unlike you, i dont “skim” counter arguments, i prefer to read and understand where they went wrong, or right. lets dive in to your mind a bit, shall we?

“Of course I’m aware it’s the largest item in its category once you filter spending into categories that specifically remove welfare and debt spending.”

Yeah, that’s kind of the point. You’re minimizing military spending by slicing up the budget categories until the elephant in the room fits in a closet. Within discretionary spending—the part Congress actually debates every year—military spending is the single biggest slice by far. In FY2024, the U.S. military budget was $842 billion, dwarfing most other departments. Acting like that’s a meaningless stat is disingenuous.

“Discretionary spending specifically is a small part of government expenditure…”

Only because mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are locked in. But when it comes to spending decisions our elected officials actively control, defense gets the lion’s share. So yeah, it’s still relevant.

“Military industrial complex doesn’t exist.”

Come on. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s literal U.S. presidential history. Eisenhower coined the term in 1961 warning about the influence of the defense industry on public policy. Since then, the intertwining of defense contractors, government funding, and foreign policy has been extensively documented. Pretending it’s fake is like saying lobbying doesn’t exist.

“Majority of rich nations have debt.”

Sure. But the existence of debt doesn’t make all spending equal. A lot of those nations invest more proportionally in healthcare, infrastructure, and education. The U.S., meanwhile, throws nearly half of its discretionary budget at the Pentagon, while millions can’t afford basic meds. So debt isn’t the problem—how you spend is.

“US has ‘free’ healthcare it’s just worse than non-existent.”

This is just flat-out wrong. The U.S. doesn’t have free healthcare. Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA serve limited populations. Everyone else deals with high premiums, co-pays, and surprise bills. It’s literally the most expensive healthcare system in the world and still leaves millions under- or uninsured. So, no—it’s not “free,” and it’s not “worse than non-existent.” It’s just expensive and dysfunctional.

“Plenty of countries have ‘large’ homeless populations.”

That’s not the flex you think it is. The U.S. has one of the highest homelessness rates in the developed world, especially when measured against GDP per capita and housing stock. Comparing yourself to failing models doesn’t excuse your own failure.

“None of this is a capitalism problem. It’s all the fault of poor governance.”

Okay, but governance is shaped by the economic system. Capitalism, unregulated or poorly regulated, gives outsized power to corporations and billionaires who influence policy to protect their interests. That’s how you end up with tax loopholes, underfunded social programs, and endless defense budgets. Governance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s downstream of capitalism in practice. the system itself is easily corruptable, making it extremely flawed.

“They’d be in a far worse spot if they were at the mercy of their government for everything.”

You’re already at the mercy of someone, either corporations or government. One is profit-driven, the other at least theoretically answerable to voters, or at least “was”. Acting like total privatization leads to freedom is just libertarian fanfic. and utterly insane.

TL; because i know you DR: You’re trying to minimize systemic issues by pretending they’re just bad luck or bad governance. But when you zoom out, they’re structural, tied to how capitalism works in the U.S. and who holds the power. Stop gaslighting people with bootstraps logic, its fox news drivel, and its not respected here.

read more, you obviously need to. if anyone here is posting a “vibes based” response, its you dude. i get you have a hard on for the “free market” but if you knew one thing about economics you’d know that the US stock market is the most corrupt one on earth, literally redesigned over the decades to filter money and shares from suckers to big fish, who in turn use it as leverage against the governments of the world. So they can further their agendas of power, control, and wealth aquisition. Trump, the “president”, was literally purchased and placed in his seat by a man who leveraged his overpriced, artificially inflated “hype” stock as collateral to buy a social media platform so he could spread the same rhetoric and misinformation you are currently spreading. that is a feature of capitalism, along with recessions that increase in frequency decade after decade. all so they can reap the new crops of small businesses and assets of the people for a song.

if you have any questions or statements. Im happy to educate any readers of these comments, correctly, with my responses.

the department of defence spending is the single largest catagory within discretionary spending. 842 billion in 2024 alone. easily verifiable if you cared enough to even type it into google. or use the wayback machine for pre trump admin white washing of .gov websites if you like it raw. dont even attempt to lump in social security and medicaid together along with several other discretionary spending categories like a talking head at fox news would to make your “point”, thats misinformation, or straight up confusion on your part.

this isnt a vibe, its a fact. so, with all do respect, perhaps practice what you preach, and do your research.

then why is the american military the largest expenditure by the US government? why does the military industrial complex exist? why does the “richest nation on earth” have the largest debt, no free healthcare, a massive homeless population, but also the most billionaires? why do they survive by exploiting third world countries where people starve to death daily? why do they constantly undermine socialist and communist movements in other countries that have valuable resources? going so far as to assassinate popular leaders and trading them for puppet dictators?

