this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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[โ€“] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I read an article on it once and it seems to be based on not understanding the nuances of the US regulatory and legal systems. Like, a corporation can manipulate the tax system so they don't owe any taxes, and corporations are people, so they decide people can declare themselves to be corporations and not pay taxes.

Someone in one state goes to bankruptcy court with a decent lawyer, a lot of preparation, and a very specific set of circumstances and gets their debt written off; they go to bankruptcy court in their own state, representing themselves, no work done, and just declare themselves free of debt. When it doesn't work, instead of finding and confronting the actual reason (which may take work, or may not give them the answer they want), they look for other things to fix. Oh, someone it worked for used this exact phrase, let's use that - it didn't work, but we didn't capitalize some things, so let's Capitalize Random Words for extra Emphasis.

There are also fraudsters who prey on these people, telling them they'll sell them a complete bankruptcy kit for only $200, absolutely guaranteed to get them out of debt. Even better, here, buy this other more expensive kit and you can assign your existing debt tow corporation of your choosing! Or buy this even more expensive kit and you can become a corporation and you'll never owe money again! Or hey, file this set of papers and you'll be given the money the government has been holding onto for you! (That one seems to be some mix of the unclaimed funds database and rich kids aging into their trust money.)

It's interesting in a way, because they know enough to understand that the social contract is broken, and that rich people and corporations aren't subject to the same repressive tax structure as the rest of us. But it's also sad, because they're in too deep to realize that helplessly flailing against a system that was never meant to represent them fairly. And it's annoying af if you ever have to deal with them, because they're usually highly stressed and don't understand why their Magic Words aren't Working like they Should, so they keep re-iterating variations of the danger thing over and over.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It's interesting in a way, because they know enough to understand that the social contract is broken, and that rich people and corporations aren't subject to the same repressive tax structure as the rest of us

This is what fascinates and frustrates me, too. They have so much faith that the system and governing structure was designed by -almost deified- freedom profits, that it blinds them to the failure they are so clearly experiencing.

If they could see through the national-exceptionalist brainwashing they've been exposed to, they'd almost be socialists.