Why hasn't Toriyama paid his taxes yet?

[ToshioWrites]

A lot of context is being lost and grossly reduced down here. It's not that "Toriyama didn't pay his taxes"; it's that he is someone named in the Paradise Papers, leaked documents outlining offshore financial accounts and other miscellaneous business information.

So he was named in the Paradise Papers. For some reason, I always think of Toriyama to be better than that, but money alone can corrupt an individual.

On the other, the guy draws (or drew) cartoons for a living, does he seem like a financial wolf in sheep's clothing?

I don't think we should give someone a free pass because people would have a positive bias towards his profession as being harmless compared to politicians. He has a duty to his country like anyone else does.

When you and me evade our taxes we go to jail for a criminal offense. When the wealthy evade their taxes its called 'tax havens'.

This is truer than we realize. You should check out Bill Still's documentary on the Money Masters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBk5XV1ExoQ). I would say that money can buy freedom. Heck, we have plenty of these issues now coming to light and yet still nothing is done to the rich and powerful. The moment a pleb evades taxes they have no chance in the eyes of the law. When they want someone in jail like Al Capone, they get them by taxes; otherwise, the wealthy walk free from their crimes.

This is the same guy who once said he would want to peep on his daughter while she bathes so you tell me why you expect such an amoral guy would avoid taxes

Do you remember the original source of this quote?

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... riyama-qa/

[Attitudefan]

Thanks for the link. He also makes no qualm about cheating. Interesting interview.

[ABED]

Please stop bringing up Al Capone. They took him down on tax evasion because that's all they could get him on. Tax evasion, if he did in fact do so, isn't the same as being a mob boss.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I really wonder if Toriyama is a salty Kimagure Orange Road that hated that Madoka got Kyosuke and not Hikaru. Because it seems like that '"Yamcha Is A Cheater" thing is bullshit if he himself doesnt mind cheating.

[JulieYBM]

Please stop bringing up Al Capone. They took him down on tax evasion because that's all they could get him on. Tax evasion, if he did in fact do so, isn't the same as being a mob boss.

No, but it is scummy. Anyone who knows how society works knows that unless the wealthy carry the tax burden the working class will suffer and society eill collapse. The donor class side steps this by hiding their money overseas and then paying off our politicians through campaign donations and other ways to prevent prosecution. Toriyama doesn't seem that type but it's still wrong and hurts society for the sake of irrational greed.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Thanks for the link. He also makes no qualm about cheating. Interesting interview.

It was an actual question instead of him bringing it up (like the daughter thing), in that sense it's not that bad (since it wasn't on his mind and was just truthfully answering the question) plus cheating doesn't necessarily have to mean sex the way he says "little bit" makes me think he is talking about kissing or something minor.

Anyway this bit made me laugh:
"Someone You Respect: I occasionally respect myself." Lol.

[Luso Saiyan]

Anyone who knows how society works knows that unless the wealthy carry the tax burden the working class will suffer and society eill collapse.

That's a somewhat perverse view of how a society should function. It's not up to a selected few to pay taxes for everyone. If taxes are to exist (and they don't necessarily have to in a significant way), the fair way to do it is to have a flat rate for all. To discriminate and penalize legitimate success, therefore killing any incentive to inovation and progress, is what I would say to be the fastest way to collapse a society.

[dbgtFO]

Anyone who knows how society works knows that unless the wealthy carry the tax burden the working class will suffer and society eill collapse.

That's a somewhat perverse view of how a society should function. It's not up to a selected few to pay taxes for everyone. If taxes are to exist (and they don't necessarily have to in a significant way), the fair way to do it is to have a flat rate for all. To discriminate and penalize legitimate success, therefore killing any incentive to inovation and progress, is what I would say to be the fastest way to collapse a society.

Not versed in many financial terms in english, so if by flat rate you mean the same percentage for everyone, then I agree.
France's tax for the wealthy a few years ago was utterly ridiculous.

