at some stage have been taught this at school and were at some stage able to answer questions on tests on this stuff. Sometimes I still double take when it becomes apparent when seemingly normal people around me don't know even their high single digit times tables. Possibly more than half of all people where this has come up with, who do not specifically work in a technical field, cannot do very very simple algebra in their head. Not knowing how percentages work? Eh I think you will be suprised how common that is. You know that age old question of 'when will I ever use this' when it comes to maths in school? As it turns out, we are surrounded by people who genuinely have no intention of using maths at all in their lives, short of counting, and very basic addition/subtraction.
The big issue to me is not the mistake, it is the double and triple down on it by everyone involved. Him, his inner circle, Republicans, right wing news, right wing influencers, his cult followers, all trip over themselves to say he’s right, brilliant, and everything amazing.
When they are doing this on something so incredibly obviously stupid and wrong, you know that they are doing this for literally everything he says. And we can see this also in Iran and the imminent surrender for the past 60 days.
Democracy requires truth and accountability. Dictatorships do not.
Another reason to make fun of it, is you can do it to conservatives and if they are not full worm brained MAGAs, they will even laugh and tell you other dumb things. It starts to put cracks in the myth and more people can start to see him without robes. And it’s fun and cathartic!
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it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread?
- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that
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On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:
should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread?
Seconded.
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On May 21 2026 23:10 Billyboy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 14:20 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On May 21 2026 06:18 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 06:07 Simberto wrote:On May 21 2026 05:54 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 04:31 dyhb wrote:On May 21 2026 01:58 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 23:35 dyhb wrote:On May 20 2026 22:52 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 06:47 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
[quote]
Ninety would probably reduce by nine hundred, I guess? $900 off a $90 item, so a free item plus 810 free additional dollars?
"Buying" an originally-priced $100 item costs you zero dollars and you get an additional $900 with that now-free item? Since $100 would reduce by $1,000?
(A discount of more than 100% is typically nonsensical in most real purchases. Obviously, Trump doesn't understand middle school math, which is why even his niece said he had to cheat on the SATs.) And you complaining about US healthcare... On even less serious note, since I enjoy math puzzles, and now apparently also dissecting logic of stupid people, it seems like Simberto was closest. quotes of trump statements are from AI so may not be perfect. "A pill that costs $10 in London costs $130 in New York or Los Angeles." that would be 1200% increase "A drug that costs $86 in Berlin cost $1,300 in New York." that would be roughly 1400% increase So I would guess in Trump mind if you take away the difference you decreasing by the same percent. May be completely wrong, however this seems most probable. It also sounded like a sloppy description using percentages to me. The original markup was 500%, so when you slash the markup you claim you've reduced it by 400%. But that's sloppy language on reducing the percentage of increase, not the actual price. Which I do think people know, but the temptation to transition to the dunk phase, or the mock and gawk phase, is great. To be fair it is funny, so why not have a little laugh? I don’t really know! It’s like there’s some people big-mad over others not being outraged enough in their posts. They appoint themselves inquisitors of Trump apologia and if I use words they don’t, my verdict is guilty and my sentence is excommunication from polite discussion. If you can’t laugh at the political parade, you’re just going to end up a frustrated and a bitter old crank. And Trump has another two and a half years in office, and he’ll probably be equally insane outside of office if people are still focused on Trump at that point. So you might as well enjoy the 5,900% savings on your formerly 600$ drugs. Tbh I'm largely in agreement with you here. I think oBlade should just go like 'yeah, Trump's math is obviously stupid and he's barely coherent, but I like his policies so whatever' and then you know, we're still gonna disagree with the part about liking his policies (but maybe not in the context of reducing drug prices?) and it's all good. But with you, you're pretty consistently critical of Trump, so I don't understand why you're getting the pushback you're getting. And while I think there are countless examples of reasons to be genuinely angry about Trump, him not knowing math or numbers isn't one of them. It's in sharpiegate-territory. It's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to use it as a platform for lamenting the death of intellectualism or whatever, fine, not really gonna disagree there, it's genuinely sad that the US has a genuine idiot as president, but we can still laugh at it. Sometimes, I'll even laugh with him - I genuinely laughed out loud at the AI pooping on the no kings protest, for example - I'm not gonna fucking let him take fun away from me in during