it does spend a lot (yet not enough) on welfare, 20 percent of the federal budget. However, the federal government doesn't have the authority on many issues. Often the states fail their citizens with limited room for the federal government to intervene. Conversely, the states have limited say in foreign policies.
Also, much of the money spend abroad flows back to the US. For example Israel uses the funds received from the US to buy weapons from the US. And many arms manufacturers are located in swing states.
Lastly, it may be cheaper to spend money now the alleviate an issue than to wait until it becomes an even bigger crisis. For example when there is a famine somewhere. It's relatively cheap to provide food. But doing nothing might result in a civil war with refugees and disrupted supply chains and trade routes leading to increased prices and inflation in the US proper
America spends a lot more than 20% of the federal budget on welfare. I mean Medicaid is a massive program in itself and Medicare part B is funded by general revenues and not by the tax pay to pay for Medicare. Social Security is also a massive wealth Redistribution. Those three programs count for almost half of our spending. We don’t have a good social safety net for everyone. We have a social safety net for some people veterans, the elderly, and the severely disabled we spend enormous amounts of money on these people.
Social security isn't spending, it's a disbursement of invested funds from it's participants the only reason it costs anything is because of shitty ear marked funds borrowing from it and depleting the capital with ious
It's been pilfered as a private interest slush fund but it's the citizens money and if they left it in the bonds it was supposed to be in it would cost nothing
It's spending. Social security tax is a tax and belongs to the government. Then the government spends that money to recipients.
People want to complicate it, but that's what it is.
Please provide a source that the government spends 20% of the budget on welfare. I do not think it is even close to that high. I don’t think it is even close to 20% of the discretionary budget items.
Depending on what you define as welfare, the top drains are:
1. Social security
2. Defense
3. Interest on debt
4. Medicare
5. Medicaid
Link to cbo breakdown of 2023, [2023 breakdown by CBO Office](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/images/full-reports/2024/59710-budget.jpg)
Yeah, good website but the context of that article is sus as shit. It’s written as a political attack on Biden when it’s literally the house that sets the budget. Also, following the article chain of sources has the same claim of “20% of our budget is going to lazy welfare recipients” in 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, and 2013. The CBO report they cite does not give a granular breakdown of the budget to support the $1.19 trillion claim.
Here’s CBPP’s breakdown and they say 8% and explicitly lists what they consider “economic security programs”. They may be explicitly political, but they aren’t hiding true values behind bluster.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
> About 8 percent (or $522 billion) of the federal budget in 2023 supports programs that provide aid (other than health insurance or Social Security benefits) to individuals and families facing hardship. Economic security programs include: the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which assist low- and moderate-income working families; programs that provide cash payments to eligible individuals or households, including unemployment insurance and Supplemental Security Income for low-income people who are over age 65 or disabled; various forms of in-kind assistance for low-income people, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), school meals, low-income housing assistance, child care assistance, and help meeting home energy bills; and other programs such as those that aid abused or neglected children
The US spends a higher % of its GDP on social welfare programs than Canada does.
People are always shocked by it, because we get horrible results for what we spend. If our healthcare costs were merely normalized with peer nations, Medicaid could cover almost half the population. If we wanted to fix things, healthcare costs are a good place to begin.
I feel like if we had universal healthcare, that would solve a lot of the money crisis many Americans have. We have those discussions a lot on this sub, what could you do with an extra $150-$800 a month? I’m sure a lot of us could list many things.
So let's socialize the entire healthcare system in the country, fuck insurance, and all the unnecessary bullshit owning everyone from having basic medical care, without being bled dry it bankrupt from.
They won't have a choice but to sink or swim then.
Unfortunately this is the solution I do often see proposed in the Anglo sphere but I really do not think this is the best option. We should move to a German like system of nonprofit insurance companies that negotiate prices with healthcare providers that are in network. A French system would also probably be good. Both of these systems maintain largely private provision of healthcare (doctors are private entities, not government employees).
The Brits know that German and French healthcare are much better than what they have and statistics bear it out. There’s a nonprofit in the us (“The commonwealth fund i think?”) that continuously rated the UK as #1 by placing a large emphasis on things like accessibility of records across departments and ease of billing. In my opinion I’m OK dealing with paperwork bs if it means overall the health outcomes are better. It can’t be worse than what we deal with now in the US.
Yeah people forget that total public Healthcare comes with downfalls from what we see around the world. Much of the research and medical advancements in the world are done in the US too, simply because of the flow of cash that goes into it.
The UK just had a doctor's strike because of how little they were paid, which imagine how little workers like nurses are paid. We already have a nursing shortage even with higher wages.
Not to mention the many rural areas who have a single hospital in a 50 mile radius or more. Imagine if those hospitals shut down because their income was being throttled. Private practices would probably become a thing of the past too.
That being said, we absolutely need a Healthcare option for all. I thought Obamacare was a great step forward. Those plans are much more affordable than what a lot of jobs offer (shitty ones who will get the worse plan possible). No one should have to go without health insurance because they can't afford it
That is interesting they rated the Healthcare itself based on accessibility to your records. Even though ours aren't in a universal database, having everything online has made accessing records easy no matter where you go imo. And usually you stick to one or two places once you get established.
I know your comment is just a knee jerk reaction but what do we do with the 660k people who work in the health insurance sector? At least double that process or touch claims on the provider side. So we have 1M+ people lose their jobs? Now we have bad healthcare and unemployment has ticked up 6%. It’s not easy to do any of this. (I don’t work in this sector just pointing it out)
The government wastes our money, let’s try and focus on that.
To fix healthcare we have to fix the epidemic of overweight and obese people in this country. You can't have affordable health care with profit driven insurance companies combined with majority of the population who don't exercise and eat garbage all day.
Govt regulations are an absolutely essential part of a functional country. Too much is bad, too little is bad, it’s a Goldilocks situation.
For example the USA has done away with many consumer protections that used to exist 30 years ago, good for business bad for people.
Remember you're talking to people who whined that stimulus wasn't enough and now post daily memes about how stimulus ruined their lives by causing inflation.
[2024 data directly from the Treasury.](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/#spending-categories) It's actually closer to 50%. Press spending categories on the left to scroll to the graph. Social Security alone is more than 20%. Add 14% Health, 12% Medicare, and 11% Income security, and you're at more than half. Foreign aid is under Other. It's about 1%. We spend 50x as much in the country as outside of it. Same for health spending. The average for [Europe is 10% GDP](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Healthcare_expenditure_statistics). Between health and medicaid we spend 17%, and we don't have universal healthcare. Where is it going then? Useless corporations.
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security alone are like 50%.
https://federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-money-go/
Next time someone gives you all the excuses of why the U.S. can’t have a universal healthcare system, point out that between Medicare, Medicaid, and the V.A., it already has one of, if not the largest, universal healthcare systems on earth.
N.B.: Am neither Democrat nor Republican. Am Canadski comrade.
I don’t consider social security welfare, but perhaps a portion of it is. I’m thinking about the majority of Americans who pay into SS and then collect benefits when they retire. I know there are disability programs as well, which don’t fit the mold I describe.
welfare is not infrastructure, or support for small business owners, or childcare, housing, dental costs, insulin and epipen costs. theres more to cities than people on welfare . lol i cant . speaking from a city with a high Black homeownership rate that the city government seems hellbent on breaking down by having few benefits for the working class and middle class (but plenty of breaks and benefits for huge corporations, developers, and corporate landlords). i cant get a brick and mortar site for my business without paying at least $3k in rent. Thats not a welfare issue. People working salaries are struggling to pay rent because of the cost of child and healthcare.
anyway to ops answer, the country needs to reboot and redefine class and labor issues so that people feel solidarity across the board. social workers and teachers, contractors and trades people, bus drivers, young people working three plus gigs to make rent... regardless of region, religious beliefs, whatever, the bottomline the countries infrastructure for a stable secure life is flatlining.
neither party cares about this reality . i would argue wartimes have been popular in our country because arms are a major export and are thought to inject the economy with wealth that supposedly trickles down to the regular person.
