How do you respond to the whole "we can't afford it" thing?

Like my roomate who is a HARDCORE conservative swears up and down that we can't afford the systems that other countries have because we're big and their small lol. But when I bring up the fact that we make more money than they do, his argument goes to "They're gonna have to raise taxes. And I don't wanna pay more taxes to fund people who sit on their ass"

Honestly his arguments really just boil down to the fact that he doesn't think tax money should pay for "lazy" people. But you can't pick and choice where tax money f***ing does to lol.

We're in the Army. Tax money will go to war and nobody will question that, but when it goes to help some poor people that's when we want to start asking questions.

This is their fault, read why nations fail

Should set up inclusive institutions

you dont deserve other peoples money 🤷‍♂️

One of the WOAT political stances is when people try to use their personal sense of 'deserves' and apply it to the government

Idc if someone is a lazy bum, it's objectively less expensive to just give them a UBI then to have to pay those same costs later through EMS and prison services

its not the role of govt to give people money.

strawman much💀💀

yall r saying they deserve money keep the same energy 💀💀

I don't know mate, Data only started getting tracked back in 1981.
And even if you used the poverty lines from back then, most of the world lived largely agrarian lifestyles. With the spread of liberalism, most of those people have simply been proletarianised.

That is in fact most of what the government does

Spending on military ---> Giving money to military contractors, employees, industry

Spending on healthcare ---> Giving money to people qualifying for Medicaid/Medicare, financing health professionals indirectly

Spending on social security ---> Giving money to retirees

Only difference between those and UBI is that UBI is universal

The role of govt isnt healthcare or social security either

There's also something disingenuous about boasting about a poverty line sat at $2 dollars. That isn't even halfway to seeing that basic daily nutritional needs are met.

Outside of China the Poverty Rate has been stagnant for the last 40 years, that is accounting for population growth. There are more people living in poverty now, then there were 40 years ago

obviously theres more people in poverty if population is increasing 🥴

I didn't say whether anyone deserves anything, simply that you're blowing hot air by bringing up who deserves what. You might believe Jeff Bezos deserves his billions, that may not be the case for the next man. Merit is a flawed idea.

The rate of poverty hasn't really gone anywhere outside of China is the point I'm trying to make and if you account for China, there are more people in poverty than they were back in the 80s

there are more people on earth then in the 80s

yall said people deserve ubi and i said they dont.

ourworldindata.org/the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-was-it-only-china

That isn't true, the absolute number is relatively stagnant, but the rate is going down even without China.

And even if it was China, that's an argument for economic liberalization more than anything

There being more people living in poverty isn't really something to write home about, no matter how you slice the pie

1% of a billion is more than 20% of 500

That's Extreme poverty, not just poverty, making $2 instead of $1.89 isn't really upwards mobility if you catch my drift.

That has nothing to do with it.

The earth has enough natural resources, food, labor to have no one in poverty