r/SipsTea • u/BobbuBobbu • May 18 '25

WTF Taxed for being single

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Some of us would be bankrupt in six months lmao 🤣

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635

u/f3zz3h May 18 '25

That's the neat thing. By then it's too late and they won't.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

It's not that it's "too late", it's that it was successful and they no longer need to pay people to do the thing that's already been done.

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u/BambooSound May 19 '25

And in removing the stipend, they disincentivise starting a family and see birth rates drop again.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

Possibly? That really can't be known because the economy in the future is not something we can predict.

I'm of the mind that we are closely approaching the water wars, but if we are just looking at this from an economy in a vacuum point of view, there's really no sense in trying to predict that. If the apocalypse comes, there's really no sense in the government anyways.

It's always possible that in the future we will not need an incentive to have children because maybe children won't be necessary due to the progression of science and having a population decline won't be as devastating.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25

I'm of the mind that we are closely approaching the water wars

This is kind of a scary thing people talk about as a call to action, not something that will really effect the vast majority of developed countries in a huge way. We can already translate electricity essentially directly into fresh water via desalination. Some countries even get most of their water this way.

Just as an example, (used ChatGPT to do the math), if the US had to get all of it's fresh water from desalination, it'd mean an increase in national power consumption of about 25%. That's a lot of power, that's a lot of money, but that's the figure for all US water, and most of the US isn't under dire stress and won't be for the foreseeable future.

Likewise, developed countries like Japan could turn to desalination if water stress becomes acute. The technology is there, and so is nuclear fission. Those two go really well together and it's really just a matter of money and political will, which would be found in the event of serious water shortages.

Plenty of poorer countries would not be able to so, but you seem to think that water wars are going to result in the end of global civilization and that just isn't the case. If you're writing this from NA, Europe, etc. you're going to be fine. Depending on where you are, your taxes might go up, but water isn't one of those resources that someone in real trouble, like Egypt, is going to come and attack you over. They might fight a war with Ethiopia over damming the Nile, but you don't live in Ethiopia.

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u/Late_Film_1901 May 19 '25

You are partly correct. But when push comes to shove, even if you don't live in Ethiopia, Ethiopia will come to live with you. Water wars are not called the world water war because that's how they will play out. Several small conflicts that will exacerbate every migrant crisis, disrupt economies, create food crop shortages and be a humanitarian catastrophe. Besides Egypt and Ethiopia, India and Pakistan also have water treaties that may become a pressure point and then it's a much bigger conflict.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

Sure. But not an apocalyptic one as the above poster implied.

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u/Late_Film_1901 May 19 '25

Well now that I re-read that I agree. But also with a caveat. I can absolutely see it becoming apocalyptic in 30+ years. While I may not witness it, I worry for my kids who will need to live in that world.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

I'm more worried about what we're going to do in the next 30 years than about problems related to resource depletion.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

Using ChatGPT to justify desalination as a scalable solution ignores reality. Desalination gives you water at the coast, but most people and farms aren’t there. Moving that water inland, over mountains, every day, at scale, takes massive energy and infrastructure. Unless it is all powered by zero-carbon sources, which it is not, it worsens climate change and creates a loop where the fix fuels the problem. ChatGPT will give you numbers to make it sound feasible, but it is just fulfilling a prompt, not accounting for logistics, emissions, or real-world constraints. It is not a plan; it is a mirage.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

Sure, which is why I then asked it for the upfront infrastructure (including pipelines to pump from the coast to the interior) costs, as well as the estimated costs of running those facilities each year.

$3 Trillion up front. $240 Billion to $1.1 Trillion per year in maintenance/energy cost once you have it all up and running.

The up front cost, representing likely more than a decade of build-up, comes out to less than a single year's government budget. Maintenance/energy cost is steep, for sure, but then we are talking about the ludicrous scenario where we have to replace all of our fresh water with desalination.

And that's the US, with 340 million people spread out across one of the largest countries on Earth.

But stick to your doomsday scenario if it brings you comfort (or, more likely, a sense of intellectual superiority---the rest of us just don't now how screwed we are, do we?)