the attempted destruction of the western liberal world order. Besides, I actually think you guys need to look at the post-Trump future. If Mandela can forgive white people, we can forgive MAGA. I think it is important to keep perspective here. Imagine any pre-Trump president doing this. It would have been an absolutely massive scandal that the president is so uneducated. And rightfully so. The president of the United States of America should be able to somewhat reliably do middle school math. Anything else is just ridiculous and embarrassing. But Trump just shifted shit so far, has so many scandals constantly going on, that this is at best a minor thing with him. We should hold Trump to the same standards that we held previous presidents, instead of holding him to the standard of some angry special needs kid, where you can excuse a lot of things. I could totally see Dubya do something like this. One of our leading newspapers had a column called 'Bush of the day' during his first term at least (I stopped buying the paper regularly at some point, so I dunno when they stopped), and well, that column consisted of one stupid quote by Dubya per day, like 'I know the man and fish can coexist peacefully'. I'd laugh at that, and then participate in marches against the invasion of Iraq, because that shit actually pissed me off, but the dumb incoherent statements were ridiculous. And yes, it's ridiculous - and even embarassing. I see dyhb as being entirely in agreement with that. But while there's a bunch of shit Trump does that is outrageous, this, to me, isn't one of them. To be fair I can understand how math teachers might have grounds to be more appalled than others. I can't believe I'm on this side of the issue... but... yeah, I'm not that surprised or outraged at this either. Sure the late night talk show hosts and the era relevant equivalent of John Stewart would have mocked said previous president... but I don't think it would have been a big scandal. Maths, even very basic stuff like simple arithmetics, algebra or even times table are a 'use it or lose it' thing. Trump's main skill seems to be marketing/reading the room. His main strength is promising things, and knowing what to promise his target audience, in essence he is a salesman. Just going off many salesmen (eg marketing, representatives etc) I've met and worked with in the past. People not being able to do very basic maths is depressingly common, people who are otherwise smart, capable, articulate people. People, who I'm pretty sure, have at some stage have been taught this at school and were at some stage able to answer questions on tests on this stuff. Sometimes I still double take when it becomes apparent when seemingly normal people around me don't know even their high single digit times tables. Possibly more than half of all people where this has come up with, who do not specifically work in a technical field, cannot do very very simple algebra in their head. Not knowing how percentages work? Eh I think you will be suprised how common that is. You know that age old question of 'when will I ever use this' when it comes to maths in school? As it turns out, we are surrounded by people who genuinely have no intention of using maths at all in their lives, short of counting, and very basic addition/subtraction. The big issue to me is not the mistake, it is the double and triple down on it by everyone involved. Him, his inner circle, Republicans, right wing news, right wing influencers, his cult followers, all trip over themselves to say he’s right, brilliant, and everything amazing.
Same thing with "the President and a small group of people know exactly what covfefe means", tariffing an island inhabited only by penguins, and calling his own appointments "low IQ". There can be mistakes in MAGAland but they can never be attributed to Dear Leader, because his infallibility is a core doctrine. If they admit he might've lied about something then they're going to have to come up with a good reason for why he's innocent of everything in the Epstein files et al. beyond "because he said so and I have faith."
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Northern Ireland26854 Posts
On May 21 2026 21:05 Razyda wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 18:12 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On May 21 2026 18:03 Uldridge wrote:
It's incredible to me that we can have a discussion about the most powerful man in the world, more or less, being let off the hook for making retarded statements... As it turns out in reality, the single most common and effective prerequisite for getting to a position of immense power, is the hunger for power. Nope, it is the ability to trick most people that you give a damn about them.
You don’t really have that without the urge for personal power.
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On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that
Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha.
Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound?
Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html
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Northern Ireland26854 Posts
On May 21 2026 23:10 Billyboy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 14:20 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On May 21 2026 06:18 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 06:07 Simberto wrote:On May 21 2026 05:54 Liquid`Drone wrote:On May 21 2026 04:31 dyhb wrote:On May 21 2026 01:58 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 23:35 dyhb wrote:On May 20 2026 22:52 Razyda wrote:On May 20 2026 06:47 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
[quote]
Ninety would probably reduce by nine hundred, I guess? $900 off a $90 item, so a free item plus 810 free additional dollars?
