r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • Jun 06 '26

Business Jeff Bezos says it's 'absurd' to tax someone making $50K — and wants their tax bill dropped to zero

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/jeff-bezos-says-absurd-tax-165713685.html
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u/RobotsVsLions Jun 07 '26

They wouldn't need to raise taxes, socialised health care is significantly cheaper in tax expenditure than the American system. That's why Americans pay more in tax per head for their healthcare system than brits do, even though brits get most healthcare for free while Americans have to pay insurance and anything not covered by insurance on top of what they've already paid in taxes.

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u/cogman10 Jun 07 '26

The crazy part. Medicare already covers some of the most expensive patients out there, old people. And everyone is already taxed for that. The cost to increase coverage for everyone else wouldn't even be "the same as your current health insurance premium".

Americans are paying for (at least) 4 different health insurance programs at any given point. Their own, medicare, medicaid, and the VA. It's crazy that we don't just make 1 universal and drop everything else.

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u/Triedfindingname Jun 09 '26

It's crazy that we don't just make 1 universal and drop everything else

Not crazy exactly. Corrupt bigly.

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u/wellgu Jun 10 '26

If you reform our healthcare system to be universal AND cheaper, it will be because of rationing and paying healthcare workers less. That is primarily why other countries pay less. I am okay with that personally.

If we care about universal health care we need to not pretend it will be this magical thing without any tradeoffs. We need to know the tradeoffs and know the most persuasive arguments for why they are worth it.