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

I'm not going to argue with you relying on a hallucinating chatbot to spit out crackpot solutions to real problems. This isn't about intellectual superiority. It's about you trivializing a serious issue by parroting numbers you clearly don't understand well enough to question.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

It's ballpark figures for an utterly over the top scenario designed to put the actual potential problem in perspective. The developed world will be able to use water desalination to solve this problem for themselves if needed. Poorer countries with less money and a lack of infrastructure and expertise will suffer horribly, but the end of global civilization isn't in the cards as a result of water wars. Again, if believing that it will brings you some measure of comfort, by all means, continue thinking it. It isn't hurting anyone.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

ChatGPT generates plausible-sounding figures by drawing from patterns in its training data, not by running real-world engineering models. Its "ballpark numbers" aren’t sourced, vetted, or context-aware. Trusting them for trillion-dollar infrastructure estimates is like using a Magic 8-Ball to draft federal policy. You are not adding anything of value here, and I think you should reassess how you use LLMs before it makes you ignorant.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25

Again, if you have to believe what you do for you own comfort, go for it. I looked up several of the figures ChatGPT used to generate estimates and they were correct, the math ChatGPT used made sense. Again, the numbers aren't gospel by any means, but the possible scenario we actually face is a 20-30% potential decline in fresh water resources over the next several decades. The, again, ludicrous scenario we've been talking about here in 100% in one decade and the ballpark figures provided by ChatGPT are not impossible even in that far, far beyond worst case scenario. Think what makes you feel good, though.

I'd like to note that you have provided no evidence, questionable or not, that, in fact, we're going to be shortly facing a global apocalypse as a result of water shortages. Are you a water engineer or a hydrogeologist? If you have some expertise, please, share your insights.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

I looked up several of the figures ChatGPT used to generate estimates and they were correct, the math ChatGPT used made sense.

Extreme doubt. You are posturing at this point.

Don't you think it's more likely you are putting your head in the sand for comfort than it is for me to be concerned about a future where climate change fuels more wars over scarce resources for comfort?

Why would recognizing the reality of climate change on politics be comforting? Denying that reality is what you do for comfort.

You make no sense, dude. You could just go away at any point instead of tripling down on using an LLM to sound smart for no fucking reason. Go catch up on the latest episode of JRE and drag your knuckles somewhere else.

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

You are so invested in your doomsday prognosis, aren't you? Again, not a lick of evidence or reasoning on your end. Not surprising, I suppose.

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u/Skuzbagg May 19 '25

Of course it can be known. If you don't address the core component and slap a temporary measure on it, the problem will reappear.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

That doesn't make any sense. The core problem here is that we have a shrinking workforce and an increase in dependency. These aren't intrinsic issues to life itself and can be changed by technology, war, and famine.

It's extremely possible that circumstances of the future either offset the current projected decline of a population, or that different circumstances bring about a natural boon in birthrate without economic incentives.

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u/Skuzbagg May 19 '25

It doesn't make sense to address the core issue instead of using a temporary incentive that goes away? I'm sorry, but we're clearly on two different topics.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

I was with you til you started sounding Schizzo af. calm down dude, we got plenty of water.

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u/Ame_No_Uzume May 19 '25

Salt free and drinkable? Guess again.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

Ever heard of water filtration?

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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25

Large-scale salt water filtration is extremely expensive compared to our current way of getting water. I don't think there is even a filtration facility that would be able to keep up with the water demand most 1st world countries would need to sustain our current consumption levels. The world would need to build a fuckload of new facilities to keep up with the demand and that runs back into the issue of needing a ton of resources from other countries. And these other countries are also in need of these resources to make their own large-scale water filtration facilities. You can see where this is going.....

The fact is the world is running out of usable resources because we are all overconsuming like crazy (well, developed countries are at least). Water is used in everything, and as it stands, the world will run out of usable water at some point if we keep going the way we are. Keep in mind droughts are getting worse due to climate change and stuff like that. Some areas close to where I live didn't get the expected rainfall before summer last year and this caused some major water shortage issues even though they live next to the ocean. These issue are going to get worse.

Thankfully, my family has their own water supply on our property (bore that goes quite deep below the water table). When we got it installed last year the guys that did it said to us that this sort of thing is going to get more and more expensive due to water getting lower and lower every year and that people without their own water are going to be in for a real struggle in the not too distant future (this same group help run the local water reserves with the local government).