"Buying" an originally-priced $100 item costs you zero dollars and you get an additional $900 with that now-free item? Since $100 would reduce by $1,000?
(A discount of more than 100% is typically nonsensical in most real purchases. Obviously, Trump doesn't understand middle school math, which is why even his niece said he had to cheat on the SATs.) And you complaining about US healthcare... On even less serious note, since I enjoy math puzzles, and now apparently also dissecting logic of stupid people, it seems like Simberto was closest. quotes of trump statements are from AI so may not be perfect. "A pill that costs $10 in London costs $130 in New York or Los Angeles." that would be 1200% increase "A drug that costs $86 in Berlin cost $1,300 in New York." that would be roughly 1400% increase So I would guess in Trump mind if you take away the difference you decreasing by the same percent. May be completely wrong, however this seems most probable. It also sounded like a sloppy description using percentages to me. The original markup was 500%, so when you slash the markup you claim you've reduced it by 400%. But that's sloppy language on reducing the percentage of increase, not the actual price. Which I do think people know, but the temptation to transition to the dunk phase, or the mock and gawk phase, is great. To be fair it is funny, so why not have a little laugh? I don’t really know! It’s like there’s some people big-mad over others not being outraged enough in their posts. They appoint themselves inquisitors of Trump apologia and if I use words they don’t, my verdict is guilty and my sentence is excommunication from polite discussion. If you can’t laugh at the political parade, you’re just going to end up a frustrated and a bitter old crank. And Trump has another two and a half years in office, and he’ll probably be equally insane outside of office if people are still focused on Trump at that point. So you might as well enjoy the 5,900% savings on your formerly 600$ drugs. Tbh I'm largely in agreement with you here. I think oBlade should just go like 'yeah, Trump's math is obviously stupid and he's barely coherent, but I like his policies so whatever' and then you know, we're still gonna disagree with the part about liking his policies (but maybe not in the context of reducing drug prices?) and it's all good. But with you, you're pretty consistently critical of Trump, so I don't understand why you're getting the pushback you're getting. And while I think there are countless examples of reasons to be genuinely angry about Trump, him not knowing math or numbers isn't one of them. It's in sharpiegate-territory. It's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to use it as a platform for lamenting the death of intellectualism or whatever, fine, not really gonna disagree there, it's genuinely sad that the US has a genuine idiot as president, but we can still laugh at it. Sometimes, I'll even laugh with him - I genuinely laughed out loud at the AI pooping on the no kings protest, for example - I'm not gonna fucking let him take fun away from me in during the attempted destruction of the western liberal world order. Besides, I actually think you guys need to look at the post-Trump future. If Mandela can forgive white people, we can forgive MAGA. I think it is important to keep perspective here. Imagine any pre-Trump president doing this. It would have been an absolutely massive scandal that the president is so uneducated. And rightfully so. The president of the United States of America should be able to somewhat reliably do middle school math. Anything else is just ridiculous and embarrassing. But Trump just shifted shit so far, has so many scandals constantly going on, that this is at best a minor thing with him. We should hold Trump to the same standards that we held previous presidents, instead of holding him to the standard of some angry special needs kid, where you can excuse a lot of things. I could totally see Dubya do something like this. One of our leading newspapers had a column called 'Bush of the day' during his first term at least (I stopped buying the paper regularly at some point, so I dunno when they stopped), and well, that column consisted of one stupid quote by Dubya per day, like 'I know the man and fish can coexist peacefully'. I'd laugh at that, and then participate in marches against the invasion of Iraq, because that shit actually pissed me off, but the dumb incoherent statements were ridiculous. And yes, it's ridiculous - and even embarassing. I see dyhb as being entirely in agreement with that. But while there's a bunch of shit Trump does that is outrageous, this, to me, isn't one of them. To be fair I can understand how math teachers might have grounds to be more appalled than others. I can't believe I'm on this side of the issue... but... yeah, I'm not that surprised or outraged at this either. Sure the late night talk show hosts and the era relevant equivalent of John Stewart would have mocked said previous president... but I don't think it would have been a big scandal. Maths, even very basic stuff like simple arithmetics, algebra or even times table are a 'use it or lose it' thing. Trump's main skill seems to be marketing/reading the room. His main strength is promising things, and knowing what to promise