thats literally capitalism living off the backs of the poor, and murdering them for profit, and they have to keep them poor so they can take advantage of them. thats why capitalism hates unions, labour laws, and social reform at home and abroad. it effects the bottom line and maximum profit margins. its inherent in the system, and a part of its structure. its what allows it to “work” in the first place. and whenever capitalism has its way, unchecked, the poor suffer and die as a result. through no fault of their own besides being born into an unequal society, with little or no opportunity because of their lack of starting capital, compared to the wealthier participants in the same system.

i implore you to read almost any book on american history and economics. the US itself was built on genocide and slavery for the purpose of profit, under the guise of freedom. and that simply evolved into different forms over the years, its still prevalent to this day.

i wish you well on your journey of self education on this topic.

just because we have shiny new inventions every year doesnt mean its working for everyone. the entire system of capitalism is based on taking advantage of the poor. to the point of killing them directly and indirectly en mass, through war and poverty related illness. so that the rich can own more property and assets.

its a horrible system.

tool making most likely. also fire keeping, and cooking.

nice

my partner are going on a cross country trip over canada this summer. going to do some camping and fishing, maybe a couple of overnights at a hotel here and there, we want to have some fresh seafood in nova scotia. just getting it out ofnour systems while we can.

before his comment was removed

tariffs and threats did happen suspiciously fast after canada started offering free dental…

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i understand your point, however.

theres nothing speculative about questioning a sources validity when its well know the source is partially responsible for things like BREXIT which weakened the UK, the EU, and NATO. all things that make someone like putin, crack a corner of the mouth smile. and how it has a conservative right leaning bias, opposing anything liberal minded people may believe in regardless of whether or not their counter point is even remotely true or beneficial to post for the average reader.

its also known to spread sensationalist, and innaccurate news, consistently. its always been a controversial news source. and a laughing stock of journalism.

hence my skeptisizm, but i digress.

daily news blows. thats my point. i dont trust them to report quality, fact based news.

im not a “gringo” but go off on telling us how you view the world through a racial lense.

also. im not american. my country has a much higher value on public education, and its a much higher quality on average compared to the US and all other G7 nations. and we actively teach critical thinking in our curriculum for this exact reason. to avoid fear based actions, and to not fall victim to bad sources, or at least severely reduce the chances, people are people.

trump has been a POS loser since at least the 60’s, elon has been a silver spoon fed dip shit his entire life who just had enough capital to buy other peoples ideas.

ive disliked elon since he attained billionaire status, and ive never like trump. he was always a creep and a failure of a human being.

feel free to tell me im wrong, but lets leave race out of the discourse, okay buddy? it doesnt serve your point. unless thats your only point?

Russians are at the same time desperate for a peace deal bc they’re getting decimated but staging an elaborate and incredibly expensive attack to jettison the deal. ???

they do this tactic in war, super advanced technology. its called a “F.I.B.”…works wonders, its been patented and used by the most horrible of fascist regimes, but its said to have existed for millenia, and its a beautiful weapon, a tremendous weapon, some say, and ive heard them, they call it THE BEST weapon, and it works wonders on people, and nearly half of americans, SO MUCH SO in fact that it helped them (oligarchs, russians, bad actors etc) alter many elections over the years. but most recently in the last US election.

F.I.B.

F eeding. I diots. B ullshit.

theres one cure for it, and its a simple program, but you have to want to do it yourself, and do it constantly, every day. and thats the kicker. but here it goes.

check your sources. look for bias. dont take everything at face value. think critically, question everything, and never stop looking for the truth.

(on this subject specifically, i need more sources and confirmed evidence beyond what comes from the kremlin, the timing is just…too perfect)

im merely dismissing known state propagandist news sources as fact. i need more evidence from unbiased sources to make an educated decision. also timing is sus as hell.

sorry, i just dont blindly believe the first thing i read, especially from sources like the daily mail. the list on why is long, but it ends with a fascist and an oligarch in the oval office, dismantling the US and attacking my country. and they (daily mail, and news sources like them) are partially responsible for this entire mess.

war is hell, but the media motivates it, spins it, justifies it, and in itself, it is a weapon of war. its important to question sources, now more than ever.

Daily Mail (essentially trump/putin media)

i wouldnt be surprised if the russians attacked themselves so they could turn back on their ceasefire and make the ukrainians look like war crazed terrorists.

ill believe it fully when the ukrainians themselves claim the attack on a non biased platform. this is practically a heresay news source from the far right.