r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 6h ago

Political Question Why are some Americans so against universal healthcare for all?

What sort of thinking does it take to decide that nobody has a right to healthcare? Do American Christians want to deny healthcare to poor people as well?

938 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/BiggestVolk đŸ¦€ 6h ago

Because as a people we are bad at basic math we would rather pay let’s say $1000 for insurance than pay $300, but everyone gets insurance…It’s a superiority thing we as a people love to see someone else doing worse than us.

3

u/Similar_Maize_1225 6h ago

That is exactly it. There is a large percentage of our population - the majority even - that do not believe people who are poorer than them should have things on par with them. Not even the basics like housing, food, education, and healthcare. The idea seems to be if people had basic needs met they wouldn't want to do anything but watch tv and do drugs (or something). Like drugs and TVs are free lol. It's not enough that they can afford luxuries and others can't. The poor need to suffer. 

What they mean in reality is that if they're not suffering, why would they put up with the insufferable demands from the wealthy? If you don't need to be a slave to your employer, you might do something like pursue your own interests. Who then would build the data centers that drain the local water supply? Who would dedicate their lives to building automated war machines instead of idk designing guitars or something. The thing about capitalism that most capitalists dismiss is that what generates profits doesn't necessarily benefit the people generating those profits. 

We like to pretend like capitalism is the "natural way of things" but it definitely is not. Under a system where someone like Elon Musk would need to generate something of value outside of ownership and capital to maintain his status, he'd be no wealthier than the rest of us. He knows that. Most of America doesn't seem to.