his target audience, in essence he is a salesman. Just going off many salesmen (eg marketing, representatives etc) I've met and worked with in the past. People not being able to do very basic maths is depressingly common, people who are otherwise smart, capable, articulate people. People, who I'm pretty sure, have at some stage have been taught this at school and were at some stage able to answer questions on tests on this stuff. Sometimes I still double take when it becomes apparent when seemingly normal people around me don't know even their high single digit times tables. Possibly more than half of all people where this has come up with, who do not specifically work in a technical field, cannot do very very simple algebra in their head. Not knowing how percentages work? Eh I think you will be suprised how common that is. You know that age old question of 'when will I ever use this' when it comes to maths in school? As it turns out, we are surrounded by people who genuinely have no intention of using maths at all in their lives, short of counting, and very basic addition/subtraction. The big issue to me is not the mistake, it is the double and triple down on it by everyone involved. Him, his inner circle, Republicans, right wing news, right wing influencers, his cult followers, all trip over themselves to say he’s right, brilliant, and everything amazing. When they are doing this on something so incredibly obviously stupid and wrong, you know that they are doing this for literally everything he says. And we can see this also in Iran and the imminent surrender for the past 60 days. Democracy requires truth and accountability. Dictatorships do not. Another reason to make fun of it, is you can do it to conservatives and if they are not full worm brained MAGAs, they will even laugh and tell you other dumb things. It starts to put cracks in the myth and more people can start to see him without robes. And it’s fun and cathartic!
Yep.
Bush II got roundly mocked, IMO sometimes unfairly, for genuine slips of the tongue, some genuinely idiotic comments.
I don’t recall people drawing their battle lines and claiming these were all sensibly worded comments, and you were an idiot for not getting it.
The curious part to me with this phenomenon is seemingly the least deserving public figure of such worship is the one who benefits from it the most.
It’s a proper crazy shower indeed. Fuck me you’ve JD Vance saying the bloody Pope is wrong in matters of Catholic theology and that’s fine apparently?
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Northern Ireland26854 Posts
On May 21 2026 23:40 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha. Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound? Show nested quote +Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html
What is your objection to Bezos’ pontificating?
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On May 21 2026 23:40 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha. Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound? Show nested quote +Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html hard to discuss a tax plan without a plan...
Should the rich pay more and the poor pay less? Yes.
Any other questions?
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On May 21 2026 23:45 WombaT wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 23:40 GreenHorizons wrote:On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha. Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound? Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html What is your objection to Bezos’ pontificating?
He's obviously exploiting people's ignorance to sound benevolent instead of insatiably greedy. It's basically what Trump is doing but without any ambiguity around whether he's oblivious to the actual math. Also it's the kind of thing someone like Fetterman would love as a "compromise".
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On May 21 2026 23:49 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 23:45 WombaT wrote:On May 21 2026 23:40 GreenHorizons wrote:On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha. Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound? Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html What is your objection to Bezos’ pontificating? He's obviously exploiting people's ignorance to sound benevolent instead of insatiably greedy. It's basically what Trump is doing but without any ambiguity around whether he's oblivious to the actual math. Also it's the kind of thing someone like Fetterman would love as a "compromise". I love how you add all that context when all he said is 'poor people barely pay taxes, why have them pay any at all'.
whats the compromise considering hes musing don't go further then the above.
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On May 21 2026 23:48 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 23:40 GreenHorizons wrote:On May 21 2026 23:15 misirlou wrote:it's been 10 pages, should the thread get renamed to US mathematics mega thread? + Show Spoiler +- this reminds me of a situation when I was a kid, involving the current secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. At the time he was portuguese prime minister and got asked how much he had reduced the deficit in numbers.
