midway on Nostr: I think for most people we’ve seen what full government run health care looks like ...
I think for most people we’ve seen what full government run health care looks like in the US. it’s called the VA and it has a terrible history. We just don’t trust that the government can run health care any better.
I will also put it out there that much of the world, especially the western world can offer the welfare they do because we are massively subsidizing their national defense. Just NATO alone is woefully delinquent in their contributions save a few countries. Those savings are significant and it’s one of the reasons the US spends so much in defense. Canada, for example, has little reason to spend what would actually be needed to properly defend a country if its size because the US is right there and is willing to help in a major way. And I don’t mean to pick on Canada, most of Europe is just as bad, if not worse.
Then there’s the problem of scale. Canada has about 10% or so of the US population. What may work at 35M likely won’t at 350M. Look at the bureaucracy you have. Now 10x it.
The US has far less trust in its government, especially its federal government. A big chunk of is size and the fact that we aren’t really one country. In most parts of the world due to size and population, we’d easily be 5 countries. This has pluses and minuses but a big problem is that we are very different from each other down to the cultural level. There’s no common ethnicity, culture, religion, or the like. The US was founded on some ideas. And those bonds become weak as the population grows and you bring in more people from more places. It had advantages for sure. But it had issues too.
Anyway I think I’ve rambled on enough. My point is that there are reasons that you may not see from the outside that may look baffling but they are real.
I will also put it out there that much of the world, especially the western world can offer the welfare they do because we are massively subsidizing their national defense. Just NATO alone is woefully delinquent in their contributions save a few countries. Those savings are significant and it’s one of the reasons the US spends so much in defense. Canada, for example, has little reason to spend what would actually be needed to properly defend a country if its size because the US is right there and is willing to help in a major way. And I don’t mean to pick on Canada, most of Europe is just as bad, if not worse.
Then there’s the problem of scale. Canada has about 10% or so of the US population. What may work at 35M likely won’t at 350M. Look at the bureaucracy you have. Now 10x it.
The US has far less trust in its government, especially its federal government. A big chunk of is size and the fact that we aren’t really one country. In most parts of the world due to size and population, we’d easily be 5 countries. This has pluses and minuses but a big problem is that we are very different from each other down to the cultural level. There’s no common ethnicity, culture, religion, or the like. The US was founded on some ideas. And those bonds become weak as the population grows and you bring in more people from more places. It had advantages for sure. But it had issues too.
Anyway I think I’ve rambled on enough. My point is that there are reasons that you may not see from the outside that may look baffling but they are real.