r/MadeMeSmile Oct 12 '21

Small Success Amazing

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

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44

u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

You are right but Americans are misled to believe that is socialism. Meanwhile spending most of our budget to make the military rich is ok even tho the military is pretty much the largest socialist experiment. Think free Healthcare, education, housing, sustenance, and even COLA. We just need to get our priorities right. No one batted an eye when F35s overran their budget but we somehow can't afford to take care of our own people.

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u/nemoskullalt Oct 12 '21

you know what actually is socialism? private insurance. you pay 100 a month so someone else can go to the hospital that month. socializing the financal risk of bad luck is not a bad thing.

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

The problem of America when it comes to Healthcare is we have health insurance and expensive procedures. Health insurance allows companies to charge 3 Lamborghinis for a procedure that costs 600 dollars in Spain. But we allow for profit Healthcare cus we fear socialism. I wish we could educate our people to understand that access to Healthcare is a capitalist idea. People that are healthy are more productive and increase profits.

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u/nemoskullalt Oct 12 '21

education is dangerous, it leads to all kinds of question, questions lead to changes, and then bezos will have a harder time buying the latest senator.

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u/Mental-ish Oct 12 '21

Don't forget another dick shaped rocket.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

[deleted]

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u/nemoskullalt Oct 12 '21

it wasnt ment to be literally, just a number to make a point.

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u/ellingw17 Oct 12 '21

That's not how socialism works. You just call things you don't like socialism.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

socializing the financal risk of bad luck is

Literally the definition of insurance. How do you think every other form of insurance works?

It's only socialism if it's mandated and set. Taxes are mandatory. Insurance isn't.

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u/soysauce000 Oct 12 '21

Obama would like to talk to you

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u/Johnny_B_GOODBOI Oct 12 '21

Socialism is worker control of the means of production. You're just describing risk management.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

I love Uranus too.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

The military is a massive socialist experiment, but remember that they get all that crap at the expense of being literally owned by the government. Seriously. I’ve seen guys lose pay for getting bad sunburns. They were considered as “damaging government property”

Think very hard before deciding if you’d want that applied nationwide

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

I never had that and never heard of that. I'm on a second contract. The last contract I give. For those that were deployed to danger it makes sense they commit some sacrifice and deserve a bit more. But a great deal of us never go anywhere. A large number of soldiers never get a right shoulder patch and I'm one of those. This ride will end soon and the only sacrifice I had was that I woke up early to do exercise. I

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

Cmon. How many people do you have to ask for permission to leave your AOR? You’re government property dude. They own our asses until the contracts done.

Military’s great and useful for lots of things, but it’s a terrible argument for socialized healthcare. The military can and will kick you out for literally anything. Including getting fat, smoking weed, and showing up late for work. People need to understand that

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

Look at your ridiculous argument. The military will kick you for anything that regular employers will kick you out for. The military will keep you in their AOR unless you go on leave. Just like you would with a regular employer.

The government gives you plenty of freedom with some restrictions that are understandable.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21 edited Oct 12 '21

Dude, I don’t know how long it’s been since your last normal job, but it isn’t normal to ask your company for permission to fly/drive more than 250 miles from your posting.

It isn’t normal for companies to test their employees ability to run and to fire the fat people.

Like I said. The military is great but don’t kid yourself. It’s not a normal job

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

It s a normal job. It s not hard to not be fat. It's not normal to go across the world over a weekend idk what kind of jobs you imagine

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

You really think it’s normal to get your commanders approval to go on a roadtrip?

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

250 miles is across the state. You breakdown and don't show up to work on Monday you affect operation. It seems you never had a real job before

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

You are completely missing the point.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21 edited Oct 12 '21

Sigh ... oh, the F-35 program.

That jet is a phenomenal piece of engineering but who the #$*&%! thought it was a good idea to make a single plane that's a stealthy fighter/attach/recon jet that can launch vertically and take off & land via aircraft carrier. The textbook definition of "golden sledgehammer."

end rant

EDIT: I have high hopes for the NGAD program, Will Roper seems to have his crap together.

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u/RockSlice Oct 12 '21

It is socialism.

Americans are misled into believing that any amount of socialism is evil and dangerous.

But in cases where the free market is impossible (like healthcare, basic housing, or essential utilities), socialism needs to step in.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

It's not socialism. Nothing of this is socialism. Government spending is not socialism. For fucks sake even Dwight D. "kill the commies" Eisenhower expanded social welfare. Government spending is government spending. State-ran healthcare is just that, healthcare ran as a more or less normal corporation by affiliates of the government.

Public healthcare can be both state-ran in its entirety or also simply private corporations receiving funds from the government for each person treated. Most state-ran enterprises in the western world today act as private corporations trying to cut costs while receiving the overarching goals from their respective ministries.

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u/RockSlice Oct 12 '21

If government-run healthcare isn't socialism, what economic theory does it fall under? It certainly isn't capitalism.

