The United States has experienced a 12% increase in homelessness, to its highest reported level. Federal officials Friday said soaring rents and a winding down of coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans.
Reminder that the both the Mormon & Catholic “Churches” could feed, house & clothe every single homeless person in the USA indefinitely & it would only cost them a fraction of their net worth.
They had rather sit on their wealth like the Dragon though, regardless of the punishments for that described in their “Bible”.
That’s how you know they don’t really believe in their own bullshit.
Churches need to pay taxes. It’s unacceptable that they’re the only ones who are officially exempt.
They aren’t the only ones, though. The rich find more than enough write-offs.
How do you reckon we make that happen? Any hope, or are they as powerful as billionaires?
I’m far less worried about churches paying sales, property, and income taxes than people making tens of billions of dollars a year.
We’ll get WAY MORE social benefit out of properly taxing the ultra-ultra rich than we will out of the hundreds of thousands of mini-churches who have volunteer receptionists twice a week or even the few hundred mega churches with jet-setting pastors.
Turn your ire on the bigotry and hypocrisy of a church that attempts to profess love and hate at the same time and out of the same mouth to your heart’s content, but when it comes to money, we need to deal with the robber barons. They’re the ones causing the economic problem.
What? Churches are specifically exempt from ALL taxes in the US. I clouding income, property, and all others.
Kind of seems like the person you’re replying to is well-aware of that, and when they said “Churches need to pay taxes,” they didn’t mean it as “churches are currently legally obligated to pay taxes” but rather “churches paying taxes is something that needs to happen.”
Not quite. Churches are exempt from many taxes, but not all, as a part of the separation of church and state.
Churches do need to pay their share of FICA, Social Security, and other income-related taxes. Clergy are also required to pay income taxes, though they are permitted some tax-exempt benefits, most notably church-provided housing.
That being said, I’d completely agree with removing tax-exempt status from churches that breach the separation of church and state, beginning with those that outright tell their members who to vote for.
Libertarians are always certain religious charities will foot all of the bills though.
Like if humans were perfect and weren’t greedy assholes.
Pretty sure it’s not that simple. They have projects all over the planet, and administrators that need their cut. Also need church renovations so that people feel their church is fancier than their own homes.
Reminder that the secular institution with the Democrats leading it can also fix homelessness with even less of a fraction of their net worth.
Atheism to the rescue again.
Oh. Wait.
It’s not about faith. It’s about corporations. Religious, commercial or government, none of them are working for us.
His comment was about faith though.
I keep having to read the dumb narrative that le atheism would fix everything here on Lemmy and everything is the fault of religion but the atheist institutions are doing just as little if not less than the religious ones.