The Average Taxpayer Shelled Out Over $4,000 for War and Weapons Last Year - Institute for Policy Studies The Average Taxpayer Shelled Out Over $4,000 for War and Weapons Last Year

Wondering where your 2025 tax dollars are going?

IPS policy experts Lindsay Koshgarian and @hannahomestead.bsky.social break down some of those numbers—including why the average American taxpayer paid over $4,000 this year for weapons and war.

Our co-editor @sarahanderson.bsky.social in conversation with the great Janine Jackson at FAIR.

Watch IRS Cutbacks: US Revenue at Risk - Bloomberg As President Trump has made cutting government bloat a priority for his second term in office, the IRS has been one of the hardest hit agencies. How will personnel and funding cuts affect the IRS? For...

You cant collect revenue if no one is trained, or even present to do the job. Our former, the last competent Commissioner of the IRS explains.

Multimillion-dollar CEO pay at these 20 low-wage companies is costing you. This is now the only fix. CEO pay at the “low-wage 20” averages $18.6 million, while many of their median workers rely on taxpayer-supported Medicaid and SNAP.

Our co-editor @sarahanderson.bsky.social on solving the wage suppression factor in the affordability crisis through:

⬆️ federal minimum wage
💪 union rights
⬆️ taxes on corporations with big CEO-worker pay gaps

www.marketwatch.com/story/multim...

Made just down the road from me—the people who work there take pride in their socks!

The Coming DAFpocalypse The Policy Director of IPS's Charity Reform Initiative predicts the number of donor-advised funds will shrink in the years to come.

Get ready for a shakeup in the world of donor-advised funds

www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/the-com...

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Top 15 US Billionaires Gained Nearly $1 Trillion in Wealth in Trump’s First Year The US has 935 billionaires, roughly a dozen of whom have jobs within the Trump administration.

U.S. billionaires made record-breaking extreme wealth gains last year. But "Average taxpayers like you and I," says IPS @inequality.org researcher @ocampomar.bsky.social in @truthout.org, "still pay income tax at triple the rate of the wealthiest Americans."

One of the reasons to believe smartphones and social media are bad for kids and teens is the fact that the people who make these technologies forbid them to their own kids.

Thank you @neildegrassetyson.com for having me on StarTalk! Full episode in their pod feeds.

VIDEO: The Worst Drug Traffickers Are Often U.S. Allies - Institute for Policy Studies VIDEO: The Worst Drug Traffickers Are Often U.S. Allies

NEW: Not only is there "certainly no fentanyl involved" between Venezuela and the U.S., but the region's most prolific drug traffickers have often in fact been U.S. allies.

In a new BBC interview, IPS drug policy scholar @sanho.bsky.social dismantles Trump admin claims. Watch:

Best Data Visualization Projects of 2025 Many data things were made this year. These are my favorites.

Best Data Visualization Projects of 2025, a.k.a. my favorites flowingdata.com/2025/12/31/b...

11/05/25 What Does a Computer Scientist (and Philosopher) think of A.I.? YouTube video by Across the Fence

Core faculty Juniper Lovato recently joined Across the Fence to discuss artificial intelligence. Check out the episode "What Does a Computer Scientist (and Philosopher) think of A.I.?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5V8...

This Black Friday Weekend, Skip Amazon The e-commerce giant is powering ICE’s deportation raids while profiting handsomely from Trump administration contracts.

In addition to profiting from shoppers, Amazon is profiteering from ICE's mass deportations this year by powering government surveillance systems.

This holiday, shop local and help wrangle power back from billionaires.

