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We already spend enough to provide gold-plated healthcare to every single American. We spend more than any other country on earth. ($4.3 trillion in total, ~$8

We already spend enough to provide gold-plated healthcare to every single American. We spend more than any other country on earth. ($4.3 trillion in total, ~$800 billion in annual federal spending alone) Per-capita we spend the most but our systems suck. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?most_... If that 1% was redirected, hell, if every single dollar of the defense budget was completely transferred into healthcare, it wouldn't make a difference. The insurance and pharmaceutical companies would gobble it all up. There is more than enough money already. Increasing spending from $4,300 billion to $4,368 billion won't fix anything. The only way to improve our systems here at home is to improve them. Same goes for education and social security. The only nation that spends more on education per-capita is Luxembourg and they don't count because they are the size of a postage stamp. If we completely zeroed-out ALL defense and Ukraine spending nothing would change, the system would soak up the money with no net effect. In terms of social welfare spending the United States spends the exact same per-capita as most of its peers. We are right in between Germany and Italy in terms of spending. Same as above, the broken systems we run would just soak up the money with no effect. That $68 billion is having a huge impact in Ukraine, though. edit: Think of it another way. $68 billion is about $200 per American. That isn't even enough to cover the cost of an annual checkup with a physician assistant at a clinic, when billed to insurance. (my last one was billed at ~$500 to Blue Cross with an out of pocket cost of $85) If we zeroed out Ukraine aid and sent everyone a check that could only be used for healthcare, that would be about enough to get your blood pressure checked by a nurse-- and practically nothing else.

ifyoubuildit 4y ago
I don't mean dropping in 68 billion dollars as a line item in some budget. I mean turning that money into some other useful resource, for example trained doctors. If you assume that it costs 2 million dollars to train a single doctor, thats 34000 doctors you could theoretically add to the supply. Instead, we turn it into a bunch of dead, dismembered, and probably now deranged people, and free floating weapons that will inevitably end up in the hands of some future enemy. The fact that we can't currently efficiently turn money into useful results over here doesnt make me feel any better about turning that money into arms and handing them out like candy thousands of miles away. How do we know aren't going to be a few trillion poorer in 20 years leaving Ukraine the same way we left Afghanistan?
- rocket_surgeron 4y ago
  >How do we know aren't going to be a few trillion poorer in 20 years leaving Ukraine the same way we left Afghanistan? Because: 1. We aren’t “in” Ukraine so we can’t leave— they are fighting for themselves, and 2. It is unlikely they will give up and submit like the ANA because of their morale, which 3. Is evidenced by this POW, knowing he is about to be executed, saying “slava ukraine” milliseconds before having his brains blown out by Russian war criminals https://twitter.com/protasm19751/status/1632740245237030914 https://twitter.com/protasm19751/status/1632740245237030914
  - ifyoubuildit 4y ago
    > We aren’t “in” Ukraine so we can’t leave— they are fighting for themselves Sure, we aren't (at least officially anyway, not yet) physically in Ukraine, but I don't see how that makes any difference for the question. Imagine I said "stopping funding" instead of "leaving." As for the rest, I don't doubt these people are beyond devoted to their cause, and I wish them all the best. However, I doubt our involvement on the whole is going to make anything better for anyone in the end other than the people manufacturing the arms. We certainly didn't end up making a difference for that POW in your link.

ifyoubuildit 4y ago

I don't mean dropping in 68 billion dollars as a line item in some budget. I mean turning that money into some other useful resource, for example trained doctors. If you assume that it costs 2 million dollars to train a single doctor, thats 34000 doctors you could theoretically add to the supply. Instead, we turn it into a bunch of dead, dismembered, and probably now deranged people, and free floating weapons that will inevitably end up in the hands of some future enemy. The fact that we can't currently efficiently turn money into useful results over here doesnt make me feel any better about turning that money into arms and handing them out like candy thousands of miles away. How do we know aren't going to be a few trillion poorer in 20 years leaving Ukraine the same way we left Afghanistan?

rocket_surgeron 4y ago
>How do we know aren't going to be a few trillion poorer in 20 years leaving Ukraine the same way we left Afghanistan? Because: 1. We aren’t “in” Ukraine so we can’t leave— they are fighting for themselves, and 2. It is unlikely they will give up and submit like the ANA because of their morale, which 3. Is evidenced by this POW, knowing he is about to be executed, saying “slava ukraine” milliseconds before having his brains blown out by Russian war criminals https://twitter.com/protasm19751/status/1632740245237030914 https://twitter.com/protasm19751/status/1632740245237030914
- ifyoubuildit 4y ago
  > We aren’t “in” Ukraine so we can’t leave— they are fighting for themselves Sure, we aren't (at least officially anyway, not yet) physically in Ukraine, but I don't see how that makes any difference for the question. Imagine I said "stopping funding" instead of "leaving." As for the rest, I don't doubt these people are beyond devoted to their cause, and I wish them all the best. However, I doubt our involvement on the whole is going to make anything better for anyone in the end other than the people manufacturing the arms. We certainly didn't end up making a difference for that POW in your link.