[Luso Saiyan]

Not versed in many financial terms in english, so if by flat rate you mean the same percentage for everyone, then I agree.

Yes.

[JulieYBM]

Anyone who knows how society works knows that unless the wealthy carry the tax burden the working class will suffer and society eill collapse.

That's a somewhat perverse view of how a society should function. It's not up to a selected few to pay taxes for everyone. If taxes are to exist (and they don't necessarily have to in a significant way), the fair way to do it is to have a flat rate for all. To discriminate and penalize legitimate success, therefore killing any incentive to inovation and progress, is what I would say to be the fastest way to collapse a society.

Taxes should be progressive--the more ypu earn the more you pay. The wealthy cannot spend all of their money but the middle class does. When so much money is in the hands of the few wealthy the economy stagnates, so it is imperative that taxes on the wealthy be high as they were from FDR through Carter.

51% of wage earners in the US earn $30,000 or less a year but between $75,000-90,000 is necessary to be financially (and thus mentally) secure. The US has the jobs of a service economy thanks to Bush and Clinton and an infrastructure grade of D from the Society of Civil Engineers. All because Reagan sold a song and dance of low taxes on the rich and the 'free market'.

[Luso Saiyan]

Taxes should be progressive--the more ypu earn the more you pay.

That's not a fair system in any way. With a flat tax, everyone is treated equally, and the more you earn, the more you pay. It's fair, because it's the same percentage for everyone. You are taxed porportionally to your wealth.

The wealthy cannot spend all of their money but the middle class does. When so much money is in the hands of the few wealthy the economy stagnates, so it is imperative that taxes on the wealthy be high as they were from FDR through Carter.

Everyone can spend all their money, wether they are wealthy or not. It's theirs, they have earned it and are free to do so. And the wealth of the people you you want to tax more are not, for the most part, in monetary form, but in investments and assets (which is taxed again), back into everyone's economy. It's applied, not accumulated in some vault.

51% of wage earners in the US earn $30,000 or less a year but between $75,000-90,000 is necessary to be financially (and thus mentally) secure.

That actually supports the argument for less income tax, so that everyone keeps more of their own money to spend on whatever they want.

The US has the jobs of a service economy thanks to Bush and Clinton and an infrastructure grade of D from the Society of Civil Engineers. All because Reagan sold a song and dance of low taxes on the rich and the 'free market'.

The free market is not a song or dance to trick people. It's the system of free and voluntary transactions between individuals. That freedom should be cherished and protected, not attacked at the expense of those that become successful at what they do. We should all aim to be successful, if not to better our own lives, then to better the lives of those around us.

[Robo4900]

Do you remember the original source of this quote?

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... riyama-qa/

In context, sounds like he's just making an off-colour joke... I don't get why people were making this out to have been a big deal now that we have the context here...

(Unless Herms wants to appear and say that there's undertones in the original Japanese of his answer there that indicates he is not in fact joking, though I doubt this would be the case...)

[Kid Buu]

I really wonder if Toriyama is a salty Kimagure Orange Road that hated that Madoka got Kyosuke and not Hikaru. Because it seems like that '"Yamcha Is A Cheater" thing is bullshit if he himself doesnt mind cheating.

Imagine if the girlfriend Yamcha has at the end of the Cell arc appears in the series, and she's voiced by Eriko Hara.

[JulieYBM]

Boy, I sure love Dragon Ball.

Taxes should be progressive--the more ypu earn the more you pay.

That's not a fair system in any way. With a flat tax, everyone is treated equally, and the more you earn, the more you pay. It's fair, because it's the same percentage for everyone. You are taxed porportionally to your wealth.

It's very fair. In a flat tax system those at the bottom of the economic scale are hurt first and foremost by taxes, especially when their tax money is not going towards social safety nets that improve their lives, like Medicare For All or a jobs program that creates excellent paying jobs. This is why I'm also against a sales tax because a wealthy person isn't going to be hit hard by a sales tax like the single mother in Kentucky who has to buy cloth and feed their kids.

