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With so much money earmarked for the military, how absurd would it be to create a "health force" alongside the Space Force?
by peterburkimsher 7y ago
With so much money earmarked for the military, how absurd would it be to create a "health force" alongside the Space Force?
- baq 7y agoI predict this will happen when the US realizes that health of its citizens is a matter of national security. If that doesn’t happen during this pandemic, then I don’t know what can make it see that simple fact except a war happening in the country. The name might be a bit different though: say, National Health Service.
- jointpdf 7y agoOr maybe we could call it the US Public Health Service: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_Service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_...
- ALittleLight 7y agoThe US spends about 600 billion on the military and about a trillion on Medicare and health. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/ https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...
- mattigames 7y agoThat trillion in Medicare is due extremely overpriced supplies that in any other develop country would be exponentially cheaper.
- 1cvmask 7y agoDepends on how it is counted. If the budget was counted like other countries the defense budget would be over 1.2 trillion per year: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tom-dispatch-america-defense-budget-bigger-than-you-think/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tom-dispatch-ameri...
- bernardom 7y agoWe literally have one; see #6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformed_services_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformed_services_of_the_Unit... But I agree- what if we treated it as seriously as [can't believe this is a real thing] the Space Force.
- pinkfoot 7y agoNot absurd at all. Since a billion years ago the South African (National) Defence Force has always had four equal branches: - Army - Navy - Air Force - Medical But the USA is already mostly there: there are eight uniformed services. One is the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps that employs the surgeon general. But you will have to stop your military's obsession with earning combat action badges. From what I can tell its creating a class-hierarchy inside the armed services. That won't help if your aim is to create a serious non-combat uniformed service with the same prestige that mainly does nursing.
- laurentb 7y agoSouth Africa as a country is only 110 years old. come on now....
- pinkfoot 7y agoI wasn't prepared to find out when they setup the SAMHS - I have a small phone. It turns out it was 1979. Which for HN is nearly a billion years ago :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Military_Health_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Military_Health_...