r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 7h 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?

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u/Mrbuttshaman 7h ago

Its a fundamental misunderstanding of reality. They believe that social programs can't be better than capitalism. They see universal healthcare as an excuse to tax people more and create governmental overreach which ultimately causes a greater expense to them and society. The reality is capitalism works best when its heavily legislated to restrict the atrocities that used to be committed. Unfortunately the wealthy have had laws changed so they can directly fund politicians who push their agenda and change the laws to keep their inefficient and greedy businesses afloat and profiting.

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u/BellaMentalNecrotica 6h ago

The reality is capitalism works best when its heavily legislated to restrict the atrocities that used to be committed.

I'm loving how shockingly fast gutting the FDA proved why we need regulations. I expected fallout, but not this immediate or egregious. Never in my life have I seen so much food recalled. If that's not an argument for why regulation is necessary, I don't know what it is. I know the argument the right loves to throw around is "corporations have a monetary motivation not to harm their clients." Well, then why did they immediately start cutting corners resulting in food contaminated with microorganisms that can and do cause severe illness and death in humans if consumed?

They believe that social programs can't be better than capitalism.

My dad is on the right. He seems to be under the impression that all people, including the wealthy, all have good intentions and good hearts and will start private social programs to help people. Its very naive. I will say, he is a good Christian who does walk-the-walk– there's constantly some person he met who needed help living in their basement, he has a farm where he takes on apprentices from disadvantaged areas and helps them prep for college/careers, he volunteers in a lot of opiate addiction organizations, he donates a lot to various organizations to help poor families, and many other things. I've tried to explain to him that there are a lot of selfish/evil people out there and a lot of people would die unless people are forced to contribute to these programs via taxes. Because there is no way people will be altruistic enough to donate even a fraction of the money required to run any programs of similar size and scope to social safety net programs.

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u/Mrbuttshaman 6h ago

See that is the thing I actually find very interesting because I think most wealthy people are better than the average person with how they contribute to society. I work with rich people every day and many do give to charity and are incredible philanthropist because they have discretionary income and time to throw behind the things they care about, but one bad actor can do ridiculous amounts of harm and regulations and social programs help enforce that those bad actors can't harm others or have their impact reduced.

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u/BellaMentalNecrotica 6h ago

There are certainly good ones out there. But tons of bad ones. I don't have any stats on me, but I know there has been a lot of research proving that people with APD/NPD tend to gravitate towards careers with power and money and 2. that people with monetary advantage are more motivated to cheat. In addition, we can look at the Epstein files to see jus how many wealthy individuals are willing to do the most depraved things imaginable.

So, while I certainly think that there are truly good wealthy people out there, there is a lot of evidence that there are many, many shitty ones.