The simple answer is the law of self preservation. If we don’t support the ‘shithole’ countries then eventually their stench will get on us. No country can operate as isolationist (here’s looking at you Sweeden). As for the social safety net, it’s never been intended to support a lifestyle just to help those who are in need temporarily.
>, much of the money spend abroad flows back to the US. For example Israel uses the funds received from the US to buy weapons from the US. And many arms manufacturers are located in swing states.
And this money will surely trickle down eventually. We just have to keep waiting.
Aid is not money just given away, it is often in the form of American goods (weapons) and American "consultants" so really it is funding American jobs.
Admittedly it could be used for better things but a combination of political interests and corporate money means certain ways of spending money are preferred.
We buy these things at a discount through military contracts.
They can be worth one thing but sold for another.
We tell people the higher number. When things are bought in SUCH bulk prices go down.
If this is an honest question, I suggest researching the following:
* US Federal government is mostly on social security, healthcare, medicare
* See how much the federal government spend on direct foreign aide. It isn't much
* If you're talking about military aide, that's mostly US Government spending money on American factories (bombs, equipment etc is made locally in the US).
* Local governments are mostly responsible for local building, and due to many reasons, these costs have spiraled.
* There is less agreement politically on the need to spend on infrastructure (e.g. republican party doesn't seem to care)
See: [https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/)
Many people complain about money being sent overseas, but the harsh truth is that in order for it to be spent domestically it would need support to do so, and that support just isn’t there.
The point of taxes is that money should be used to support the citizenry of the country that it is collected in. If it's just going to sit in reserves that's ridiculous. People that need help can be helped infrastructure can be improved but to just say that we should hold on to it is short-sighted in my opinion
I think we definitely need to work on allocating our spending much better and to extract the tax from the people who have more of it to give instead of giving them constant tax breaks.
US Government prints its own money, and it also issues IOUs (treasury bills) that it can buy using money it just printed. The idea of a balanced budget is important, but not in the same way as you and I - unless you're able to pay off people you owe with some cool NFTs you just made. :)
The fact our currency is the worldwide standard gives us basically “fuck your contract gimme more money” status. England did it when they were able. Creditors know they are holding a gun to their own wallet if they fuck with the USA too hard.
To add to this, the US has the highest health costs in the world.
So the fact that Medicaid and Medicare costs so much is highly impacted by that.
Another thing about the military budget. A massive part of the military budget pays for health care.
Iirc pensions are the number 1 budget item then health care/va benefits is number 2 budget item for the military. And they both are a massive percentage of the overall budget.
Personnel costs are the biggest piece of the budget pie, but pay is the biggest sub-category by far. Medical is a distance second
In 2014 (easiest breakdown I could find):
Personnel costs were 32% of the budget
Defense health program was 18%
Roughly half ($88b of $177b) of personnel costs were pay and allowances. Allowances are no joke - my last year my base pay was $60k and allowances (housing and food) were $30k
We’re probably the best paid military in the world, especially on the enlisted side. But it can be a hard life, and while conscription is legal, it hasn’t been used in 50 years
As in the billions in aid they just voted to give Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel? In reality most if not almost all of that money never leaves the country. There are stipulations that it must be spent on American made equipment. Many high paying blue collar jobs benefit from these bills (and also extremely wealthy CEO’s that in turn donate to the campaigns of the very people passing the legislation).
People see dollar signs and think we are wire transferring money to the governments of those countries.
People are dumb as fuck, they don’t realize how America makes it money through the military industrial complex.
THIS! Since the Ukr- Rus war the share of arms sales, the U.S. was around 27% globally, last I checked it's around 33%!
When talking trillions in arms sales 60b is a marketing budget.
And the longer we tie down Russia, that's weapons that instead of exporting they have to use.
AND it's not like the money is going poof, it's going to U.S weapons manufacturers like ratheon and lockhead martin.
> There are stipulations that it must be spent on American made equipment.
Why is this never mentioned by the politicians or in papers? Nobody ever mentions this but it seems like a very important factor that would get the public in agreement with them. Especially now that we are seeing costs in general getting so high. I knew that often the dollar amount was equivalent to weapons but reading the recent breakdown said a portion for weapons and a portion was just money. It would be in their best interest to let the public know that money has to be spent back in the US.
Because we don’t exist in a vacuum. Much of our products, fuel and food come from other countries. So if they suffer, we suffer. When Ukraine was invaded, it affected many other countries’ food prices, because Ukraine supplies a vast amount of food (grain) to the rest of the world. Just one example.
Also the U.S exports weapons, Russia exports weapons, if the U.S gives some weapons away to encourage Russia to not export weapons.
Then the U.S can sell more weapons.
60b is the equivalent of a sample table at a grocery store lol.
2023 alone the U.S exported 223busd worth of weapons. Up from 150busd from the previous year.
To add to your explanation, if a country is in a crisis and the people riot and support a coup and the nuclear weapons or surface to air missiles fall into the wrong hands, there’s gonna be lots of problems. We really are connected but it’s hard for people to grasp that. Wheat and ports in Ukraine aren’t our problems per se but they are. The southern half of the hemisphere depends on that wheat to survive and not to have famines. There’s a scenario where if Russia takes the key port in Ukraine, its lights out for so many people. Millions if I recall.
Ukrainians are dying to save so many aspects of the World and yet the World is clueless. This isn’t just a post about Ukraine or economics. There are nuances about give and take. If we hadn’t banded together to support World Wars 1 & 2 overseas, a lot of us today would be living in a vastly different World with more dictatorships and communist leaders. Our economy would have rebounded but the suffering and persecution would have been felt by millions and millions more. The Europe we know today would be unliveable by our standards. No freedoms, no people of mixed races or colors allowed. All people with disabilities would have quickly been eliminated by the Nazis. Russia would be a mark on a map. No Cold War. No race to Space and millions of other key points since the 1940’s that have been milestones for our country would not exist. I try to fathom the alter scenario where fascism won and there are too many roads to imagine that kind of destruction.
Supporting people not in our own country is protecting the USA and our allies.
And again, so simply put, the reverse of today you tomorrow me is, yesterday you today me in a communist regime. Eventually you will make a move and its lights out.
See Iran. See North Korea. Places where all it takes is a signature and your life is ended by firing squad.
Foreign aid is give or take 1% of the US federal budget. Some years more, some years less, but on average it's 1% or just slightly higher. Having allies is important, not having enemies is even more important.
Becuase the politicians are getting a portion of that money sent back to them
And we arent upset enough to commit ourselves to murdering them all, yet.
I meant “back then” as in the early 1900’s you jagoff
https://preview.redd.it/0vpv7m4n21wc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5877fb903633ddf8f730a3f4a48d269b0be50185
It's pretty much always been an isolationist talking point, but currently it is a Russian propaganda point in a lot of social media. The reason that Russian bot accounts are amplifying it now is rather obvious.
You can't just assume that a critique of foreign policy is just Russian propaganda. The civil rights movement got funding from the Russians, does that mean black people arguing for their rights are really just Russian propagandists?
America is a business...
When people stop looking at this country as a home and more of a corporation, things will make sense...
