# WTF is wrong with US society? Do we just accept total corruption? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 30, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-wrong-with-us-society-do-we-just-accept-total-corruption/961978 "2022-03-30T14:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 37
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-wrong-with-us-society-do-we-just-accept-total-corruption/961978/37 "2022-03-31T19:19:42Z")
I had a thread about wealthy people and whether or not they pay their fair share of taxes. Here’s a kind of summary post from within: > [@Do the rich pay their fair share?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/921817/101): > > For anybody still interested in this topic, I found another really fascinating page and set of charts: I’m going to endeavor to get each of the charts to display here. Buckle up wink[[image] ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-capital-gains-rate-1-JPG.jpg)[[image] ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-effective-corporate-rate-2-PDF.jpg)[[image] ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-social-security-and-medicare-3-PDF.jpg)[[image] ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-average-marginal-income-tax-rates-4-PDF_0.jpg)[[image] ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-marginal-income-tax-rates-5-PDF.jpg) What’s my point ? Same as the point I made earlier: as a nation, we talk a whole lot abou… Why wouldn’t monkeying with marginal tax rates really alter revenue ? I suspect it’s everything I reference: the intentionallyl labyrinthine Tax Code – a road map _to_ corruption and _away from_ the vaunted “Free Market.” I also agree with the macro idea that the US – call it corruption or not – may beat out all the other advanced economies when it comes to profiting from misery (a/k/a perverse incentives), whether that be law-justice-crime-punishment, sickness/health, war (“defense”), substance abuse … But the idea that monied interests have such an outsized role in crafting our legislation and social policy (I’ve long said we need to get the money out of politics before real change is even remotely possible, but we’ve gone the wrong way in rather eye-popping fashion – see: Citizens United, et al) is like if Lia Thomas, the high-profile transgender female swimming star, had written the very laws that allowed her to compete against Assigned Female At Birth swimmers. Which she didn’t. [It’s also funny that the same people who violently defend the wealthy for getting ahead pillory Ms. Thomas for doing essentially the same thing, but truly through hard work and – apparently – with clean hands] In the US, wealthy people are directly and/or indirectly responsible for the loopholes that they exploit, and then ask what’s wrong with simply following the law. “Disingenuous” isn’t a strong enough word. It’s also akin to when Dick Cheney gave a highly questionable quote _to_ the New York Times in an interview (about the runup to the Iraq War (?)), and then – shortly after – referenced the same dubious statement and cited as his source [wait for it] the New York Times. No. **[Baksheesh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baksheesh)** isn’t the coin of the realm in the US, mostly. But as others have said, we do the baksheesh thing writ large – commensurate with a ginormous GDP. It reminds me a bit of that movie, “**[Dirty Rotten Scoundrels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Rotten_Scoundrels_(film))**.” We’re sort of the Michael Caine of corruption. Many other countries are more the Steve Martin types. In emerging nations where the corruption is out, loud, and proud, a tiny handful of the robber barons wear $3,000 suits. Because of the David/Goliath aspect at play, here (IMHO), we have a decidedly higher number of these types working the system. ISTM that corrupt money steadfastly refuses to trickle down like it’s supposed to. Not without a helluva fight, anyway. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-wrong-with-us-society-do-we-just-accept-total-corruption/961978)._