The wealthy cannot spend all of their money but the middle class does. When so much money is in the hands of the few wealthy the economy stagnates, so it is imperative that taxes on the wealthy be high as they were from FDR through Carter.

Everyone can spend all their money, wether they are wealthy or not. It's theirs, they have earned it and are free to do so. And the wealth of the people you you want to tax more are not, for the most part, in monetary form, but in investments and assets (which is taxed again), back into everyone's economy. It's applied, not accumulated in some vault.

Allow me to rephrase: the wealthy do not spend all of their money. They stockpile it, rather than flooding it back into the economy. This is why the top 0.01% are worth as much money as the bottom 90% combined. Jeff Bezos (currently the worlds richest man with a net worth of $125,700,000,000) isn't going out and buying as much groceries, homes, cars or appliances as the bottom 90%. He and his ilk acquire that wealth by paying stupidly low taxes (or in some cases, none) and wages. Amazon has a ridiculously high percentage of internet sales search results (half of them) and cities are trying to woo him to set up Amazon's second headquarters in their city by spending tax payer money to give him everything he wants (whatever city does get the second HQ will have its economy destroyed by Amazon). The wealthy are the biggest recipients of welfare, both thanks to their low taxes and the perks they're given by politicians. This is the corruption you get from money in politics and the unrestricted acquisition of wealth.

You don't earn billions upon billions of dollars, you're allowed to take them by paying little to no taxes. Capital gains (earning money with your money, rather than earning money with the labor of your mind or your hands) are also taxed at a stupidly low rate.

The rich are hiding up to $21 trillion in offshore accounts. That's money that they cannot possibly ever spend in a life time, yet they acquire it out of pure irrational greed like a hoarder does news papers or empty egg cartons. Most people don't begrudge wealthy a couple hundred million, but when you're taking billions and spending a fraction of that money you are indeed actively hurting the economy. The US's largest private employer is Walmart with a staggering 1.4 million employees. Walmart is owned by the six Walton family heirs who are worth a collective $145.3 billion dollars. You couldn't spend a billion dollars in a life time, let alone $145.3 billion. How did they acquire this wealth? Crushing local businesses, paying their 1.4 million employees poverty wages and paying off politicians through 'donations' to keep taxes on the wealthy low. Allowing the accumulation of wealth like theirs only leads to massive corruption and the creation of private monarchies/modern aristocracy. If things don't change soon we're going to be living through what our ancestors did three and four hundred years ago.

51% of wage earners in the US earn $30,000 or less a year but between $75,000-90,000 is necessary to be financially (and thus mentally) secure.

That actually supports the argument for less income tax, so that everyone keeps more of their own money to spend on whatever they want.

Taxes on the poor should be low. I'm talking about a progressive tax that grows larger with the more money one makes. $30,000 a year is living in poverty. If you're pulling in $400,000 a year or more you need to be paying 75-91% on every dollar over $400,000 to put us back in the same footing we had during the 1930s-1980s (before Reagan slashed that top tax rate to 28-fucking-percent).

Paying taxes is the cost of living in society and we should all pay them. We should also all get something out of paying them. Medicare For All would only cost $32 trillion dollars while our current private system is set to cost $49 trillion. Medicare For All would also unburden businesses with having to pay for employee health coverage and free up that money for other ventures. Free college would only cost $80 billion (while creating generations of skilled workers). If we simply used our money as intelligently as we were sixty years ago we would have a powerful middle class that had a lot of money to spend (and thus a lot of money for businesses to earn), the best infrastructure in the world, the most skilled workers and more leisure time than ever. Instead American workers are working more for less money.

