One of my favorite questions to ask in (especially) Introduction to Sociology classes is: In an ideal world, for what reason does the U.S. government exist? That is, what is a state for? For protection from other states? To protect private property? To maximize happiness? To pool and then redistribute resources for the collective good? It’s something most of them have never thought about. After a discussion, I show them this:
This is where our federal tax dollars go. Students are horrified by the military spending, but completely stumped by the interest on the debt. Most of them have no idea that our debt has any consequences at all.
The pie chart is from http://www.nationalpriorities.org/. You can go every year and update your chart here.
Comments 10
Sociological Images » U.S. Military Spending — June 12, 2009
[...] also this post looking at where our tax dollars go. tags: economics, war/military| Permalink| “Rules and Regulations for Public [...]
Perspective on Spending Billions » Sociological Images — March 5, 2010
[...] also our posts on how many starving children could be fed by celebrity’s engagement rings and where U.S. tax dollars go. var addthis_language = 'en'; 3 Comments Tags: children/youth, class, consumption, [...]
alex — April 7, 2011
is this referencing our income tax dollars or all the taxes that the government collects? or is that too hard to differentiate?
Anonymous — April 29, 2018
I HAPPEN TO BE A STUDENT AND I WAS NOT STUMPED OR HORRIFIED..
THIS IS NOT CONFUSING INFO PEOPLE
Anonymous — May 2, 2018
In order for these taxes to be non-stumpifying, we must advocate for the return of President That Guy. All hail That Guyism and down with Trump.
Anonymous — May 9, 2018
I AGREE WITH THE ANONYMOUSES
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