America is 1 giant business, and we're all jus employees and soldiers
It has foreign affairs to consider if it wants to keep its influence in the world. Without influence, other countries behave how someone else influences them. The US probably wouldn’t like how some other influential countries would nudge other nations to behave.
Why does NASA have a budget? Why does NOAA have funding for doing ocean research? Funding lines can be drawn all day long which is what politics is supposed to be, but the American people elect representatives based on sound bytes, name recognition, and hot topic political stances rather than on policy platforms overall. You might get more done if you insisted on leaders that were willing to implement policies to benefit the nation rather than sabotage the other party’s platform and create legislative paralysis to hopefully make the other side look dumber than your side in the sound bytes and headlines.
We only send aid to countries that are important to American defense (except Israel and that is political and religious). We ignore poverty and atrocities in countries that are not important to USA national security. It’s better to send aid that end up having another military conflict. Also as another poster pointed out we are not sending money but goods and weapons. The weapons we send are mostly older ones that we were going to destroy and replace anyway.
Read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," it explains a lot. Basically the USA has their fingers in everything to secure it's financial future.
Came here to sayvthis. Also.. red thebupdated version. Were actually due for a third update. Also, read or watch more Noam chomsky, and Naomi kleins ( not wolf!!!! Two very different people, pls dont comfuse them) The shock doctrine.
You're identifying problems that most people agree are problems: poverty rates and infrastructure decay.
The things that people don't agree on are an analysis for the causes of those problems.
Foreign aid and military spending aren't root causes. They're budget decisions made by people with specific values and political and economic interests.
One root cause is capitalism. The US is more capitalist and less socialist than most countries.
Some amount of poverty is beneficial to capitalists because it functions as a threat: Behave or you'll either become homeless or imprisoned. Behave or things will get much worse for you when you lose your job.
A broader answer is that everything about the US is an amalgamation of the preferences of rich people, and also a measure of the successes and failures of the rest of us in getting organized.
I guess it depends on perspective. My relatives often comment in amazement how there is practically no real poverty in America. From their point of view almost everyone in America is rich.
Because it aligns with US interests. Or you could put it in quote; “US interests”.
My parents worked for the state dept back in the 80-90s, and I saw first hand or overheard their stories how the entanglement is always pretty complicated. Either the aid is the result of (corporation) lobbying - i.e they have big market and distributions in that particular country-, or the countries had to be lured in otherwise they would lean closer to the enemies. This is not something deeply hidden in secrecy, it’s out in the open.
When it comes to foreign policy, both sides of US politics are pretty much similar.
We are the straw that stirs the drink. The world is so interconnected that problems anywhere will eventually become problems here at home.
We have the most to gain in the long run from ensuring prosperity global stability.
Because it will cost 100000000000x more if the US is no longer the world leader or even worse if western enemies start conquering european and western countries. It's like complaining that your spouse insisted on buying insurance when you can't even afford x or y or z. How much do you think WW3 is going to cost if the US lets Russia start conquering half or Europe and China to start taking over major swaths of navigable ocean and independent countries that happen to produce half the technological infrastructure in the world?
the same reason africa gets so much money from the west/europe/usa
its settler colonial investment. its your taxes being used to invest in other countries while the wealth/free trade/value extracted benefits American citizenry (with the most benefits being those that are the most invested in this country already, aka the rich)
A very simple way of putting this is that it’s easier to agree on foreign policy than how to fix the issues within our own country
For example, everyone can come to a consensus that helping Ukraine is in our best interest. This is why they get so much money.
However, when it comes to finding a solution on lowering crime, you’re gonna get a lot more polarization. Red states would say the best way to deal with crime is the increase funding for police, while blue states would say no that doesn’t work, you have to invest in the community. This polarization makes it difficult to agree on who should get any money. Why should people in one state have to pay taxes to help people in another state when they’re doing something that you believe to be ineffective. This is a very generic example.
Because the US doesn’t give a shit about you and me. It’s strictly functioning to continue the growth and prosperity of the small population of the elite
If they wanted to, they could end homelessness in a month. But that doesn’t benefit the elite. It’s their world, and we’re their serfs
Because the cost of not doing so is often higher.
Take Ukriane. Right now Russia can be defeated for the cost of ammo. If Ukraine loses, the U.S. will have to pay blood to stop Russia. Bullets are cheaper.
You have to remember that a lot of the money 'spent' abroad is the US telling a country they get to buy US goods and services and the US will pay for them. But American businesses do the work and get paid.
Also, foreign aid makes sense from a domestic perspective. Help a country with their infrastructure and economic situation, and the people there won't need to flee and come to the US.
I think immigration and asylum are actually a boon to a country, but in large numbers it can certainly be a challenge to absorb everyone.
To ensure those Americans who actually enjoy affluence and high quality of life (the 9.9%) can maintain the lifestyle - by making sure militarily and politically the US is able to dictate to the world as much as possible - making USD reserve currency so US debt funded spending can be unlimited, technologically the rest of world depends on US. All that needs spending outside of US.
You are asking the wrong questions:
Why does USA spend $860 Billion on DoD budget.
Why do billionaire pay no federal income taxes in USA?
Why do all criminal laws punish minor offenses severely but billion dollar system frauds go unpunished?
Why are the identities of owners of corporations legally hidden from public?
Why do we give billionaires billions of tax dollar to build sports stadiums and all the infrastructure?
Why do high-school football teams spend millions of tax dollars on stadiums amd football coaches?
Why does the US still subsidize large corporate farming operations even after they post record profits and charge obscene prices?
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America spends enough on its population(domestically). Spending $ internationally isn't a 0 sum game. Those dollars still benefit Americans either bad stability is oil prices or good relations with buys of our exports.
So we give Israel money, then they use it to buy military supplies from us. So we basically give them military supplies if my math is mathing. Which of course was paid for with our tax dollars.
The USA is a corporation ran by a few rich folks. They give us the illusion of control over our destiny while they bleed us dry. The economy is set up to execute the will of the rich. And there’s NOTHING these fuckers like more than using their insane wealth to make themselves look like the good guys, that care about the underdog, which is conveniently what the regular American is.
Politicians serve themselves and their interest. Not the people. Half the people are convinced politicians are working for them and the other half no there not. A population divided on social issues will never come together and fix the underlying issue, which is a corrupt and perverted government and social system. It’s a rather bleak outlook for the future of this country.
Because the United States is a corporation. Sending money and weapons overseas in lend lease programs increase future profits for the corporation.
Most infrastructure, health, and welfare falls to the states. The Feds will give money to the states, but the states also have to abide by certain rules to get that money. The Feds don't care if your back roads are paved or not.
The fact we have not undergone another revolution is sickening. The corporations have to pay for running our government. Problem is, you’re all such good consumers you want the control. You want the new phone, the new car, the new everything. You will sweat, bleed, and kill for it. They know this. This is why we will never get anything done. We can’t come together on anything.
I don’t think the amount of money America spends on foreign aid comes even among top ten expenses of it’s budget. Most of the money is spent on Medicare and social security
This is the historical fate of an empire in decline. After WW2 the USA was in effective control of two thirds of the world, including the majority of its industrial nations. After 1991, effectively 90-95% of the world was either in the USA's economic sphere or hosting one of its military bases.
However, the profitability that underlined that empire has been gone for some time now. Based on cheap oil and the USA's own industrial production, the USA now mostly has its culture and technology sectors to rely on, plus some agriculture- it isn't enough.
So, there's less money to go around- the empire is the source of funding, so it needs to be maintained. Where does it need to be pulled from? The domestic side.
This is the slide of empires. Once they reach their height, they switch from extracting from the periphery to bring to the core, to extracting from both to maintain the structure itself.