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[quote="JulieYBM"]The US has the jobs of a service economy thanks to Bush and Clinton and an infrastructure grade of D from the Society of Civil Engineers. All because Reagan sold a song and dance of low taxes on the rich and the 'free market'.[/quote]

The free market is not a song or dance to trick people. It's the system of free and voluntary transactions between individuals. That freedom should be cherished and protected, not attacked at the expense of those that become successful at what they do. We should all aim to be successful, if not to better our own lives, then to better the lives of those around us.

Nobody acquires that much wealth on their own. They acquire it through low tax rates and poverty wages. The 'free market' doesn't work. When they 'freed the market' they gave us the Republican Great Depression in the 1920s and 1930s and then the crash of the Bush-Obama years. Deregulating never, ever works.

Boy, I sure love Dragon Ball.

[Zephyr]

Nobody acquires that much wealth on their own. They acquire it through low tax rates and poverty wages.

Don't forget about inheritance.

[JulieYBM]

Nobody acquires that much wealth on their own. They acquire it through low tax rates and poverty wages.

Don't forget about inheritance.

Thank you, that too. Notice how they've been trying to weaken the estate tax in the US recently. It's crazy.

[Kunzait_83]

To further add to Jacob's (absolutely 10,000% spot on) points: what he's ultimately talking about here is deeply related to a critically important economic concept referred to as The Velocity of Money.

Its an unbelievably simple concept: money in a flourishing economy is supposed to be cyclical and constantly moving in vast amounts - from business to business, from individual to individual, to the government and back into the citizenry and back into the government, etc. - as opposed to just sitting stagnant in one place (i.e. in one person's back account) gathering dust. Individuals or entities that make money have to also SPEND that money via putting it back into the coffers of other businesses (who them put that money into their employees pay, who then spend that money on other businesses themselves, etc. and round and round it goes), as well as into government taxes, in order for the overall economy to move forward and sustain itself.

In other words, any given business - be it one that sells clothes, cars, food, medical supplies, electronics, whatever else have you - needs to actually be able to sell those goods in large enough amounts in order to have a thriving business and keep afloat: including paying their workers sufficient enough salaries that they can live a halfway decent lifestyle and be able to actually afford to buy those very same kinds of goods for themselves. And if average workers aren't paid enough to make ends meet, if they're constantly fed starvation wages, most average individuals are simply NOT going to be future customers at other businesses. They're barely going to be able to afford groceries and a roof over their heads (and sometimes not even that), never mind buy clothes, cars, electronics, and so on.

Wealthy people, almost by definition, are going to be DRASTICALLY fewer in number than average and lower income citizens. And the average wealthy person generally spends a LOT less money on basic necessities: they can only buy so many cars per year, so many designer suits (which are of course VASTLY outside the price range of the average consumer, and this hardly does the business for regular clothing manufacturers any favors), so many electronic gadgets, so many summer homes in the Hamptons, and so on, especially compared to the much more legions of average, ordinary income-level citizenry who collectively spend and buy a LOT more ultimately overall.

Furthermore, oftentimes (as Jacob rightly and thoroughly points out) the VAST overwhelming majority of the total net wealth of most of the wealthiest people is simply hoarded away and sat on in offshore accounts, so they don't have to pay taxes on any of it: i.e. allow any of that massive amount of money to go BACK INTO our economy and thus keep the velocity of our money strong and healthy. And what taxes they DO pay have over time become increasingly and witheringly less and less as corrupt politicians (bought off by the campaign contributions of those very same wealthy few individuals) continue to slash tax rates on the richest individuals, whilst that tax burden has to be made up for by raising the taxes of the increasingly poorer and marginalized bottom majority (that'd be most of us posting here for the record).

This puts further undue economic pressure on the people who can LEAST afford to maintain the weight of the country's expenses even on their collective shoulders, as they're continually squeezed and squeezed for more money that ultimately goes into the pockets of the richest few. These regressive tax laws end up even being cheered on and supported by a duped-over lower income populace whom those same laws are directly screwing over and ruining the lives of; due to decades upon decades of carefully manipulative economic propaganda, brainwashing, and indoctrination about the bulletproof virtues and perfection of laissez-faire capitalism and the "horrible evils" of even the most minute amount of socialism within any kind of economic system (more on that in a bit).