Definition of socialism:

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '21

Means of production, distribution and exchange regards the productive forces of society such as factories. The closest thing today would be workers' cooperatives where each person working the company also holds shares equivalent to the proportion of the workforce they embody.

Again, it most definitely falls under capitalism as the healthcare providers are effectively operating as a private company where they are reimbursed by the government, and then either reinvest or give to the state the "profit" from their expenses being less than predicted.

Essentially, nothing changes - it's literally just a corporation whose executives are appointed by the government and whose shareholders to take profit is also the government. The net effect is to redistribute the wealth that is accumulated by private persons and property to greater benefit for the lowest, while the underlying economic system remains the same.

Ergo not socialism as capitalism still exists.

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u/RockSlice Oct 12 '21

Would you not include government as part of "the community as a whole"?

Also, we're talking about the healthcare system as a whole, not individual companies. The healthcare system as a whole wouldn't be running for profit, so wouldn't fit into the definition of capitalism.

Even in economic areas where the field as a whole is definitely socialism (eg some electric utilities), you still have the opportunity for companies to practice localized capitalism. (eg the power plants might be run by companies for profit)

Unless you think that people advocating for government-run healthcare are doing it to get a slice of the profits, and not to ensure adequate healthcare for everybody...

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u/imterribleatthese Oct 12 '21

I’m all for universal healthcare, but are you implying military members aren’t “our own people”?

Edit: some of those things listed are free for military but not all

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

No I'm telling you that as a soldier i get all that. If the whole country joined the military they would have Healthcare education and even a retirement. We have money. But our priorities are not right. I never deployed and my service is simply a 9 to 5 after doing exercise in the morning. That s all I do differently from the civilians.

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u/imterribleatthese Oct 12 '21

Maybe you got all that, but it doesn’t apply to everyone. I just finished my masters and TA only paid about 10% of it. BAS definitely doesn’t cover all food either

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

I live in Hawaii. You can argue Hawaii is expensive but for a low rank I am overall making 7k a month. A lot of that I threw in crypto. That made me 2M. I have a wife and a kid and I can still save a lot of that money. Healthcare has never been a worry. I have a desk job. Basically all this for sending emails and attending meetings on MS teams.

BAS doesnt have to cover everything. I spend around 800 dollars a month. Bas is maybe 300. But I get paid around 7k and it drops to 6.4k after taxes. Military is paid plenty for the amount of work we do while not on deployment. Allowances are tax free.

On top of that military wastes a lot of money. Think F35 budget overrun. Condemned buildings running AC for years. Unaccounted property that I have helped put in abandoned bunkers. America s worst problem is really that we justify the military but not taking care of our population. It's exactly what we tell North Koreans but we do. Take care of your people rather than your weapons.

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u/imterribleatthese Oct 12 '21

Never said the pay/benefits of the military aren’t great, but saying that all those things are free for members misrepresents how it really is to people who have never been in.

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

It doesn't. The surgeries I had in the army would have cost an arm and a leg outside. That was free. The only reason I was able to invest and accumulate money is because the military gave me a safety net the civilian world doesnt give the people.

My point is that giving people that safety net would make our people more prosperous. You complain TA didn't cover all but civilians don't get that. They pay out of pocket. You still have your GI Bill. We have money to take care of our people. We just waste it in the military

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u/imterribleatthese Oct 12 '21

Never complained about having to pay for most of college or that we can’t take care of people, just corrected you saying that all that stuff was free dude

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

It is free. For us. I never paid Healthcare since I joined. I had surgeries and I had a baby. It is free. People pay for those things.

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u/imterribleatthese Oct 12 '21

Yes healthcare is free, some of the other things you listed like education and sustenance may not be

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u/Johnny_B_GOODBOI Oct 12 '21

Americans are misled to believe that is socialism.

the military is pretty much the largest socialist

Haha, way to prove your own point.

No the military is not socialist. Spending is from public coffers, yes, but socialism means democratic control of means of production, not "publicly funded". In the case of the military MoP are their equipment (weaponry and non-weaponry alike), bases, vehicles, communication networks, research projects, etc. Average members of the military do not have any say in how any of these things are used, or for what purpose. Just the opposite is true, the military is a very strict top-down hierarchy. It's the farthest from socialism you can get.

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u/UranusisGolden Oct 12 '21

Free Healthcare

Free education

Free housing

Money for food

Money for COLA

Yearly pay raise

Automatic promotions

not socialist system

The military has more in common with North Korean or Cuban systems than with any system for normal people in USA. Civilians get a paycheck. Sometimes a 401k. Sometimes a company health insurance plan. So tell me again why it's our top priority to keep wasting money on the military when compared to other countries we spend like 10x more. Simply because we are misled to misplace our priorities instead of taking care of our decaying Healthcare and education systems. We should take care of our people.