"Well, the GDP is 3 billion bucks, 6% of that - 6 times 3 is 18, carry the 0s, just need to do the math"
. yes the math was going correct, you can divide by 100 and multiply by 6 (order dont matter) but he was still clowned for that Like I said, catnip to this crowd haha. Any chance we could get this mathfest to breakdown why Jeff Bezos tax proposition isn't as benevolent as he tried to make it sound? Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes
The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
...
Bezos said the income tax paid by lower earners is “a small amount of money for the government,” and offered the hypothetical example of a healthcare worker who makes $75,000 a year.
“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington,” he said. “They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”
He said he would “advocate” for such a change, but did not offer details on how lawmakers might enact it.
Bezos is the world’s fourth-richest person, with a net worth around $269 billion, according to Forbes https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/jeff-bezos-income-taxes.html hard to discuss a tax plan without a plan... Should the rich pay more and the poor pay less? Yes. Any other questions?
The CNBC article describes it this way:
‘A tale of two economies’
While the bottom half of earners have a lower tax burden, their struggles have been more pronounced amid higher inflation and broader concerns about affordability.
The so-called K-shaped economy illustrates Americans’ diverging experiences: Higher-income households continue to benefit from rising markets and wages, while many lower- and middle-income consumers struggle with higher costs and financial strain.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York research shows that the expiration of pandemic-era subsidies for low- and middle-income households created a noticeable divergence in 2023. More recently, sharply higher gasoline prices amid the Iran war are exacerbating the K-shape, researchers found. Lower earners spend a greater share of their incomes on gasoline relative to higher earners.
“I think what’s going on is that it’s kind of a tale of two economies, so you have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling,” Bezos said.
The notion of whether the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes relative to lower earners has long been a subject of fierce debate.
Critics of raising taxes on higher earners often point to the progressive nature of the federal tax code.
For example, the top 1% of taxpayers accounted for nearly 21% of total adjusted gross income in 2023 — but paid a much larger share, about 38%, of all federal income taxes that year, according to the Tax Foundation, citing IRS data.
Meanwhile, the bottom half of taxpayers accounted for 12% of total income, but just 3% of total income taxes paid.
Placing a higher tax burden on the rich may reduce the amount of money that they save and invest, according to Thomas Savidge, a research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, a free market think tank that promotes limited government.
That saving and investment activity generally “creates access to capital for all, allowing people to create and innovate, making everyone wealthier,” he wrote in 2025.
However, high earners often use the “intricacies of the tax code” to cut their IRS bills, and they pay an effective rate that is “far less” than the rate they must pay on paper, according to a 2024 report by the Yale University Budget Lab.
That said, tax burdens can range widely even among the richest households, it found.
For example, some taxpayers in the top 1% pay an effective tax rate of 3% while others pay as high as 45%, according to the Budget Lab’s analysis.
Some groups in favor of raising taxes on the wealthy say that the U.S. tax system isn’t as progressive as it may seem, when taking a more holistic view of household taxes beyond the personal income tax.
Payroll taxes are the biggest levy that many people pay, and those for Social Security aren’t owed on income above $184,500, according to a recent blog post by Jessica Vela, a federal policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank. Million-dollar earners stopped paying into Social Security for 2026 in early March, the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated.
Low earners also spend a greater share of their income on sales taxes at the state and local level relative to higher earners, contributing to a more regressive tax system, Vela wrote.
When accounting for all federal, state and local taxes paid by U.S. households, the top 1% account for 24% of total tax revenue — only slightly higher than their share of reported income, 20%, according to an ITEP analysis in 2024.
This doesn’t account for so-called unrealized capital gains, or the untaxed profits from stocks and other assets that are disproportionately owned by the wealthy, according to the analysis.
The idea was for people to use their expertise in math, taxes, and education to address/explain it with the vigor they did Trump's shitmath for the benefit of everyone, including the impressionable lurkers  .
In part because he's obviously exploiting people's ignorance to sound benevolent instead of insatiably greedy. It's basically what Trump is doing but without any ambiguity around whether he's oblivious to the actual math. Also it's the kind of thing someone like Fetterman would love as a "compromise".
+ Show Spoiler +Understandable if people's personal animosity takes precedence though.
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If the tax rates for the working class went from 3% to 0%, it would be a 3000% reduction in taxes paid.
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EPT