Furthermore, the fight against laws like the Estate Tax also further hinders so much of all that money being put back into the system and thus allowed to be spent by the government on necessities and infrastructure that can benefit EVERYONE (like better schools, free college, universal healthcare, etc).

This is where, ultimately the financial well being of the many is of FAR greater importance than the financial well being of a small few: the tax system of a staunchly capitalist nation like the United States has for decades now - from roughly the 1970s/early 1980s and onward - been slowly, gradually rolling back crucial progressive protections in our tax laws (as well as banking and Wall Street regulations) that have helped keep the velocity of our economy rolling forward, allowing for average working families to sustain themselves. This gradual erosion of our financial protections has been ongoing under both Republican AND Democratic lawmakers alike, as both have been complicit over the years in taking corrupt bribe money from corporate investors with a financial interest in seeing these laws be repealed so as to engage with legal impunity in business practices that would otherwise be considered criminal, as they prey upon the most economically vulnerable (that being the most of us).

Laws like Glass Steagall (an incredibly important financial "firewall" of sorts that kept banks from legally tampering with their customers' money, among other crucial provisions) and countless others (that we could literally spend dozens of pages here pouring over) have been repealed gradually from one presidential administration after another, leaving the broader population increasingly vulnerable to financial theft, fraud, and other illicit business practices that allows the already-wealthiest individual CEOs to effectively profiteer off of the continued economic suffering and misery of the broader population (look no further than how private health insurance companies have always operated for especially grotesque examples of this).

Bottom line: you simply CANNOT support an ENTIRE economy on the sole strength of a small minority of ultra rich individuals and catering solely to their needs, whilst everyone else basically wallows in poverty (under the burden of increasingly skewed tax, insurance, and business laws) and is unable to financially contribute to the overall economy in large numbers. Even the wealthiest few are NEVER going to be able to support an entire nation's economic structure, especially a nation as large and vast as the United States. That kind of paradigm is practically SET UP to inevitably cave in on itself over time.

What laissez faire-type capitalist thinking like Luso Saiyan is supporting here (and really, a tragically far too large swath of Americans and internet denizens in general have been carefully indoctrinated into seriously believing for a painfully long time now) does is fly utterly in the face of what is ultimately INCREDIBLY, thuddingly basic economic common sense: don't economically bottleneck, squeeze, and strangle your own larger citizenry into abject suffocation while allowing only a relatively tiny few to prosper. Such actions lead to a ticking time bomb scenario that inevitably ends in the entire system imploding upon itself (however gradually), and scores upon countless scores of regular, ordinary people's lives being left in smoldering ruins as a consequence.

What Luso Saiyan is doing, likely without his even realizing it, is arguing against his own economic self-interests (as well as that of 90% of most average, ordinary people in general) by way of propping up propagandist talking points that are meant primarily to defend the corrupt practices of an unbelievably small elite of wealthy individuals: the likes of whom people like Luso Saiyan, and most other voices on the internet who make these types of arguments, will almost assuredly NEVER count themselves among.

So much of these Libertarian-esque economic schools of thought (that again, far, far too many nerd/geek-types in internet communities tend to gravitate towards) deceptively cloak themselves in the guise of "fairness" and "an even playing field for everyone" (taking full advantage of many of these kinds of people's general lack of pragmatic real-world experiences), when in reality, when put into actual practice (as we've been increasingly doing for decades and decades now), they simply stack the deck in favor of those who already have all the economic power and advantage out the starting gate whilst leaving everyone else stagnant and without any real economic foothold to grab onto.