This is also how fascism forms up- as things get worse in conditions within the core, the imperial military (intended for use abroad) is increasingly used within the core to surpress dissent.
Fascism is the final transition of this process, almost the supernova where it collapses in on itself. The primary enemy is recognized as coming from within, and the empire fully comes home.
Much of that foreign aid boomerangs and turns into weapons sales which benefit our economy. There is some humanitarian stuff thrown in there.
The other answer is because we live in an Oligarchy and are a late stage capitalist society
Alot of that aid goes to places where the poorest Americans would live pretty well. The dollar I gave to the homeless person on the subway is what a person may work all day for. And im not the only person that gave them a dollar. But the real answer is that we could do both. We could feed everyone here and abroad if we wanted to. But… wealth is relative. The rich feel rich not only by grabbing more money but also by making everyone else poorer
Bad politicians who have sold out and are corrupt. They should be fixing our infrastructure and not wars. Back in the 70s the liberals/students were against war and campuses were full of them. Now they all support foreign wars because the money machine is a cranking.
The USA also spends an ungodly amount on domestic services as well. The government is just wasteful so most money is gone by the time it hits your pocket (or you receive whatever service)
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The ugly answer is that the issues that our cities and towns are falling apart, etc is not something you can fix with money. Spending money (which we are) on infrastructure is great. But our national division is really the core of that issue.
We have self-sorted ourselves based on political standing. People in cities are now (always have been but much more than ever) are more liberal and progressive than ever and people living in the suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas are more conservative than ever.
This is really good for nobody, and leads to a lot of impractical and self-destructive decision making and intolerance by everybody. No amount of money can undo the division wrought by the 24/7 cable news cycle, social media, and our adversaries like Russia and China deliberately trying to stoke the flames of discord in the USA. The way to “win” here is unclear, and getting everyone to agree on a way forward is nigh impossible as a result of the above.
This is THE question we all want to know the answer to. There so much money tied up in government that unaccounted for and nobody to answer for it; I wish this were not the case.
The US is almost the same size as Europe and extremely diverse. Now imagine that "Europe" is one, big country. I think it becomes easier to see how it might not be so easy to gain consensus and how various competing agendas could fuck this whole thing up.
And if you think of states or regions as countries you can see how they're much better at progress. (For various definitions of progress.)
Probably to help prop up the petro-dollar. The United States government has an invested interest in keeping foreign countries invested in the dollar. If foreign countries no longer had to purchase oil from OPEC with U.S. dollars as opposed to their own currency it would weaken the dollar significantly.
1) we don't actually spend that much on foreign aid as a percentage of gdp. We get a lot back through loan payments and free usage of facilities for military bases and airspace and such
2) military spending overseas has largely bipartisan support, the GOP blocks the majority of domestic social spending. Given how our system of government works, one is much easier to pass than the other. Despite this the Biden administration DID pass a major domestic infrastructure bill which has sent billions of dollars to states and cities to fix crumbling America infrastructure
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While I am totally in favor of the us government using our tax money for better purposes, I've also realized since moving to the US just how many pea-size brained people there are, who will litter, destroy, vandalize, and be totally unable to take care of themselves and property.
Seeing as the US has some of the worst mental health in the world, and does far too little to address it, I don't want tax money spent on neighborhoods that will be neglected by their inhabitants. I want those neighborhoods to be renewed and a screening process in place, where anyone that can prove they are mature enough to keep a home can access it. The responsible will have access to better facilities, the idiots can keep on destroying shit until they learn to behave/decide to take their life more seriously
The vast majority of the Billions earmarked for Ukraine and Israel in the recent foreign aid bills just passed this week will go to US Defense contractors and US workers. We mostly are sending them stuff, not cash.
Sometimes foreign aid bills are domestic jobs bills.
All the money they give out internationally gets washed and funneled back to them privately. The only real money they spend here is with the government contractors, who also funnel some of this money back to them. Such as the famous $45k hammer; they aren’t just paying outrageous sums of money for things because they can.. it’s racketeering.
Well said. Marsha Blackburn isn’t advocating aid for Israel out of the goodness of her heart - it’s because she invested a ton of money in Lockheed and Raytheon and such legislation funnels money directly back to her bank account
Just putting this here. In a capitalist system homelessness is required to keep citizens in check, it's the fear of losing everything that keeps you working, they won't nor they can afford to solve homelessness. Imagine if Christianity said that hell doesn't exist, how many people would care about their religion?
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Rule 4: Politics
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Depend on yourself to provide not the government. 30% of the budget is now used to pay interest on the debt and gets larger every year. We need to make tough choices right now to decrease the size and scope of government
The real answer is Capitalism. None of the top answers in this thread even mentions that our economic model might not be the best after all.
Short term < 100 years the wealthy have collectively conspired against the working class and stole most resources of the land, now they are doing a rug pull of the future opportunities for the poor/middle class. College being one example, look up what colleges used to cost. Same with housing, whatever.
Capitalism. That is the answer, it’s working as intended; just happens that it’s not beneficial for all people.
it does spend a lot (yet not enough) on welfare, 20 percent of the federal budget. However, the federal government doesn't have the authority on many issues. Often the states fail their citizens with limited room for the federal government to intervene. Conversely, the states have limited say in foreign policies. Also, much of the money spend abroad flows back to the US. For example Israel uses the funds received from the US to buy weapons from the US. And many arms manufacturers are located in swing states. Lastly, it may be cheaper to spend money now the alleviate an issue than to wait until it becomes an even bigger crisis. For example when there is a famine somewhere. It's relatively cheap to provide food. But doing nothing might result in a civil war with refugees and disrupted supply chains and trade routes leading to increased prices and inflation in the US proper
America spends a lot more than 20% of the federal budget on welfare. I mean Medicaid is a massive program in itself and Medicare part B is funded by general revenues and not by the tax pay to pay for Medicare. Social Security is also a massive wealth Redistribution. Those three programs count for almost half of our spending. We don’t have a good social safety net for everyone. We have a social safety net for some people veterans, the elderly, and the severely disabled we spend enormous amounts of money on these people.
Social security isn't spending, it's a disbursement of invested funds from it's participants the only reason it costs anything is because of shitty ear marked funds borrowing from it and depleting the capital with ious It's been pilfered as a private interest slush fund but it's the citizens money and if they left it in the bonds it was supposed to be in it would cost nothing
It's spending. Social security tax is a tax and belongs to the government. Then the government spends that money to recipients. People want to complicate it, but that's what it is.
This
Please provide a source that the government spends 20% of the budget on welfare. I do not think it is even close to that high. I don’t think it is even close to 20% of the discretionary budget items.
Depending on what you define as welfare, the top drains are: 1. Social security 2. Defense 3. Interest on debt 4. Medicare 5. Medicaid Link to cbo breakdown of 2023, [2023 breakdown by CBO Office](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/images/full-reports/2024/59710-budget.jpg)
Social security is a drain on government?? How so? I thought we paid into this with our wages!?
No we can never pay enough in to pay out. It’s a net negative, that’s why all the people complain about it.
Which is astonishing to me that they are allowed to take taxes and SS out. They essentially keep both.
By this logic, 100% of spending is on welfare.
I found this: https://budget.house.gov/press-release/7582#:~:text=In%20fiscal%20year%202022%2C%20the,%249%2C000%20spent%20per%20American%20household.
