Pyro as Bill said:
sc94597 said:
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 todayÂ
Germany, for example, has had UHC since Bismarck (right-wing politician) used its implementation to undermine the nascent socialist movement in the 1880s.Â
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.
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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.
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How do you solve the aging demographic problem? The only two culturally viable solutions (the third, far-right, "solution" is to re-enslave women) we know of are automation and immigration. Subsidizing family making doesn't work. Many European countries have tried.
Also having a system where young productive people subsidize the lives of older less productive people isn't a ponzi scheme. It is social insurance based on the natural reality that at least until we achieve LEV, people age and become less productive.
