What an absolute load of tripe. I'd gladly pay even higher taxes than I do to make sure everyone has access to healthcare and benefits when they need them. "unknown person leeching off the government" is the attitude that just needs to die, it annoys me so much that people still believe this crap, any one of us can be this "unknown person" at some point.
right? and like something i've come to realize over the years is that there is a huge value add of having something just work that i don't think many people actually appreciate. I would absolutely love to pay more in taxes if it meant medicare for all so that if i get hit by a car while riding my bike someone can call 911 and i can go to a hospital and not worry about how much the ambulance costs, whether the doctor i see is "In Network" or not, and not have to figure out how much of whatever needs to be done is covered by the insurance and what the hospital is going to bill me for and whether I can actually afford that or if I need to go into insurmountable debt just to exist.
life already sucks enough as it is, and is entirely too complex in so many aspects that no longer having the "can i afford to not die in an emergency" thought would be such a huge net plus for a huge majority of working americans.
I'd pretty much prefer they'd go against evaders first. two reason: even if it's not as much as what you can tax out of the 99%, it does alleviate middle class pressure.
second reason, middle class can't get savings any more. savings are essential for a wealth of reason, including starting a family, a business, investing in property or other people ideas. these are all essential for growing a solid economy long run.
angel and VC money works as a surrogate but it goes only so far as it aligns with the 1%
incentives; it burns as much as it elevates, maybe even more, and is more of a way to
extract money from growing SMB instead of a way to build a wealthy middle class, as they only play for the exit.