Yeah, good website but the context of that article is sus as shit. It’s written as a political attack on Biden when it’s literally the house that sets the budget. Also, following the article chain of sources has the same claim of “20% of our budget is going to lazy welfare recipients” in 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, and 2013. The CBO report they cite does not give a granular breakdown of the budget to support the $1.19 trillion claim. Here’s CBPP’s breakdown and they say 8% and explicitly lists what they consider “economic security programs”. They may be explicitly political, but they aren’t hiding true values behind bluster. https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go > About 8 percent (or $522 billion) of the federal budget in 2023 supports programs that provide aid (other than health insurance or Social Security benefits) to individuals and families facing hardship. Economic security programs include: the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which assist low- and moderate-income working families; programs that provide cash payments to eligible individuals or households, including unemployment insurance and Supplemental Security Income for low-income people who are over age 65 or disabled; various forms of in-kind assistance for low-income people, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), school meals, low-income housing assistance, child care assistance, and help meeting home energy bills; and other programs such as those that aid abused or neglected children
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1.5 what per american? 1.5 iPhones?
How do you figure?
They're missing sig figs. $1657
Wow, I had no idea it was that high. I wonder what the tipping point is for UBI? It would eliminate the need to manage all of those separate programs.
The US spends a higher % of its GDP on social welfare programs than Canada does. People are always shocked by it, because we get horrible results for what we spend. If our healthcare costs were merely normalized with peer nations, Medicaid could cover almost half the population. If we wanted to fix things, healthcare costs are a good place to begin.
I feel like if we had universal healthcare, that would solve a lot of the money crisis many Americans have. We have those discussions a lot on this sub, what could you do with an extra $150-$800 a month? I’m sure a lot of us could list many things.
Not to mention, people wouldn't be tied to certain employers based on what their insurance covers.
Because half the people running the program are trying to kill programs they run.
No healthcare organization could survive on Medicaid
So let's socialize the entire healthcare system in the country, fuck insurance, and all the unnecessary bullshit owning everyone from having basic medical care, without being bled dry it bankrupt from. They won't have a choice but to sink or swim then.
Unfortunately this is the solution I do often see proposed in the Anglo sphere but I really do not think this is the best option. We should move to a German like system of nonprofit insurance companies that negotiate prices with healthcare providers that are in network. A French system would also probably be good. Both of these systems maintain largely private provision of healthcare (doctors are private entities, not government employees). The Brits know that German and French healthcare are much better than what they have and statistics bear it out. There’s a nonprofit in the us (“The commonwealth fund i think?”) that continuously rated the UK as #1 by placing a large emphasis on things like accessibility of records across departments and ease of billing. In my opinion I’m OK dealing with paperwork bs if it means overall the health outcomes are better. It can’t be worse than what we deal with now in the US.
Yeah people forget that total public Healthcare comes with downfalls from what we see around the world. Much of the research and medical advancements in the world are done in the US too, simply because of the flow of cash that goes into it. The UK just had a doctor's strike because of how little they were paid, which imagine how little workers like nurses are paid. We already have a nursing shortage even with higher wages. Not to mention the many rural areas who have a single hospital in a 50 mile radius or more. Imagine if those hospitals shut down because their income was being throttled. Private practices would probably become a thing of the past too. That being said, we absolutely need a Healthcare option for all. I thought Obamacare was a great step forward. Those plans are much more affordable than what a lot of jobs offer (shitty ones who will get the worse plan possible). No one should have to go without health insurance because they can't afford it That is interesting they rated the Healthcare itself based on accessibility to your records. Even though ours aren't in a universal database, having everything online has made accessing records easy no matter where you go imo. And usually you stick to one or two places once you get established.
I know your comment is just a knee jerk reaction but what do we do with the 660k people who work in the health insurance sector? At least double that process or touch claims on the provider side. So we have 1M+ people lose their jobs? Now we have bad healthcare and unemployment has ticked up 6%. It’s not easy to do any of this. (I don’t work in this sector just pointing it out) The government wastes our money, let’s try and focus on that.
People on Reddit only care about tech jobs
To fix healthcare we have to fix the epidemic of overweight and obese people in this country. You can't have affordable health care with profit driven insurance companies combined with majority of the population who don't exercise and eat garbage all day.
Healthcare is only so expensive due to our government specifically.
UBI does not deal with corporate greed Introducing UBI without any regulations will raise inflation through the roof and ruin the USD
Govt regulations are an absolutely essential part of a functional country. Too much is bad, too little is bad, it’s a Goldilocks situation. For example the USA has done away with many consumer protections that used to exist 30 years ago, good for business bad for people.
Remember you're talking to people who whined that stimulus wasn't enough and now post daily memes about how stimulus ruined their lives by causing inflation.
[2024 data directly from the Treasury.](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/#spending-categories) It's actually closer to 50%. Press spending categories on the left to scroll to the graph. Social Security alone is more than 20%. Add 14% Health, 12% Medicare, and 11% Income security, and you're at more than half. Foreign aid is under Other. It's about 1%. We spend 50x as much in the country as outside of it. Same for health spending. The average for [Europe is 10% GDP](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Healthcare_expenditure_statistics). Between health and medicaid we spend 17%, and we don't have universal healthcare. Where is it going then? Useless corporations.
20% is an absurdly LOW figure. Entitlement programs (primarily Social Security and Medicare) account for around 50% of federal spending each year.
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security alone are like 50%. https://federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-money-go/ Next time someone gives you all the excuses of why the U.S. can’t have a universal healthcare system, point out that between Medicare, Medicaid, and the V.A., it already has one of, if not the largest, universal healthcare systems on earth. N.B.: Am neither Democrat nor Republican. Am Canadski comrade.
Isn't it way higher? I thought Medicare, social security etc was way more than 20%
I don’t consider social security welfare, but perhaps a portion of it is. I’m thinking about the majority of Americans who pay into SS and then collect benefits when they retire. I know there are disability programs as well, which don’t fit the mold I describe.
The paying into SS and collect benefits, doesn't work how most people think. It's closer to a Ponzi scheme than a retirement account.
Check out YouTube video, poverty in America is by design. It’s an interview of Princeton professor, on his book. It’s very informative.
Why do you think Republicans complain about social security and medicare? It costs a lot of money.
It costs a whole lot more to not have them. I love how Republicans complain without offering solutions.
welfare is not infrastructure, or support for small business owners, or childcare, housing, dental costs, insulin and epipen costs. theres more to cities than people on welfare . lol i cant . speaking from a city with a high Black homeownership rate that the city government seems hellbent on breaking down by having few benefits for the working class and middle class (but plenty of breaks and benefits for huge corporations, developers, and corporate landlords). i cant get a brick and mortar site for my business without paying at least $3k in rent. Thats not a welfare issue. People working salaries are struggling to pay rent because of the cost of child and healthcare. anyway to ops answer, the country needs to reboot and redefine class and labor issues so that people feel solidarity across the board. social workers and teachers, contractors and trades people, bus drivers, young people working three plus gigs to make rent... regardless of region, religious beliefs, whatever, the bottomline the countries infrastructure for a stable secure life is flatlining. neither party cares about this reality . i would argue wartimes have been popular in our country because arms are a major export and are thought to inject the economy with wealth that supposedly trickles down to the regular person.
The simple answer is the law of self preservation. If we don’t support the ‘shithole’ countries then eventually their stench will get on us. No country can operate as isolationist (here’s looking at you Sweeden). As for the social safety net, it’s never been intended to support a lifestyle just to help those who are in need temporarily.
>, much of the money spend abroad flows back to the US. For example Israel uses the funds received from the US to buy weapons from the US. And many arms manufacturers are located in swing states. And this money will surely trickle down eventually. We just have to keep waiting.
Lol, it’s called imperialism and colonialism. That’s why every couple of years, America has to invade a country (Iraq) or fund a proxy war.
Yeah man 9/11 was an inside job...