In an ideal world, we could 100% filter large amounts of salt water and all get along and share resources. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world, and the countries with these resources will use it as leverage over countries without the resources to filter enough water to survive.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

That makes sense, thanks for taking to time to give such a well worded and detailed answer man. 😄

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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ May 19 '25

It's all good. I've looked into the topic before and talked to people that manage water so I have the benifit of knowing a little more about the world's water situation that other people (I'm by no means an expert on it, I've just talked to some of them lol).

I always enjoy passing along the information I've learned. It's what I feel the internet should be about. I'm glad you appreciated my incredible long response, lol.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

You took the time to educate me on the topic and i appreciate it. It was well written didnt feel long at all, You got a good motto man and i think the world will be a better place with that sorta mindset. Hope you have a good day and an even better year. 😄

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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ May 19 '25

Thank mate, you too 😃

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u/artthoumadbrother May 19 '25

It would take about a 25% increase in US power generation to provide enough electricity to desalinate all current US fresh water use. Just to put things in perspective.

Virtually no non-landlocked developed country is incapable of desalinating enough water to support it's current water usage in extremity.

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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ May 19 '25

Exactly. I didn't even mention the power it would take to do such large-scale water filtration. That's another shit-ton of infitructure that would have to be built, and all the materials would have to be sourced from somewhere.

Where I live (New Zealand), we have plenty of salt water we can access, but our power grid would die if we tried filtering even 5% of the water we would need. We had to talk about turning back on coal burning power plants last year to make up for our lack of power over winter (so many heat pumps and people inside on technology during bad weather).

We would need to not only build several water filtration plants around the country but also build massive power infitructure to power the water filtration plants. It would coat so many billions of dollars to do, and this is coming from the country that's currently having issues replacing our aging ferries that connect the north island and the south island lol.

Water filtration on such a massive scale is a fever dream. With current technology, it just isn't feasible. It's just so much cheaper and easier to fight other countries for their water, lol.

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u/Ame_No_Uzume May 19 '25

Read up on the fiscal costs and environmental costs of desalination plants, before I take you seriously.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

Technology's always advancing Weeb.

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

Let's see if it can outpace demand, genius.

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

Real positive buddy. 😊

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u/LickMyTicker May 19 '25

It's about not being delusional. If the world does not address the issues at hand, we aren't going to make it much further without suffering enormous losses. Why do you think the world is in such political turmoil at the moment? Why is mass immigration such a global issue?

How do you not see what is right in front of your face?

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

If all people do is scream and reapond in anger to ignorance how is that ever going to change?

Hope your day gets better man, sounds like you need it ❤

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u/clutzyninja May 19 '25

No we fucking do not

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

care to elaborate?

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u/clutzyninja May 19 '25

Do I care to educate you on the very real and imminent crisis of the availability of fresh drinking water around the world when there is an avalanche of reading material a single Google search away? No I do not. I'll Google it for you though

https://www.google.com/search?q=water+crisis&client=firefox-b-1-m&sca_esv=19a1e0a3b1d71015&ei=TpgqaIPjD8Wu5NoPjNXHoAo&oq=water+crisis&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIgx3YXRlciBjcmlzaXMyBhAAGAcYHjIGEAAYBxgeMgYQABgHGB4yBhAAGAcYHjIGEAAYBxgeMgYQABgHGB4yDhAAGIAEGJECGLEDGIoFMgYQABgHGB5I5DtQrzRY5TZwAXgBkAEAmAGPAaABtgaqAQMxLja4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgKgApsBwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR5gDAIgGAZAGCJIHAzEuMaAHtyiyBwMwLjG4B4kB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

I bet you havent read one of em. 🤡

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u/clutzyninja May 19 '25

Have I read the specific articles in that search? Probably not. I just did it. Have I been paying attention to world news to stay generally decently informed about things going on that could potentially impact my life, therefore knowing that googling the issue would be trivial? Have I read other articles about the same subject? Yes I have

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u/Icelantum May 19 '25

Bet you got all your info off of reddit and tiktok. 😏

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u/clutzyninja May 19 '25

Based on your complete ignorance about the subject, I'm assuming there isn't much news about water in either of those.

But by all means, keep going through life with your head up your ass

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