Its a way of getting otherwise incredibly smart, intellectual, educated people to find themselves twisted into logistical knots arguing AGAINST things like having common sense economic laws in place that keep major corporations from running byzantine, convoluted scams on regular, ordinary people: which leads directly to things like the 2008 economic crash happening (and in which we're already setting ourselves up for a future sequel to under the absurdly regressive tax laws of President Pepe), and which ultimately plunges the entire nation into increasingly feverish economic (and social) turmoil, a domino effect that has catastrophic consequences for countless average families and people.

The economic situation of modern day America has been increasingly and gradually been backsliding and regressing further and further back to the medieval/feudalistic days of Robber Barons: an era in which most average peasants were also fed brainwashing indoctrination meant to keep themselves squabbling amongst themselves over petty differences while an elite, wealthy few continued to gluttonously profit off of their labor and hoard the riches all for themselves whilst everyone else effectively starved and lived in relative squalor.

Toriyama, intentionally or not intentionally, contributing - to whatever great or small degree - to the further gaming of tax laws by the wealthy is an unquestionably shitty and damaging thing for him to be involved with. I don't give two fucks HOW much any of us all love Dragon Ball and the man's other creative works: IF he indeed WASN'T privy to how his taxes were being handled, then it at a bare minimum qualifies as gross civic and financial negligence; for which he should IMMEDIATELY correct upon and get MASSIVELY more involved with and educated on how his finances are being ran going forward.

If he WAS privy though, then it absolutely makes him kind of a scumbag in terms of his financial ethics: and this sort of devil-may-care gaming of tax laws is part of a MUCH larger, broader problem that IS in fact ruining and destroying COUNTLESS lives the world over, and ANYONE who makes themselves complicit in that problem are, like it or not, at the root of something much, much more inherently toxic and damaging to the world economy overall. That he happened to create a kickass little martial arts comic at one point (that most of us here are infatuated with) is completely and utterly irrelevant to that much, much more drastically pressing issue.

Which is why I find comments like this one absolutely and maddeningly abhorrent:

Why should we even care? The only thing I want out of Toriyama is more DB content, not the knowlege that he pays or does not pay taxes.

You absolutely should care because, in case you haven't been keeping tabs on current events, the world is kind of falling apart right now and a whole lot of people's lives are in total and utter ruins because of it. A LOT of it comes back to grotesque corruption in both politics and finances (in which both are largely inseparable from one another), and rich people screwing over our tax systems (that are put in place to begin with in order to keep this little experiment we call "modern society and civilization as we know it" rolling onward) for their own greedy and gluttonous gains are lurking deep at the heart of many of the vastly more complex issues that are rotting our various systems of government away at their core.

Its fine if you don't care about that stuff, since you're ultimately free to do and think as you like: but don't act surprised then when people start to look at you and regard you as kind of a belligerent ignoramus when you say shit like "Who cares? Not MY problem!" in the face of issues like these while demonstrating a complete and abject lack of intellectual curiosity for anything in life that doesn't somehow relate back to your stupid, ridiculous, infantile children's cartoon franchises.

I've been making it no secret lately that I disagree violently with Jacob on a great, great many things: but what he's saying here in this thread is absolutely, unquestionably dead to rights on point, and my hats off to him for at least being excellently informed and well educated on something this critically important, if nothing else.

EDITED TO ADD: Further info on the Velocity of Money can be read up on from Asher Edelman. For those who don't know (and I'm sure that'd be most of you): Asher Edelman was one of the foremost "Corporate Raiders" (the practice of buying out a large stake in a company's shareholdings, hollowing the company out, and then selling it on the stock market for a tidy and robust profit) in the 1980s: not only was he, for a time, the "face" of corrupt business practices and the gaming of financial laws in 1980s corporate culture, he was indeed the very real life business investor whom the character Gordon Gecko from the film Wall Street was based on (an incredibly famous and culturally iconic movie and character that I'm sure that many who post here have not seen or possibly even heard of, likely because it wasn't a cartoon that ever aired on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network).