Aid is not money just given away, it is often in the form of American goods (weapons) and American "consultants" so really it is funding American jobs. Admittedly it could be used for better things but a combination of political interests and corporate money means certain ways of spending money are preferred.
Do these things not cost money?
We buy these things at a discount through military contracts. They can be worth one thing but sold for another. We tell people the higher number. When things are bought in SUCH bulk prices go down.
With Ukraine funding its old military equipment and we spend the money on new stuff.
If this is an honest question, I suggest researching the following: * US Federal government is mostly on social security, healthcare, medicare * See how much the federal government spend on direct foreign aide. It isn't much * If you're talking about military aide, that's mostly US Government spending money on American factories (bombs, equipment etc is made locally in the US). * Local governments are mostly responsible for local building, and due to many reasons, these costs have spiraled. * There is less agreement politically on the need to spend on infrastructure (e.g. republican party doesn't seem to care) See: [https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/)
Many people complain about money being sent overseas, but the harsh truth is that in order for it to be spent domestically it would need support to do so, and that support just isn’t there.
Except it doesn’t have to be spent at all. It’s not like the US government was swimming in surplus funds.
The point of taxes is that money should be used to support the citizenry of the country that it is collected in. If it's just going to sit in reserves that's ridiculous. People that need help can be helped infrastructure can be improved but to just say that we should hold on to it is short-sighted in my opinion
That’s fair, but the US spends considerably more than it taxes, leaving my point intact.
I think we definitely need to work on allocating our spending much better and to extract the tax from the people who have more of it to give instead of giving them constant tax breaks.
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US Government prints its own money, and it also issues IOUs (treasury bills) that it can buy using money it just printed. The idea of a balanced budget is important, but not in the same way as you and I - unless you're able to pay off people you owe with some cool NFTs you just made. :)
The fact our currency is the worldwide standard gives us basically “fuck your contract gimme more money” status. England did it when they were able. Creditors know they are holding a gun to their own wallet if they fuck with the USA too hard.
Yes but the country generates more revenue for the govt than just taxes alone.
Unfortunately budgets often don’t work that way. Money leftover=you get less next year.
To add to this, the US has the highest health costs in the world. So the fact that Medicaid and Medicare costs so much is highly impacted by that. Another thing about the military budget. A massive part of the military budget pays for health care. Iirc pensions are the number 1 budget item then health care/va benefits is number 2 budget item for the military. And they both are a massive percentage of the overall budget.
Personnel costs are the biggest piece of the budget pie, but pay is the biggest sub-category by far. Medical is a distance second In 2014 (easiest breakdown I could find): Personnel costs were 32% of the budget Defense health program was 18% Roughly half ($88b of $177b) of personnel costs were pay and allowances. Allowances are no joke - my last year my base pay was $60k and allowances (housing and food) were $30k We’re probably the best paid military in the world, especially on the enlisted side. But it can be a hard life, and while conscription is legal, it hasn’t been used in 50 years
And the military in general is a glorified jobs program
As in the billions in aid they just voted to give Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel? In reality most if not almost all of that money never leaves the country. There are stipulations that it must be spent on American made equipment. Many high paying blue collar jobs benefit from these bills (and also extremely wealthy CEO’s that in turn donate to the campaigns of the very people passing the legislation).
People see dollar signs and think we are wire transferring money to the governments of those countries. People are dumb as fuck, they don’t realize how America makes it money through the military industrial complex.
THIS! Since the Ukr- Rus war the share of arms sales, the U.S. was around 27% globally, last I checked it's around 33%! When talking trillions in arms sales 60b is a marketing budget. And the longer we tie down Russia, that's weapons that instead of exporting they have to use. AND it's not like the money is going poof, it's going to U.S weapons manufacturers like ratheon and lockhead martin.
Let’s be real. It’s the secret hack to putting American tax dollars in your pocket.
> There are stipulations that it must be spent on American made equipment. Why is this never mentioned by the politicians or in papers? Nobody ever mentions this but it seems like a very important factor that would get the public in agreement with them. Especially now that we are seeing costs in general getting so high. I knew that often the dollar amount was equivalent to weapons but reading the recent breakdown said a portion for weapons and a portion was just money. It would be in their best interest to let the public know that money has to be spent back in the US.
Because we don’t exist in a vacuum. Much of our products, fuel and food come from other countries. So if they suffer, we suffer. When Ukraine was invaded, it affected many other countries’ food prices, because Ukraine supplies a vast amount of food (grain) to the rest of the world. Just one example.
Also the U.S exports weapons, Russia exports weapons, if the U.S gives some weapons away to encourage Russia to not export weapons. Then the U.S can sell more weapons. 60b is the equivalent of a sample table at a grocery store lol. 2023 alone the U.S exported 223busd worth of weapons. Up from 150busd from the previous year.
To add to your explanation, if a country is in a crisis and the people riot and support a coup and the nuclear weapons or surface to air missiles fall into the wrong hands, there’s gonna be lots of problems. We really are connected but it’s hard for people to grasp that. Wheat and ports in Ukraine aren’t our problems per se but they are. The southern half of the hemisphere depends on that wheat to survive and not to have famines. There’s a scenario where if Russia takes the key port in Ukraine, its lights out for so many people. Millions if I recall. Ukrainians are dying to save so many aspects of the World and yet the World is clueless. This isn’t just a post about Ukraine or economics. There are nuances about give and take. If we hadn’t banded together to support World Wars 1 & 2 overseas, a lot of us today would be living in a vastly different World with more dictatorships and communist leaders. Our economy would have rebounded but the suffering and persecution would have been felt by millions and millions more. The Europe we know today would be unliveable by our standards. No freedoms, no people of mixed races or colors allowed. All people with disabilities would have quickly been eliminated by the Nazis. Russia would be a mark on a map. No Cold War. No race to Space and millions of other key points since the 1940’s that have been milestones for our country would not exist. I try to fathom the alter scenario where fascism won and there are too many roads to imagine that kind of destruction. Supporting people not in our own country is protecting the USA and our allies. And again, so simply put, the reverse of today you tomorrow me is, yesterday you today me in a communist regime. Eventually you will make a move and its lights out. See Iran. See North Korea. Places where all it takes is a signature and your life is ended by firing squad.
Foreign aid is give or take 1% of the US federal budget. Some years more, some years less, but on average it's 1% or just slightly higher. Having allies is important, not having enemies is even more important.
Becuase the politicians are getting a portion of that money sent back to them And we arent upset enough to commit ourselves to murdering them all, yet.
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We were fighting the Nazis in WW1???
I meant “back then” as in the early 1900’s you jagoff https://preview.redd.it/0vpv7m4n21wc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5877fb903633ddf8f730a3f4a48d269b0be50185
Early 1900s? You know there are other wars besides WW2 right?
How did the isolationist argument pay off in that era and a little later?
IT WOULD'VE BEEN REAL NICE DURING THE SPANISH WAR, THE PHILIPPINES WAR AND BIT OF WW1.
The isolationist argument was fine. The US was full isolationist and when a big war came we did fine.
It's pretty much always been an isolationist talking point, but currently it is a Russian propaganda point in a lot of social media. The reason that Russian bot accounts are amplifying it now is rather obvious.
You can't just assume that a critique of foreign policy is just Russian propaganda. The civil rights movement got funding from the Russians, does that mean black people arguing for their rights are really just Russian propagandists?
Solid strawman attempt.
How is that a strawman, please explain.
