this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Mildly Interesting

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I assume "Other purposes" is govt kickbacks to mining and gas companies ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This would be neat to see for the US

Health wouldn't be on there at all because fuck em

Defense would be spelled correctly and be so large that it would need to be on its own section, because the chart scale would distort things so badly that everything else would look like a sliver above zero

Education would be smaller than your immigration

Welfare, depending on the administration, would likely be some derogatory categorization for each group just to piss off their base

"other" would be the best biggest thing after Defense and provide no details, because it would be corporate subsidies and that would look bad

[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Health wouldn't be on there at all because fuck em

The US actually does spend an incredible amount of money on healthcare compared to other countries. Nearly $2 trillion in the budget for FY 2023 alone. Medicare and Medicaid comprising the majority of that spending.

The US spends about twice as much per person for healthcare out of taxes than comparably rich nations do.

The problem isn't the budget, it's the cost. Healthcare is way too damn expensive in the US compared to elsewhere.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

But remember, having all these private companies run the system is good, actually! The alternative is communism despite every other capitalist country in the world using the alternative!

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

This is very easy to find with a simple google search. Here's the year-to-date spending for 2023:

$1.01T social security
$673B health
$636B medicare
$623B income security
$610B defense
$494B net interest
$220B veteran benefits & services
$201B education, training, employment, and social services
$89B transportation
$74B community and regional development
$179B other

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but is the USA spending $1.3T on healthcare and it's still not free?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yes.

Welcome to America! The greatest nation!

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

And another 2.5Trillion on the private side. Spend more on healthcare than any other country with the same or worse outcomes.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So the comment you're replying to was pretty much completely incorrect. Wonder if they'll revise their statement

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Not only is it pretty common for a democracy to be pretty open about how they spend their tax budget, it's really common for these figures to be discussed when attacking America ๐Ÿ™„

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course not, because it's much easier to just go "haha America dumb and bad"

Can't let the facts get in the way of that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I mean, we spend more on defense than the next several nations combined and we haven't won a war in 80 years.

We spend more on healthcare than every other nation and it's still the most expensive healthcare system in the world.

We spend hundreds of billions on a welfare system that forces people on it to keep working until the day they die.

We throw out billions in kickbacks and "incentives" to billion dollar companies.

I could go on with the numerous, seemingly never ending problems with the US, but the point is that our system is indeed bad and dumb. Nothing we have works, and all of it is extremely over funded and under delivering. At this point, tearing it all up and starting again seems like the easier way to fix things, and getting to that point is never good

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Social security is SELF-FUNDING, and even still lends money to the general fund. Yes, this a list of all government spending, but it isn't what your FICA payment goes towards. Military spending is #1 for that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Defense would be spelled correctly

Hey, I take offence to that!

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is color? Do you mean colour?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sorry that's not a word, it has a red squiggly under it if I try to use it