3 ms·

there are two big exceptions to this, the military and healthcare. playing world police is incredibly wasteful and so is funding a system based on submitting to

by tancop 3mo ago

there are two big exceptions to this, the military and healthcare. playing world police is incredibly wasteful and so is funding a system based on submitting to the demands of big pharma and for-profit hospitals. the problem is 50 years worth of propaganda convincing americans that all this is good and necessary and if you disagree that makes you a communist/welfare queen/terrorist supporter/woke activist. at least now with gen z even the far right agrees that foreign wars are a bad idea.

gruez 3mo ago
>and for-profit hospitals. but only 36% are for-profit? https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/hospital-ownership https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/hospital-ownership
- gowld 3mo ago
  Medical services are for-profit, not the hospitals. The hospitals funnel money to for-profit vendors.
johnrgrace 3mo ago
The US has made an active policy decision for decades to be the world police, flowing from that policy spending on world policing isn't automatically waste unless it's highly inefficient.
- kridsdale1 3mo ago
  It’s money well spent if you view the cost of not doing it as another war that leaves half the world’s industrial capacity in literal ruins as happened several times before. I’m not saying this is true, but it’s the motivation.
  - rileymat2 3mo ago
    A war that was very good for what the US economic juggernaut has become. We may be significantly better off maintaining great relationships with our Western Hemisphere countries and let the oceans protect us.
    - gowld 3mo ago
      There is an ocean in the middle of the "western hemisphere". Did you mean "Americas continent countries"?
      - rileymat2 3mo ago
        Including South America too, yes. I'd not characterize it as the middle, it's mostly centered around the landmasses on most maps.
- Hikikomori 3mo ago
  MIC gets paid handsomely to make sure this gets perpetuated. But goes back to even Smedley Butlers time, using the military and intelligence services to ensure capitalists have cheap access to resources. Supercharged with the second Iraq war as mercenary companies took over military work and contractors "rebuilding" the country. Trump is a continuation of this well played track, with the a large sprinkle of fascism, grifting and destruction of the federal government as a goal.
tvh56r 3mo ago
Depends on your definition of wasteful. Americans expect their government to be able to waves hands DO SOMEthing about various things in the world. Maintaining that capability is expensive. I don't know if that desire is caused by intentional propaganda or if it's just who we are as a people because of our history. Maybe it's not right, but it's what Americans expect from our government right now.
watwut 3mo ago
> playing world police The most expensive are purely for oil, for hawks feeling manly bullshit wars.

by tancop 3mo ago

gruez 3mo ago

>and for-profit hospitals. but only 36% are for-profit? https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/hospital-ownership https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/hospital-ownership

gowld 3mo ago
Medical services are for-profit, not the hospitals. The hospitals funnel money to for-profit vendors.

johnrgrace 3mo ago

The US has made an active policy decision for decades to be the world police, flowing from that policy spending on world policing isn't automatically waste unless it's highly inefficient.

kridsdale1 3mo ago
It’s money well spent if you view the cost of not doing it as another war that leaves half the world’s industrial capacity in literal ruins as happened several times before. I’m not saying this is true, but it’s the motivation.
- rileymat2 3mo ago
  A war that was very good for what the US economic juggernaut has become. We may be significantly better off maintaining great relationships with our Western Hemisphere countries and let the oceans protect us.
  - gowld 3mo ago
    There is an ocean in the middle of the "western hemisphere". Did you mean "Americas continent countries"?
    - rileymat2 3mo ago
      Including South America too, yes. I'd not characterize it as the middle, it's mostly centered around the landmasses on most maps.
Hikikomori 3mo ago
MIC gets paid handsomely to make sure this gets perpetuated. But goes back to even Smedley Butlers time, using the military and intelligence services to ensure capitalists have cheap access to resources. Supercharged with the second Iraq war as mercenary companies took over military work and contractors "rebuilding" the country. Trump is a continuation of this well played track, with the a large sprinkle of fascism, grifting and destruction of the federal government as a goal.

tvh56r 3mo ago

Depends on your definition of wasteful. Americans expect their government to be able to waves hands DO SOMEthing about various things in the world. Maintaining that capability is expensive. I don't know if that desire is caused by intentional propaganda or if it's just who we are as a people because of our history. Maybe it's not right, but it's what Americans expect from our government right now.

watwut 3mo ago

> playing world police The most expensive are purely for oil, for hawks feeling manly bullshit wars.