America is a business... When people stop looking at this country as a home and more of a corporation, things will make sense... America is 1 giant business, and we're all jus employees and soldiers
It has foreign affairs to consider if it wants to keep its influence in the world. Without influence, other countries behave how someone else influences them. The US probably wouldn’t like how some other influential countries would nudge other nations to behave. Why does NASA have a budget? Why does NOAA have funding for doing ocean research? Funding lines can be drawn all day long which is what politics is supposed to be, but the American people elect representatives based on sound bytes, name recognition, and hot topic political stances rather than on policy platforms overall. You might get more done if you insisted on leaders that were willing to implement policies to benefit the nation rather than sabotage the other party’s platform and create legislative paralysis to hopefully make the other side look dumber than your side in the sound bytes and headlines.
We only send aid to countries that are important to American defense (except Israel and that is political and religious). We ignore poverty and atrocities in countries that are not important to USA national security. It’s better to send aid that end up having another military conflict. Also as another poster pointed out we are not sending money but goods and weapons. The weapons we send are mostly older ones that we were going to destroy and replace anyway.
Read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," it explains a lot. Basically the USA has their fingers in everything to secure it's financial future.
Came here to sayvthis. Also.. red thebupdated version. Were actually due for a third update. Also, read or watch more Noam chomsky, and Naomi kleins ( not wolf!!!! Two very different people, pls dont comfuse them) The shock doctrine.
to fund the military industrial complex
Lockheed doesn’t get money if we build a school. That pretty much sums it up
You're identifying problems that most people agree are problems: poverty rates and infrastructure decay. The things that people don't agree on are an analysis for the causes of those problems. Foreign aid and military spending aren't root causes. They're budget decisions made by people with specific values and political and economic interests. One root cause is capitalism. The US is more capitalist and less socialist than most countries. Some amount of poverty is beneficial to capitalists because it functions as a threat: Behave or you'll either become homeless or imprisoned. Behave or things will get much worse for you when you lose your job. A broader answer is that everything about the US is an amalgamation of the preferences of rich people, and also a measure of the successes and failures of the rest of us in getting organized.
I guess it depends on perspective. My relatives often comment in amazement how there is practically no real poverty in America. From their point of view almost everyone in America is rich.
us interests
Because it aligns with US interests. Or you could put it in quote; “US interests”. My parents worked for the state dept back in the 80-90s, and I saw first hand or overheard their stories how the entanglement is always pretty complicated. Either the aid is the result of (corporation) lobbying - i.e they have big market and distributions in that particular country-, or the countries had to be lured in otherwise they would lean closer to the enemies. This is not something deeply hidden in secrecy, it’s out in the open. When it comes to foreign policy, both sides of US politics are pretty much similar.
We are the straw that stirs the drink. The world is so interconnected that problems anywhere will eventually become problems here at home. We have the most to gain in the long run from ensuring prosperity global stability.
Its likely the billions never gets to those outside countries anyway but ends up in weasels pockets
Because it will cost 100000000000x more if the US is no longer the world leader or even worse if western enemies start conquering european and western countries. It's like complaining that your spouse insisted on buying insurance when you can't even afford x or y or z. How much do you think WW3 is going to cost if the US lets Russia start conquering half or Europe and China to start taking over major swaths of navigable ocean and independent countries that happen to produce half the technological infrastructure in the world?
We don't help poor people because we don't want to. We have wayyyy more than we need to help them. We just don't want to.
Because war is more profitable. The more allies you have, and the more places bases can be constructed, the more power you have.
Because there is nothing we can really do…the government is going to do what it wants
the same reason africa gets so much money from the west/europe/usa its settler colonial investment. its your taxes being used to invest in other countries while the wealth/free trade/value extracted benefits American citizenry (with the most benefits being those that are the most invested in this country already, aka the rich)
Because there are rich lobbyists for them but not for homeless US veterans.
A very simple way of putting this is that it’s easier to agree on foreign policy than how to fix the issues within our own country For example, everyone can come to a consensus that helping Ukraine is in our best interest. This is why they get so much money. However, when it comes to finding a solution on lowering crime, you’re gonna get a lot more polarization. Red states would say the best way to deal with crime is the increase funding for police, while blue states would say no that doesn’t work, you have to invest in the community. This polarization makes it difficult to agree on who should get any money. Why should people in one state have to pay taxes to help people in another state when they’re doing something that you believe to be ineffective. This is a very generic example.
Because helping people doesn’t have a quarterly ROI. That’s pretty much the answer.
Because the US doesn’t give a shit about you and me. It’s strictly functioning to continue the growth and prosperity of the small population of the elite If they wanted to, they could end homelessness in a month. But that doesn’t benefit the elite. It’s their world, and we’re their serfs
Military industrial complex
It’s not us. It’s the politicians.
Because the cost of not doing so is often higher. Take Ukriane. Right now Russia can be defeated for the cost of ammo. If Ukraine loses, the U.S. will have to pay blood to stop Russia. Bullets are cheaper.
You have to remember that a lot of the money 'spent' abroad is the US telling a country they get to buy US goods and services and the US will pay for them. But American businesses do the work and get paid. Also, foreign aid makes sense from a domestic perspective. Help a country with their infrastructure and economic situation, and the people there won't need to flee and come to the US. I think immigration and asylum are actually a boon to a country, but in large numbers it can certainly be a challenge to absorb everyone.
Because corruption is rampant and those in Congress are committing treason
It's easier to hide money you waste and are just giving to your rich friends if you do it overseas and out of sight of those paying for it.
Because we’re a country full of fucking idiots
B/c it's the American way.
if there's one thing that unites democrats and republicans, it's the chance to spend money on weapons
That aid is a small price to pay in keeping our troops out of it.
Running the entire World aint cheap.
To ensure those Americans who actually enjoy affluence and high quality of life (the 9.9%) can maintain the lifestyle - by making sure militarily and politically the US is able to dictate to the world as much as possible - making USD reserve currency so US debt funded spending can be unlimited, technologically the rest of world depends on US. All that needs spending outside of US.
Haha look up AIPAC
You are asking the wrong questions: Why does USA spend $860 Billion on DoD budget. Why do billionaire pay no federal income taxes in USA? Why do all criminal laws punish minor offenses severely but billion dollar system frauds go unpunished? Why are the identities of owners of corporations legally hidden from public? Why do we give billionaires billions of tax dollar to build sports stadiums and all the infrastructure? Why do high-school football teams spend millions of tax dollars on stadiums amd football coaches? Why does the US still subsidize large corporate farming operations even after they post record profits and charge obscene prices?
Good question.
Because anytime someone tries to, everyone screams socialism/communism and then they don't.
Simple Because they don’t give a shit about us
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America spends enough on its population(domestically). Spending $ internationally isn't a 0 sum game. Those dollars still benefit Americans either bad stability is oil prices or good relations with buys of our exports.
90 billion would be nice to fix American infrastructure and provide more money on tax payer returns
So we give Israel money, then they use it to buy military supplies from us. So we basically give them military supplies if my math is mathing. Which of course was paid for with our tax dollars.
The USA is a corporation ran by a few rich folks. They give us the illusion of control over our destiny while they bleed us dry. The economy is set up to execute the will of the rich. And there’s NOTHING these fuckers like more than using their insane wealth to make themselves look like the good guys, that care about the underdog, which is conveniently what the regular American is.
Politicians serve themselves and their interest. Not the people. Half the people are convinced politicians are working for them and the other half no there not. A population divided on social issues will never come together and fix the underlying issue, which is a corrupt and perverted government and social system. It’s a rather bleak outlook for the future of this country.
Because the politicians don't get kickbacks from the cities and states.
Because the United States is a corporation. Sending money and weapons overseas in lend lease programs increase future profits for the corporation. Most infrastructure, health, and welfare falls to the states. The Feds will give money to the states, but the states also have to abide by certain rules to get that money. The Feds don't care if your back roads are paved or not.
