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Comment by Arainach | Hacker News Reader

It says a lot about America that doing things the right way and paying a whopping 0.5% in tax is a "staggering amount of savings" and "least effective".

Imagine the things we could do if more companies cared about giving back to the public good that enabled them to become what they are rather than using legal trickery to ignore the intent of the law.

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also that climate change is somehow "political"!

I think "political" here referred to the fact that the way they set up the organisation allowed them to make political contributions, at a cost of having to pay $17m in tax more than they would've had to pay with a different setup.

Fill in the blanks:

"We need to fight climate change. I voted for ____."

"I don't think climate change is caused by humans. I voted for ____."

If you could perform the above task easily, then yes it's political.

Sure, but I think what OP was saying is that this says a lot about the US. For example in Germany, denying man made climate change is a fringe position. We just fight about how to stop it and at what cost.

You mean by shutting down nuclear plans and calling natural gas "green"?

With enough media firepower, anything can be made political, regardless of the underlying reality.

Everything that happens or is done in public is political, and the more it affects the public the more political it is. C̶l̶i̶m̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ The climate emergency is a deeply political topic as it affects basically everyone.

I firmly believe that I know better than the government where I should put my money to give back to society and will be more efficient in doing it. I give a lot relative to my income and intend to continue doing so, and also intend to minimize my tax burden so I can support the causes I care about not the ones other people vote for.

Sure but you are a tiny minority. Most people are outright selfish when it comes to (not only) money, hence laws are required. More often than not they create an alternate reality where they justify their actions by whatever mental trick their subconsiousness deems necessary (ie I pay enough already, it wont matter anyway, I put the money into kids etc etc etc).

I do not believe the government is any better at deploying money to meet a social good.And I believe it is people's own right to use their money to support what they believe in. So I will continue to work to pay as absolutely low tax as possible so I can support causes I believe in and allow others to do the same.

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