In later years (up to and including today as of present), Edelman has completely revised and turned around his previously held views on business and economics, and is a staunch supporter of common sense business regulation and progressive tax policies; his present views flying utterly in the face of not only his previously popularized public image and personal business practices, but also the "conventional wisdom" of the current day corporate culture that he himself helped to enshrine and popularize more than 30+ years ago.

In other words: Even the real life Gordon "Greed is Good" Gecko now realizes that everything economically toxic and self-serving that he helped to peddle in both corporate and popular culture back in the 1980s was self-destructive bullshit that is simply destroying regular people's lives (as well as ultimately in the long run disintegrating the ground out from underneath even the wealthy few who are stoking this problem for their own short-term benefit), and has thus turned heavily against it.

[Cure Dragon 255]

God that post was as epic as it was beautiful. Great read.

[JulieYBM]

And hey, since we're all off topic anyway I suggest checking out Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk), Jimmy Dore and Thom Hartmann (The Thom Hartmann Program and The Big Picture) on YouTube. I now get all of my news from their podcasts and they've really taught me how to read through the bullshit of mainstream media. BigOnAnime introduced me to them about a year ago and ever since then I became a progressive in the style of FDR and Bernie Sanders. In the wake of the 2016 election destroying my political identity and three years in retail these ultra-logical and passionate YouTubers have provided me with the Kanzenshuu of politics and economy. Learning about the true economic golden era of the middle class from the 1930s-1970s really provided me with the path to self-worth that FDR was trying to give the middle class during and after the Republican Great Depression. It's something we need to bring back to the forefront, but those fuckers in DC and in our media are hellbent on telling us otherwise.

[Kunzait_83]

For anything related to present day economics, the best recommendation I can give anyone is virtually anything (book, article, blog post, or tweet) ever written on the subject by Matt Taibbi, who is for my money (no pun intended) one of the all time greatest currently active investigative reporters and political voices of my lifetime, easily.

Of particular note (on this subject at least) is his book "Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America", which gets deeper into the arcane nuances of the depraved, horrifying realities of what a deregulated anarcho-capitalist system actually looks like from the inside (short answer: a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination of a trainwreck that leaves an entire nation's worth of immense devastation and senseless tragedy in its wake) than just about anyone else you'll ever read from. His other books covering numerous other major political topics are also all well beyond worth looking into.

I'd go so far as to say that the dude should've gotten an honorary credit in "The Big Short" (a movie which essentially plays out like someone took a Taibbi article from circa 2006/2007 and filmed it) due to how much invaluable inside information about just the 2008 housing market crash alone that he was responsible for unearthing and writing about publicly very, very early on (and how he was among the relatively few voices who was warning of it years and years in advance).

Also be sure to go check through the backlogs for his many, many, many amazing and essential articles on Rollingstone.com as well as posts on his old blog on The Smirking Chimp, most of the latter dating from back during the mid to late Bush and early Obama years. All of which are astoundingly dense and insightful reading (and darkly funny as all hell too; the man's wit is razor blade sharp).

I've been following politics and economics fairly closely for most of my entire life, and I've been a great admirer of Taibbi's work since the early 2000s (at the very beginnings of the Bush era) for a very simple reason: the dude's the genuine article when it comes to both going to incredible lengths in chasing down answers to critical economic questions that most people in the mainstream press never - but damn well should - ask (his journalistic credentials and overall professional/life history are film-worthy in and of themselves), as well as cutting right down to the bone marrow of important realities of what's actually going on inside finance (and electoral) laws, no matter how ugly and no matter which ideologies it pisses off.

He's about as legitimately punk rock as hard journalism gets: this becomes especially apparent when you dig back through his history as an American expat in Russia working for one of Russia's most underground and transgressive independent news rags (The eXile) all throughout the 90s before returning to the U.S. just after 9/11 (which is roughly around when I first began following his work).

