Tax All religions, it's a business. Make everyone pay into Social Security, no income caps. Move retirement age back to 65 for everyone, and early (reduced benefits) to 62.

[–] Lucelu2@lemmy.zip 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Oh man. My husband is a journeyman electrician (IBEW). He is 57. Has had a hip replacement. He is hyper-focused on his diet and tracks all calories, hits the gym 5 days a week. Yet he has bone on bone arthritis in his shoulders, his left knee has no meniscus and he has popped his IT band 3 times in the last 4 months. He is on a job that has gone OT, tons of ladder climbing and stairs. Meanwhile the shoppie employees huddle with their phones while he is responsible for the switch gear. He really wants to retire. He has his full pension credits.

I am a nurse (60) with 27 years experience. I just spent a weekend on service and there was very little transport staffing. I ended up having to transport the patients to the nuclear medical dept and then wait. One had to travel on the tele so I told his nurse to bring him down and leave the equipment. After his testing was done... I hooked him back up and brought him to his floor and of course, the bed was out of battery charge WAFB, I was worn out.

We are both retirement curious. I was thinking... maybe get all our expenses on a spreadsheet, star the ones that can be reduced or eliminated, get all our most recent sheets together and see a financial advisor. We are kind of tired of carrying the 30 somethings honestly... We are Gen X and actually didn't expect we would live this long. Honestly... we have kept our communities running for a long time and are ready for others to take over.

Personally, I 'd love to go somewhere like Portugal or Italy for a few years and wait out this MAGA mess. Our kid lives less than 3 blocks away though and we do want to be involved grandparents. It is a difficult choice in these times. I hope we can convince them to come with us. The fact is... this nation under Trump will become a prison if you wait long enough.

[–] TheBeege@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Hold up. You're 60 and on Lemmy? That is super cool. I hope I'm that cool when I get there.

As for moving away, I noped out to Korea just before Trump. Just coincidence of timing. Expat life is great, but be ready for a hefty dose of loneliness unless you can get in on the language. You can find other expat communities, but you end up needing to be less picky about your friends, which isn't necessarily bad.

In any case, I hope your husband catches a break and lasts too retirement. Good luck with everything

[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm leary about taxing religion, only because they would try to leverage that for more government influence than they already have.

[–] Zier@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We literally have a christian nationalist government right now and the churches are not being taxed fairly. Your taxes pay for things they want and use. And they abuse those tax free donations & income they get because there is no reporting to the IRS. Religions are a business. You take in money for a service, it's a business. Most religions are not actually helping people, like the homeless, food kitchens, or fundraising for those in need. If you had the ability to see where all the finances go from a 'church', you would never give money, or defend them again. Even non-religious charities don't give back as much as they claim, Goodwill is a great example.

Tax all religions fairly.

[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

With how broken our justice dept is, I don't trust that they would twist regulation is ways to legally ban other religions, potentially in the near future using "historical precident". I'm not against properly classifying large donors as PAC's and needing super churches to get rid of their tax status. I think we can workshop something really targeted to not be used against the spirit of the law.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I agree, we don't tax a variety of non-profits. Including simple social clubs all the way to universities. I don't like the idea of taxing all of those either.

Religion seems to get a lot of benefits other non-profits don't though. So I'm down to level the playing field, and maybe there is some way to alter tax law to punish the mega-churches specifically

[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I like the idea of targeting mega-churches. Maybe do it based on outreach. If the people attend in person, they can donate cash in hand with no taxes or anything, but if it is televised and donations come in from online or the phone, those get taxed.