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USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

cidrap.umn.edu

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Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#101

Post by bryanlarsen »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #99
bryanlarsen wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust isn't a binary. If everybody trusted all of their neighbors as much as South Korea trusts North Korea then the world economy would collapse and we'd likely have billions of deaths.

It isn't binary but clever countries with a strong defense policy like the US and Switzerland also have insurance polices and backup plans for the case their allies turn against them since it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Guess in which case Europe is a the moment?

So what should Canada do? Spend 100% of their GDP preparing for an American invasion that they'd probably still lose?

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#102

Post by bryanlarsen »

stogot wrote: post #100
bryanlarsen wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "taxation is theft" right wing talking line is about as intellectually honest as the "property is theft" left wing talking line.

Not really. Forceful taxation (by jail) to redistribute the money to states or national security is a boring topic, but redistribution of wealth to ‘for n in NATIONS’ is worth an intellectual challenge. And even if you don’t care about taxation, why is the US running this entity and not supprting an international donation match to the UN? The US is running a deficit if you haven’t noticed, not a surplus.

There's also an underlying validity to the "property is theft" argument. They both have a correct underlying principle. And both are wrong in the totality.

> a deficit

A deficit in little pieces of paper they print themselves, and most of that debt is to themselves.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#103

Post by aprilthird2021 »

mplanchard wrote: post #68
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think for a lot of people, "Stop sending tons of our tax money to other countries" is a step to repair some of that trust with the population Yes, bingo. On both sides, people have become extremely sick of seeing "billions of dollars sent to X" in the news knowing that we, American citizens, will never receive anything like that amount of aid

> we, American citizens, will never receive anything like that amount of aid 21% of the federal budget goes to Social Security (aid) 16% goes to medicare (aid) 10% goes to other health spending (probably at least partially aid -- edit: further research shows that of this, around 90% is some kind of aid) 7% goes to income security (aid) 4% goes to veteran services (aid) 3% goes to education, training, employment, and…

If you are a young person today, your chance of getting Social Security is low because it will be scrapped by the time we reach that age. Medicare also is for seniors, Medicaid is for the impoverished. Veteran services are for veterans.

Most of what you describe is not for the average American citizen. But it is the average American citizen who has more credit card debt than ever before, whose wages don't keep pace with inflation, whose ability to buy a home for his family drifts further and further away every year.

Why can't we take that 1% that we send to foreign "allies" (who themselves have better social services and spend more on their populations than we do) and give it to the average American who works hard and makes this country what it is?

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#104

Post by aprilthird2021 »

normalaccess wrote: post #84
mplanchard wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we, American citizens, will never receive anything like that amount of aid 21% of the federal budget goes to Social Security (aid) 16% goes to medicare (aid) 10% goes to other health spending (probably at least partially aid -- edit: further research shows that of this, around 90% is some kind of aid) 7% goes to income security (aid) 4% goes to veteran services (aid) 3% goes to education, training, employment, and…

It's not the spending itself that's the problem. It's the the waste in each program. The middle men and NGO's that are hovering up free money from the tax payers that is the problem. All these programs are treated like cookie jars and everyone gets a nibble.

No, it's the spending. I'm sick of looking at our "allies" having the social programs our "leaders" tell us we can't have while we subsidize their countries

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#105

Post by aprilthird2021 »

ModernMech wrote: post #83
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think it's crazy the degree to which the entire world seems to rely on us. And our own politicians are the ones who have sent our hard-earned billions of dollars away to foreign countries, many of whom feign being allies but really provide us with no benefit at all

The US's vast wealth depends on keeping other countries dependent on us; if they weren't so dependent, they wouldn't be so compliant.

We'll find out soon if this is true or not.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#106

Post by [deleted] »

normalaccess wrote: post #89
normalaccess wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always a shame when people get used to free things because they lose the ability to provide for themselves. I say we stop so other countries can spin up their own programs and pay for it. I have zero interest in using TAX dollars to fund medical programs outside the US.

For people down-voting, it's no different than being told "Don't feed the bears" and Yellowstone Park. It's worse off for the animals because they become dependent. Link to Eric Olszewski's blog on the topic: https://medium.com/@eolszewski/dont-feed-the-humans-they-wil...

[deleted]

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#107

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

normalaccess wrote: post #81
BobaFloutist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we already volunteered to do this specific thing, so it's incredibly disruptive for us to back out at (or well after) the last minute. Other countries do other things, and it would be similarly disruptive if they pulled or froze funding and operational support with 0 notice. It'd be like if Microsoft donated free copies of Windows to a hospital and then one day was like "Actually we've been donating too much…

It's always a shame when people get used to free things because they lose the ability to provide for themselves. I say we stop so other countries can spin up their own programs and pay for it. I have zero interest in using TAX dollars to fund medical programs outside the US.

I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that you realize that diseases don't honor national borders?

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#108

Post by epoxia »

ivewonyoung wrote: post #76
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the US is the de-facto leader of the Free World, the wealthiest country in the Western hemisphere and the winner of the Cold War. Heavy Lies the Crown. Especially when it's about fighting the deadliest infectious disease known to man.

Country yes but govt no. Just the interest on the US debt is almost a trillion dollars a year now which is 3% of GDP and the debt is ~35 trillion. Deficit spending is higher than federal taxes on the paycheck, which means you're basically paying double of what your paycheck shows. Meanwhile Norway's sovereign wealth fund has $1.75 trillion dollars.

Norway and Singapore are petro-states. Alaska and Texas (to a much smaller degree) have wealth funds off of resources. Whether they're fiscally responsible with that is up to the state.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#109

Post by andy_ppp »

janeroe wrote: post #86
mplanchard wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreign aid is (was) 1% of the US budget

And that's 1% (of the whole budget) too much.

When the diseases of the third world metastasise and cause a far worse pandemic than the one that just happened you will think the 1% is cheap.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#110

Post by ModernMech »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #103
mplanchard wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we, American citizens, will never receive anything like that amount of aid 21% of the federal budget goes to Social Security (aid) 16% goes to medicare (aid) 10% goes to other health spending (probably at least partially aid -- edit: further research shows that of this, around 90% is some kind of aid) 7% goes to income security (aid) 4% goes to veteran services (aid) 3% goes to education, training, employment, and…

If you are a young person today, your chance of getting Social Security is low because it will be scrapped by the time we reach that age. Medicare also is for seniors, Medicaid is for the impoverished. Veteran services are for veterans. Most of what you describe is not for the average American citizen. But it is the average American citizen who has more credit card debt than ever before, whose wages don't keep pace w…

I mean, they basically are. They are slashing foreign aid, slashing Medicaid $800B, slashing SNAP programs 20%, and they're giving the money back to the American people in the form of tax breaks.

But not average Americans, no, don't be silly. It's going back to the 1% and corporations, the "real Americans" who built this country.

Average Americans get nothing. Actually, it's worse than that we get less than nothing; we are losing social welfare programs that keep up alive and healthy. Instead, the plan as far as I can tell is to just let people who depend on those programs die.

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