Comments by "Digital Footballer" (@digitalfootballer9032) on "Into the Shadows" channel.

  1. Lots of words have been overused to the point of becoming meaningless. "Nazi" or "fascist" is a good example. Now just about every time someone disagrees with you they call you a Nazi or a fascist, so really it's lost all meaning...which is unfortunate, because the real Nazis were terrible and this shouldn't be lost to time by misusing the word.
    2
  2. It's all fine and dandy that your higher education is cheap, but that must be because it is subsidized by the government. Which means everyone pays more taxes to have it. I don't know the situation in Germany, but I have had conversations in the comment section here with people from many places across Europe, and I would say on average they are paying roughly 50-70% of their gross earnings to taxes, income tax, VATs, GSTs, sales taxes, property taxes, etc, and they are middle income. That's not the case here. Don't get me wrong plenty of Americans will complain about taxes (I do income tax for a living and hear it all), but in comparison to most other developed countries our taxes are quite low. At the end of the year I usually end up with a federal effective tax of about 10-12%, and 5% or so to the state. We have sales tax of 8%, but that isn't charged on everything. Property tax varies greatly by region. For my wife and I it's roughly 6% of our annual gross income. So I'm at around 20% in hard taxes, plus the sales taxes which are only paid on some items, and also can be avoided in some circumstances, so let's be generous and say it's 5% of our gross annual income. So we keep roughly 70-75% of what we gross. It's the inverse of many other places. So we have to pay more for things like higher education. Well, those who want it pay, the rest of us don't have to pay through taxes. There is also an extensive system of scholarships and grant programs. I got through college fairly cheaply by having a few small scholarships and by going to state community college for two years and state University for another 2, and lived at home during community college. Granted not everyone can do that but it's possible. If you serve in the military, you can often go to college for free, or close to free on military grants. There are also many companies that will pay or reimburse college for employees. So it's really not as bad as people make it sound. For me I'd rather have more money in my pocket and choose what to spend it on, than higher taxes that subsidize something I may never use. But I'm American, and that's just the general attitude here. Not everyone understands that or agrees with it, but that's how this country is. There is a deep sentiment for individualism here and mistrust of government. It's in our roots.
    1
  3. Our taxes are much lower as a result. To "do something about it", as you say, would require a tax hike which is political suicide. Personally I'll take the lower taxes when compared to other countries with socialized healthcare and education, and pay for these things when I need them. Not everyone agrees with me, but that's my preference.
    1
  4. So the real question here is, what was the scrap value of the cobalt-60 rod? 😂
    1
  5. Yes, and you pay roughly 3 times the taxes we do to have these things.
    1