Ab West on @inequality.org

Donors opposing Mamdani Name Amount Donated Group(s) Supported Net Worth Michael Bloomberg $8.3 million Fix the City $110 billion Joseph Gebbia $3 million Fix the City · Defend NYC · Put NYC First $7.9 billion Lauder family $2.6 million Fix the City · Sensible City $25.9 billion Bill Ackman $1.75 million Fix the City · Defend NYC $9.2 billion Tisch family $1.2 million Fix the City $10.1 billion John Hess & family $1 million Fix the City $2.4 billion Daniel Loeb $775,000 Fix the City · Defend NYC · NYers for a Better Future $3.8 billion Barry Diller $500,000 Fix the City $5.1 billion Steve Wynn $500,000 Fix the City $3.9 billion Marcella Guarino Hymowitz $400,000 Fix the City · Put NYC First $2 billion David Walentas $350,000 Fix the City · Empower NYC $2.3 billion Reed Hastings $250,000 Fix the City $6.5 billion John Fish $250,000 Fix the City $2.3 billion David Lichtenstein $250,000 Fix the City · NYers for a Better Future $2 billion Alice Walton $200,000 Fix the City $115 billion Deborah Simon $200,000 Fix the City $11.6 billion Jerry Speyer $150,000 Fix the City $2.2 billion Stephanie Coleman $150,000 Fix the City $7.1 billion (family)

Everybody gets that Bloomberg is the main reason Cuomo is still afloat, right?

archive.ph/4sE8g

This is it. It ain't easy but it's how we win. The only way out is through. ❤️

Our Long National Nightmare by Tom Tomorrow Relive the trauma of the last five years through the cartoons of Herblock Award winner and Pulitzer nominee Tom Tomorrow.

friends with large accounts, I'm not going to pester you personally but just generally speaking, I would sure appreciate a signal boost on this thing. We seem to have leveled out, and since this is a one-shot (won't be in bookstores) I'd like to get it out there as much as possible.

An Open Letter to the Boss You’re a billionaire now, Mr. Springsteen. Please don’t stay one.

What do you do when you work on wealth inequality and your childhood hero becomes a billionaire? You write them a letter.
inequality.org/article/an-o...

#Springsteen #Billionaire
@inequality.org

The Giving Pledge at 15 15 years on, the Giving Pledge is unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future.

NEW: Hundreds of rich people have signed the Giving Pledge to donate half of their wealth. 15 years on, their lack of progress shows our critical need to fix philanthropy — and tax them more.

REPORT by @chuck77.bsky.social, @bdevaan.bsky.social, @helenofips.bsky.social and @dpetegorsky.bsky.social:

This link between privilege dependence and rule breaking is also why private charity can't substitute for a tax-funded social safety net. Because, like with the public school example, even well-meaning nonprofits can end up reproducing inequalities when they have to cater to wealthy donors. 4/

Yes, America Is an Oligarchy Over the past dozen or so years, about half the concentration of wealth in the U.S. has benefited just 19 families.

An insightful new statistical analysis of American #inequality from Bob Lord of @ips-dc.org and @patrioticmillionaires.org: “Since 2012, the concentration in our country’s wealth has almost entirely been limited to just our richest 0.01 percent.” www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

🔴 Watch the Henry Wallace Symposium LIVE: us02web.zoom.us/j/85433611380

I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit

Holy shit, a real masks-off moment. Trump's IRS says churches can continue to claim tax benefits as a nonprofit even while explicitly endorsing candidates.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/u...

FlowingData An exploration of how we use analysis and visualization to understand data and ourselves.

flowingdata.com

New Study Shines a Light on the Impact of Donor-Advised Funds - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly Where do DAF dollars go—and how quickly do these donor dollars actually arrive at operating nonprofits? The answers, derived from a new study, may be surprising.

New Study Shines a Light on the Impact of Donor-Advised Funds nonprofitquarterly.org/new-study-sh... @chuck77.bsky.social‬ @helenofips.bsky.social‬ @ips-dc.org #nonprofits

For #nonprofitsky 🤝

Can Trump strip Harvard of its charitable status? Scholars of nonprofit law and accounting describe the obstacles in his way The IRS would need to conduct an audit first. And presidents aren’t allowed to make the IRS do that.

Insightful conversation here from @eotaxprof.bsky.social and @countingcharity.bsky.social #nonprofitsky
theconversation.com/can-trump-st...

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and…

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.
(Published Feb.)

The average American has three friends

OH and @rjschlegel.info :-)

Tagging for #nonprofitsky 🤝... #ARNOVA ... #NVSQ ...

And my team at @inequality.org @ips-dc.org
@dpetegorsky.bsky.social @bdevaan.bsky.social @chuck77.bsky.social @rachelleighcash.bsky.social!