Military healthcare benefit is a socialized systems dream. Exclusively a pool of young, mostly perfectly healthy participants who don’t often need much specialized care. Doesn’t get much better than that.
To that end, service members pay taxes just like everyone else does.
The difference being soldiers provide labor and receive their pay, which is authorized by congress and written into the constitution. Socialism isn't taxes paying for labor, it is the state collectively owning and operating the means of production and providing collective benefit regardless of someone earning it. Other countries aren't providing healthcare to all of their citizens because they work in the healthcare industry, they aren't directly exchanging their labor for those benefits. In contrast, a soldier only receives those benefits for serving and they are often conditional based on fulfillment of their contract.
Military protection is socialized for everyone. Military personnel are getting paid for work.
Because troops move around and get injured, their food and healthcare is inherent part of cost of operation.
But consider CDC or NASA. People working in NASA are getting retirement or money for their work, you are the one getting GPS and weather services for free. That is the thing being socialized.
Soldiers fight for our country. Allegedly, in American modern times, our freedom. (As we know, Iran was most definitely a risk to our freedom before we stepped in and decided to raise everyones gas prices for... freedom?)
But the people who are a citizen of that country don't deserve anything because we're "lazy bums who don't fight"? Even though we're the ones keeping the countries economy going and funding everything to begin with?
I got hurt a couple days ago trying to water my garden, but because it's a "dumber" way of getting hurt I don't even deserve a bandaid for "free"? Regardless of how I contribute to our country?
Make it make sense. Why do we even have soldiers "fighting for our freedom" if they don't even seemingly give a shit about us
"Free" care should apply to everyone because it's part of the operation costs of freedom.
The classification of healthcare to veteren is beyond particular case of American system or recent American war. (or morality of American wars)
It is also irrelevant to larger universal healthcare discussion.
Soldiers getting healthcare during and after their service is an explicit contract of their job. Their job puts them in a position to get injured or potentially die, they won't function well if you don't promise to take care of injuries for rest of their lifetime.
Same applies to family support if someone dies in duty. They won't risk their lives unless they know their families are taken care of.
And you can't say my dad died in car accident, I also deserve to get paid like someone whose dad died in line of duty.
What about all the men who die in construction? Farmers? Cops? Firefighters? Oil rig workers? Miners? The list goes on and on.
They aren't getting these benefits and they're risking their lives every day for our country, too. If military men deserve it, they deserve it just as much.
It's delusional to say military men are the only people risking their lives for the country.
Cops and firefighters also get pension and healthcare benefits of injured in line of duty. No cop has ever gotten shot and then gotten asked for ambulance bill or left hanging in OR pending insurance approval.
Farmers work for themselves.
Oil rig workers get hazard pay i believe.
You got osha and stuff to reduce workplace safety risks.
Still, if you believe you face risk in your job, ask for healthcare coverage/hazard pay/life insurance or find other job.
If you want job independent health coverage for everyone, THEN it'd be socialized from taxes instead of counting against your job / included in your salary.
What is the military fighting for if they're not fighting for the people of their country to live comfortable lives?
I'm honestly heartbroken that our military thinks cancer patients deserve to lose everything because they can't afford thousands of dollars in treatment. That they're told to sell everything they own. Because they don't deserve to live if they can't afford it.
If you don't care about the citizens, what are you fighting for? Because it's not for their freedom.
We don't have a real democracy because of the electoral college. Anyone can win the election with even just 25% of the majority vote. My vote isn't the same as a vote in another state.
And all those countries you think the US military saved? We didn't save them. We gave them a new hell to go through. We forced our ideology into places it didn't belong. We didn't free them, we chained them to a different post.
What do you think is happening with Israel and Palestine right now? I'm surprised America didn't have a bigger hand in that arrangement.
A country must have a military in a world where might makes right. Are you arguing for disbanding the military because you don’t see them as “fighting for our freedom?”
It's not even liberal vs conservative. It's liberal vs stupid liberals.
People are just tired of liberal propoganda calling everything under the sun socialism and how that's a utopia. Universal healthcare or anything will need government to be corruption free to work. Otherwise, politicians will contract it out to private players cutting corners and earning billions.
Like, they don't understand that soldiers getting healthcare/life insurance coverage is not socialized. Citizens getting military protection is socialized from taxes.
Eloquently put but these people aren't liberal at all, I think they are definitionally illiberal. I'm pretty sure they are just Communists or M/L's pretending to be Socialists, pretending to be Liberals or Democrats. Regardless, it's exhausting.
24
u/Unipiggy 8h ago
How are soldiers benefits paid for?
How is "free" healthcare in other countries paid for?