Stumblinbear

That's absolutely not the case. They lobby to prevent the IRS making their own version of TurboTax, not lobbying to make the tax code more complex. Taxes are complex because we have little real oversight but a lot of deductions and credits. The IRS literally cannot track everything they offer deductions for, so it goes largely on the honor system until something seems fishy.

If you have a house, you have deductions. If you added solar to your house, you have deductions. If you bought an electric car or a hybrid, you had deductions for a while there. If you rent you have deductions in some states. You have to list your dependents for credits.

The IRS is incapable of tracking all of this.

And I just don't understand how I can walk around so wrong that I end up in jail for trespassing, or vibrate my vocal cords in such a wrong way that I end up in prison for "trying to rob a bank." smh

It mostly works by forcing companies to pay back their loans rather than keeping them indefinitely, which pulls excess money out of the economy instead of it circulating continuously. When interest rates were near zero and the reserve requirement was dropped for banks, a shitload of this lending was done multiple times, so they're hoping to effectively claw that back

... metal ones?

You mean by.... Fixing the bus lines and adding more public transit?

Unfortunately it's not a "Lemmy issue" it's an "Internet issue." You're more likely to get engagement from those that disagree rather than from those who already agree.

I don't think being inflammatory is helping the situation. I've been surprised before, and just because I'm net negative doesn't mean lurkers haven't read it and listened.

To be fair I didn't link it directly in my comment (though I doubt it would've changed the outcome). Thanks for tracking that down for me, though!

Imo being out with friends and being out with business partners are two totally different states. I can relax with friends, but being at work functions (even if I consider the co-workers I'm with friends) I have to be "on" and I just end up exhausted, even if I end up doing exactly the same thing.

I wouldn't underestimate the psychological aspect, especially when you have to watch what you say more often than around friends

I actually love my job as a software engineer! I'd rather do absolutely nothing else, as a boring desk job where I sit around looking busy all day would bore me to hell and I'd very likely make 1/3 what I'm making now. I find exactly zero interest in a "people job" even if it paid more because I wouldn't enjoy it.

So, the reason I do the job I do is because of personal fulfillment and money. Beyond the bare minimum of survival, that's why people do the jobs they do. It's not rocket science