By David Futrelle
Facing little legitimate oppression in the real world, modern misogynist men sometimes have to improvise in order to find something to complain about. Thus Men’s Rights Activists in the US work themselves into a tizzy over the requirement to register for a non-existent military draft. Incels convince themselves that a “few millimeters of bone” distinguish their allegedly ugly faces from Chad’s perfect visage.
And MGTOWs warn ominously of what they see as the impending danger of a “bachelor tax” — that is, a tax aimed at unmarried men like themselves, which is something that has only been attempted a tiny handful of times over the entire course of human history.
This is a topic that has come up again and again on the MGTOW subreddit. Take this typical rant on the subject, posted by a MGTOW Redditor called vhemtmgtow a year ago.
I often worry about what the gynocracy will do when they figure out how easy life is for a MGTOW who lives in peace and tranquility without any worries or anxieties.
For men living in peace and tranquility without any worries, Men Going Their Own Way sure do complain a lot.
But vhemtmgtow is convinced that the “gynocratic” government is trying to cajole these men into marriage. Not that it will work on this brave and independent herd of confirmed bachelors for life!
Shaming doesn’t work in these men. They are immune to it. Sexual temptation doesn’t work on these men. What is left for the gynocracy other than a bachelor tax?
In many countries there is a bachelor tax but single men are simply paying it because the cost of marriage is much higher than the cost of the bachelor tax.
This, like most things MGTOW believe, is not even remotely true. According to Wikipedia, there are currently a grand total of zero countries with bachelor taxes. Indeed, the most recent attempt to levy such a tax took place in the old Soviet Union, for two years, immediately before its historic collapse — and this tax started off as a childlessness tax levied on both men and women.
But what if the gynocracy increase the bachelor tax so much that men are forced to marry? It’s like choosing between two bad choices: marriage or huge bachelor tax. Hopefully it doesn’t get to the point where the lesser of two evils is marriage.
Not going to happen, dude. Even aside from the fact that such a law would be pretty blatantly unconstitutional, the plain fact is that no one on earth wants to marry any of you. Danger averted! Problem solved! Go fuck your fleshlight or something, and maybe consider not posting your fever dreams on the internet.
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FWIW I’m not a fan of the draft either. I don’t support a conscription system for a military that is already much larger than any other in the world. Though at least I know it’s not likely to happen, and if it does I would probably be found ineligible to serve.
Who wants to bet our new friend GalliumCthulhu shows up again to talk about how great sexbots and VR sex will be?
As a feminist, I don’t want a tax on unmarried men. I want a tax on millionaires and taxes on billionaires that are so steep that they can’t actually maintain billionaire status.
We (England) had a bachelor tax once. It was to raise money to fight the French. Which has pretty much been the rationale behind all our taxes.
Well, to be fair, even though their usual “sky is falling” antics are misplaced, there is a bit of social reality to being a single man. When I was married, people treated me much differently. After my divorce, I noticed that the same people at the same places suddenly acted cold to me, even though my ex and I didn’t even split over a fight or conflict. We just didn’t want to be together anymore.
I have noticed that many events are not really welcoming if you’re a guy by himself showing up at them. In a way I can understand why, as many men go to things just to ogle the women and approach them and generally make everyone uncomfortable, but at the same time, as a man who doesn’t behave that way, it can lead to feelings of exclusion after a while. I think the MGTOWS have taken this experience and just blew it out of proportion with their claims.
@WWTH
Agree. The 3¢/dollar over a billion that Warren discussed is a step in the right direction but doesn’t go nearly far enough. 50¢+ would be better.
I didn’t realize there were this many men who never go outside.
Not registering for the draft has miniscule actual penalties anyway. It means you’ll have trouble getting a Federal job (although sometimes they’ll still hire you if there’s not enough other candidates and you pinky swear that you failed to sign up by accident).
@Dalillama:
There was, at one point, a ban on getting student loans if you haven’t registered. Is that no longer true?
There’s a bit of social reality to being a single person. These absolute tonsil stones don’t have points beyond that patriarchy sucks for men sometimes, too.
