US Politics |OT|

[Pyro as Bill]

sc94597 said:

Pyro as Bill said:

Europe loves to moralise about how they offer better social protections even though the poorest man in America gets healthcare treatment Europeans could only dream of. When Europe is forced to pay for the real costs of defence and health without the US subsidising, maybe theyll be a bit more appreciative.

When I was a right-wing "libertarian" a decade ago I used to believe the same thing. "Europe can only afford universal healthcare because the U.S subsidizes its defense."

But the reality of the matter is that parts of Europe have had universal healthcare long before the U.S was a global hegemon and when the countries were much poorer and sicker than they are today 

Germany, for example, has had UHC since Bismarck (right-wing politician) used its implementation to undermine the nascent socialist movement in the 1880s. 

The U.S wasn't "paying for its defense" then. The U.S barely had a standing army itself in that decade.

There is also the matter that the poorest in the U.S only have access to healthcare because of Medicaid, which the GOP wants to significantly cut or tie to work. Without Medicaid there is absolutely no way the fifth of Americans who use it will be able to afford it. Many elderly will have to move back home with their boomer and Gen X children (Medicaid pays for about half of nursing home care for seniors), many children will develop preventable health conditions which will follow them into adulthood, disabled people will suffer or die.

The ironic thing of this argument from the right is that it puts more pressure on Europe to allow in more immigrants so as to make up for the age-pyramid demographic crisis. Which the modern right-wing opposes.

Yeah the infinite immigrant ponzi scheme is the only alternative to Europe actually being productive and being able to defend itself properly. Let's see how that argument holds up against Russian propaganda.