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Maurice asked in Politics & GovernmentPolitics · 4 years ago

Why do Americans think they can have children they can't afford, and then when they can't afford health care, they blame other people?

I'm apparently heartless for thinking that the government should not provide health care for everyone, and that I don't know what it's like living paycheck to paycheck.

A single person with a roommate can live on minimum wage. It's choices people made, prioritizing what they WANT that put them in a situation they can't afford, and now anyone who doesn't think that we should all chip in to pay for their health care is selfish?

Is this what liberal "logic" is in 2017?

5 Answers

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  • 4 years ago

    entitlement mentality caused by growing up without work or other responsibility

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    Explainging human behavior requires not only considering their preferences, but also the constraints people face when making said decisions. Let me offer you some food for thought in this regard. Just keep in mind that the inderlying tone reflects an insistence on constraints, not an intention to deprive humans of any moral responsibility.

    In the United States, gaining access to investment opportunities is not as easily obtained by everyone. The social background of your own parents, as well as the amount of ressources they have are very much related to the growth opportunities you can enjoy or not. It's much easier to succeed in the academia if you have access to better schools, more extra curricular activities and can socialize with educated people more often. And all investments, be they in terms of studying time or buying machinery for manufactures are known to have enduring effects for a simple reason: capital is something you accumulate over time. And if it wasn't enough, contacts are of great importance -- and growing in a wealthy environment tends to confer one with chances to acquire good contacts, just as studying in good schools. Granted that at some point in this continuum of events you could sensibly be considered responsible for your choices, you still have to make choices given the results of past events.

    Of course, this doesn't mean that your birth condemns you to live the life of your parents, but you can understand how acquiring whatever someone personally defines as being success be harder for some people than for others through not fault of their own for the simple and obvious reason that some social environments make for more fertile soil than others. You can also add a large list of problems that are hard to anticipate or outright impossible to avoid (for instance, genetic conditions) and may nevertheless cause financial troubles to individuals.

    I know that you have in mind someone who is profligate, financially irresponsible and then proceeds to ask for health insurance which, more or less, is asking the population to finance his or her idiocy. There is probably some truth to that with people not necessarily making very consistent or reasonable choices. There is also some truth to the opinion that people are not always entirely responsible for what happens to them.

    My personal opinion is that doing nothing for people in need is to do too little, but trying to spare anyone every consequences of their mistakes is to do too much.

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    The economy is set up to have far more losers than winners. Manual laborers are always going to be needed. Someone has to produce them. Will it be you or people like you? Would you rather have foreign born laborers, when they produce so many more mouths to feed than the typical American? Should future laborers born to Americans be allowed to become sickly and starve? People like you were very instrumental in creating the immigration crisis.

    I'm NOT a liberal, by the way.

  • 4 years ago

    "Americans think they can have children they can't afford, and then when they can't afford health care, they blame other people"

    You just described the new middle class in the US

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    "A single person with a roommate can live on minimum wage"

    No, they cannot. Not when conboys like you try to cut corners to take the national wealth while reducing the national wage. If you take the jobs away, there is no equal opportunity boy. So you gotta pay.

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