@Crip Dyke
It says here that it is a requirement to register to get student loans. In a special transphobic twist, all AMAB people have to register regardless of identity or transition status.
@kupo
…then they try to solve it with more patriarchy.
@Crip Dyke
In theory, yes. In practice, they don’t actually ask that I recall.
Well, in a year from now when they figure out how badly their beloved god-emperor has fucked over US income tax withholding (again) I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame the feminists.
WWTH: Investment income. Tax it at 80% and watch the rich squeal.
I’ve heard that in the US it’s often the opposite… that people would like to marry, but can’t afford to because the changes in how their household income is calculated would leave them fiscally worse off.
There are already so many tax incentives and economies of scale for married people, that there may as well be a tax on singledom. In the US, marrieds enjoy lower insurance rates and access to Social Security survivor’s benefits. If anything, single women are even more burdened by these inequalities than single men, what with lower pay and society’s general hatred of single mothers.
For someone who doesn’t have any worries or anxieties, he sure does a lot of worrying.
Me, a bit sleepy: “A ‘bachelor tax.’ So, this is going to be about how health insurance rates and income taxes are often steeper for two single individuals than they would be for couples, and how unaffordable single-person dwellings are for many people, making it financially challenging in this country to live as a single person without a high-paying job.”
*Reads article*
Me: “Oh wait, I forgot what website I was on. Of course it’s none of that.”
@Amtep
I considered proposing to my gf, until I realised that would cut off her disablility benefits. Life in a late capitalist shithole
Hah! They all gonna be paying that tax then regardless – no human is likely to ever marry these men.
Yeah, this usually applies to disabled folks, who get their benefits immediately removed the second they get married.
Any of these type of men I’ve met in real life or online get super pissed when they sexually attracted to me. Sexual temptation not working on these men is a load of bullshit. Their just shitty humans that want to punish anyone that makes their dick hard and then pretend that they are above sexual desire.
International Dark Web type Eric Weinstein has been banging on for days about his concerns re not enough young folks having babies (yes, he probably means white people). He seems to think that literally nothing has changed (socially or economically) and people are just being selfish by holding off.
I wonder how his followers would react if he proposed something like a bachelor tax, to push people to pair up and have kids. There’s a pretty big overlap between the manosphere and the IDW, so I suspect it would be explosive 🙂
I don’t think they have to worry about being ‘forced’ to marry anybody.
I mean, even if I were single, I’d still sooner French kiss a weedwhacker than spend the rest of my life with one of these chuds. I’m sure many other women feel the same way. O’ course, that might have to take the fact women have their own feelings on the subject into account, and MGTOWs can’t have that.
@naglfar : as long as there are not money-based exemption, I actually like draft for actual wars, since it mean an egalitarian odds of dying horribly in the battlefield. I said that mostly because if military is voluntary only, mostly poor sods will get in it.
@Andrew: I don’t know if I have ever seen a situation where single men were excluded. Like, even saying there is some look like an hyperbole to me.
Of course, in the actual reality, draft disproportionaly take poor people anyway, for a variety of reason including monetary compensation for not being in the draft.
About the main article : in France, you get effectively a taxe rebate by being in a couple, and more if you’re married. The amount isn’t terribly significant, but it’s not symbolic either, for people like me who are in the top 30% earner. I don’t know if there is anything similar for poor peoples, who typically don’t paye the main impacted taxe anyway.
That is some fanfic they have in their collective.
In Denmark (which is turning real right wing real quick) it’s financially impossible for me to get married. I’m proposing to my gf on new year’s, but we both in agreement that were not getting married. We’re very poly and don’t live together. If we married we wouldn’t even be able to afford rent for one place, let alone two. It would cut our coming incomes in less than half. But then I’m disabled and not currently working, and she’s still a student, so it’s a little different. Still, poor and stick people are literally getting divorced and second apartments in order to afford meds.
While it’s true that some (many??) countries have tax regs that favour married-or-otherwise-established couples over single people (and we can see from many people’s comments above that in practice the rules are piecemeal and contradictory and complicated), the MRAs forget as usual that any disadvantage also applies to single women (even more so, in fact, as they are on average poorer and earning less in the first place).
MRAs showing their arse, as usual.