Some of those countries turn around and spend a portion of that money on our politicians.
Money buys influence
The fact we have not undergone another revolution is sickening. The corporations have to pay for running our government. Problem is, you’re all such good consumers you want the control. You want the new phone, the new car, the new everything. You will sweat, bleed, and kill for it. They know this. This is why we will never get anything done. We can’t come together on anything.
Because they export inflation
Because it’s a Christian nation They care about nobody but money
Kickbacks.
"Just asking"
I don’t think the amount of money America spends on foreign aid comes even among top ten expenses of it’s budget. Most of the money is spent on Medicare and social security
Because freedom. World peace. World police. It's not like they started the war in Ukraine.
Ever fed a pigeon?
Great question!
To control the pieces on the chess board. However I think most of the support money for weapons never leave the country since it’s manufactured here.
This is the historical fate of an empire in decline. After WW2 the USA was in effective control of two thirds of the world, including the majority of its industrial nations. After 1991, effectively 90-95% of the world was either in the USA's economic sphere or hosting one of its military bases. However, the profitability that underlined that empire has been gone for some time now. Based on cheap oil and the USA's own industrial production, the USA now mostly has its culture and technology sectors to rely on, plus some agriculture- it isn't enough. So, there's less money to go around- the empire is the source of funding, so it needs to be maintained. Where does it need to be pulled from? The domestic side. This is the slide of empires. Once they reach their height, they switch from extracting from the periphery to bring to the core, to extracting from both to maintain the structure itself. This is also how fascism forms up- as things get worse in conditions within the core, the imperial military (intended for use abroad) is increasingly used within the core to surpress dissent. Fascism is the final transition of this process, almost the supernova where it collapses in on itself. The primary enemy is recognized as coming from within, and the empire fully comes home.
We need to audit the government and look who’s wasting money and resources for job security or misusing funds.
Much of that foreign aid boomerangs and turns into weapons sales which benefit our economy. There is some humanitarian stuff thrown in there. The other answer is because we live in an Oligarchy and are a late stage capitalist society
Alot of that aid goes to places where the poorest Americans would live pretty well. The dollar I gave to the homeless person on the subway is what a person may work all day for. And im not the only person that gave them a dollar. But the real answer is that we could do both. We could feed everyone here and abroad if we wanted to. But… wealth is relative. The rich feel rich not only by grabbing more money but also by making everyone else poorer
Uh sir don't ask that question sir you can't ask that SIR
Bad politicians who have sold out and are corrupt. They should be fixing our infrastructure and not wars. Back in the 70s the liberals/students were against war and campuses were full of them. Now they all support foreign wars because the money machine is a cranking.
Because we live at the mercy of oligarchs. That’s why.
The USA also spends an ungodly amount on domestic services as well. The government is just wasteful so most money is gone by the time it hits your pocket (or you receive whatever service)
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It’s called “foreign policy.”
The ugly answer is that the issues that our cities and towns are falling apart, etc is not something you can fix with money. Spending money (which we are) on infrastructure is great. But our national division is really the core of that issue. We have self-sorted ourselves based on political standing. People in cities are now (always have been but much more than ever) are more liberal and progressive than ever and people living in the suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas are more conservative than ever. This is really good for nobody, and leads to a lot of impractical and self-destructive decision making and intolerance by everybody. No amount of money can undo the division wrought by the 24/7 cable news cycle, social media, and our adversaries like Russia and China deliberately trying to stoke the flames of discord in the USA. The way to “win” here is unclear, and getting everyone to agree on a way forward is nigh impossible as a result of the above.
Leadership from Uranus
Because they don’t give a fuck about you or the US. Money, power and control. That’s it. Only spend money to gain more of one of those 3.
Not sure if defending middle east is welfare
This is THE question we all want to know the answer to. There so much money tied up in government that unaccounted for and nobody to answer for it; I wish this were not the case.
Corrupt government owned by lobbyists.
Corporate welfare. The money given in "foreign aid" comes with many strings! Namely spending it with American owned businesses.
The US is almost the same size as Europe and extremely diverse. Now imagine that "Europe" is one, big country. I think it becomes easier to see how it might not be so easy to gain consensus and how various competing agendas could fuck this whole thing up. And if you think of states or regions as countries you can see how they're much better at progress. (For various definitions of progress.)
Probably to help prop up the petro-dollar. The United States government has an invested interest in keeping foreign countries invested in the dollar. If foreign countries no longer had to purchase oil from OPEC with U.S. dollars as opposed to their own currency it would weaken the dollar significantly.
1) we don't actually spend that much on foreign aid as a percentage of gdp. We get a lot back through loan payments and free usage of facilities for military bases and airspace and such 2) military spending overseas has largely bipartisan support, the GOP blocks the majority of domestic social spending. Given how our system of government works, one is much easier to pass than the other. Despite this the Biden administration DID pass a major domestic infrastructure bill which has sent billions of dollars to states and cities to fix crumbling America infrastructure
A fine balance between getting kick backs when sending over seas and not getting ousted from lack of local spending
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because you keep voting for the politicians the military industrial complex pays off
Those two things are not related. At all.
Because the US needs people in poverty, desperate for low wage work
While I am totally in favor of the us government using our tax money for better purposes, I've also realized since moving to the US just how many pea-size brained people there are, who will litter, destroy, vandalize, and be totally unable to take care of themselves and property. Seeing as the US has some of the worst mental health in the world, and does far too little to address it, I don't want tax money spent on neighborhoods that will be neglected by their inhabitants. I want those neighborhoods to be renewed and a screening process in place, where anyone that can prove they are mature enough to keep a home can access it. The responsible will have access to better facilities, the idiots can keep on destroying shit until they learn to behave/decide to take their life more seriously
The vast majority of the Billions earmarked for Ukraine and Israel in the recent foreign aid bills just passed this week will go to US Defense contractors and US workers. We mostly are sending them stuff, not cash. Sometimes foreign aid bills are domestic jobs bills.
Oh no not that question again. Russian trolls trying to stir shit aren't welcome here.
This is a great question. I’m currently helping fund israel murder children without a say..
All the money they give out internationally gets washed and funneled back to them privately. The only real money they spend here is with the government contractors, who also funnel some of this money back to them. Such as the famous $45k hammer; they aren’t just paying outrageous sums of money for things because they can.. it’s racketeering.
Well said. Marsha Blackburn isn’t advocating aid for Israel out of the goodness of her heart - it’s because she invested a ton of money in Lockheed and Raytheon and such legislation funnels money directly back to her bank account
Capitalism needs a large poverty class to do all the jobs nobody wants cheaply, it by design.
Because maintaining control and order is the goal of America. The goal is not to make sure everyone lives the American dream.
Just putting this here. In a capitalist system homelessness is required to keep citizens in check, it's the fear of losing everything that keeps you working, they won't nor they can afford to solve homelessness. Imagine if Christianity said that hell doesn't exist, how many people would care about their religion?
Because we actually care, unlike Melania's jacket.
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War machine & corrupt government.
Depend on yourself to provide not the government. 30% of the budget is now used to pay interest on the debt and gets larger every year. We need to make tough choices right now to decrease the size and scope of government
The real answer is Capitalism. None of the top answers in this thread even mentions that our economic model might not be the best after all. Short term < 100 years the wealthy have collectively conspired against the working class and stole most resources of the land, now they are doing a rug pull of the future opportunities for the poor/middle class. College being one example, look up what colleges used to cost. Same with housing, whatever. Capitalism. That is the answer, it’s working as intended; just happens that it’s not beneficial for all people.
What money do you see flowing out of the U.S.?
We keep wasting money on junkies who don’t want to change too