Often considered the Hunter S. Thompson of this generation, and as a die-hard fan of Thompson myself (as a journalist, as a writer/artist in general, and as an all around fascinating individual), I'd say that that kind of lofty comparison is certainly well earned.

Also yes, let me second Jacob that Kyle Kulinski and (for the most part anyway) Jimmy Dore are both fantastic voices and two of the relatively few Youtube talking heads that anyone should be paying serious attention to; Kulinksi's critical analysis abilities in particular are next-level, off-the-charts astonishing and put those of political veterans more than twice or thrice his age to utter shame. Michael Brooks is also another excellent political Youtube presence who is likewise a masterful human bullshit detector (and is often witheringly hilarious as well). Tim Black and Lee Camp also do some pretty damn great work as well, as does Amy Goodman and the other fine folks over at Democracy Now.

Really though, print media (online or traditional) is the real meat and potatoes of where most of the real nitty gritty in news and politics is first thrown out into the wilds in its rawest form to then be discussed, processed, digested, and analyzed by various Youtube pundits (television is, for the most part anyway, an utterly vapid wasteland of a lost cause, and largely has been for decades now) and should most certainly be of much greater priority first before going to what the talking heads are then saying about it.

Anyone who is serious about what's going on right now should generally be doing way, way, WAY more actual reading than watching/listening (though by all means, do plenty of the latter too) as well as - and this cannot possibly be stressed enugh - fact-checking and sourcing the absolute motherfucking HELL out of whatever and whoever it is you're reading from (and listening to). Its absolutely essential, as the legions of naive, lost, emotionally/psychologically vulnerable, and genuinely gullible kids and young people getting suckered into fascist, authoritarian extremist groups and ideologies today are living, walking, talking proof of.

Some of the absolute best print journalists (IMHO of course) worth reading as of currently include Zaid Jilani (The Intercept), Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept and The Guardian), Abby Martin (RT America and Media Roots), Lee Fang (The Intercept), Jeremy Scahill (The Intercept), Adam Johnson (Fair.org), Ken Klippenstein (TYT Investigates and The Daily Beast; one of the latter's relatively few worthwhile voices), David Sirota (Capital & Main and TYT Investigates), Walker Bragman (The Intercept), Shaun King (The Daily Kos and The Intercept), Dave Weigel (The Washington Post), Luke Savage (The New Statesman and The Globe and Mail, among others), Chris Hedges (Truthdig), and Mehdi Hasan (Al Jazeera), among countless others (Reuters, Snopes, PolitiFact, Politico, Factcheck.org, The Associated Press, AJ+, OpenSecrets.org, and Truth-Out in particular are all often incredibly worthwhile outlets who all do excellent, excellent work; and did I also mention The Intercept? ).

The internet, as it always has been from moment one to now, is a double edged sword in that everyone has a voice, including some of the bravest and brightest minds out there who are too honest and real for corporate-owned TV, syndicated radio, and other old-media outlets.... as well as the fact that e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e has a voice, including some of the most unhinged, batshit, psychologically and emotionally damaged sociopaths and scam artists who are in some cases the online equivalent of raving homeless people/escaped mental patients marching around with "The End is Nigh!" signs held up.

Media-literacy, critical thinking ability, education (including especially a grasp of basic history and civics), strong common sense ethics & empathy, as well good old fashioned street smarts (and yes, this by definition includes plenty of up close and personal real-world experience; so if you've been living much of your entire life largely behind a computer and/or TV screen, you are already SERIOUSLY kneecapped right there) are all absolutely crucial tools necessary to successfully navigate the current day political landscape without falling into the (horrifyingly easy) pitfall of radicalization and indoctrination into various forms of violent or otherwise self-destructive extremism.

Meaning that while yes, the internet is an AMAZINGLY vast and powerful tool, its only as effective a tool as both the intelligence and moreover the wisdom (which are in no way the same things) of the mind that's wielding it.