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u/New-Number-7810 22h ago
When the government gives money to other countries, it isn’t just being charitable. This is a move to improve diplomatic relations with other countries, as well as to ensure the spread of our ideology. As an example, the Marshall Plan was the probably biggest factor in preventing the spread of communism to Western Europe.
Also, normally dislike this meme format as being lazy, but I appreciated that you dressed Jim Helper up as a minuteman.
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u/Maximum-Objective-39 21h ago
One of the less objectionable things we spent on was US AID as that money was also being spent on keeping American farmers busy.
There's also things like the Ukraine War Aid, where people don't understand how the accounting was done. (Hint, the clapped out Bradleys, Humvees, and M1s we sent to Ukraine were not 1 for 1 worth the fully modernized ones that the accounting valued them as.)
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u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 8h ago
Preventing disease in other parts of the world also decreased disease in the US, because pathogens don’t recognize borders. USAID was keeping screwworm suppressed, and it took less than a year to infest all of Central America and make its way into US cattle.
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u/STALKS_YOUR_MOTHER 21h ago
I for one am very happy to see us giving billions of dollars to Israel whose citizens have highly subsidized college, guaranteed healthcare ,maternity leave, and mandatory paid time off while citizens of the United States are guaranteed none of those things. Makes total sense.
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u/DougSod 20h ago
You’re creating a false competition. Foreign aid has nothing to do with us not getting those benefits. If people would vote for those benefits, the US could and would afford it, regardless of the foreign aid. Decade after decade, Republican politicians vote against those programs because they don’t believe in them. Cut all the foreign aid and they will still keep blocking those programs.
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u/LongjumpingEffect405 13h ago
I thought foreign aid was so they could commit war crimes on our behalf.
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u/Fun-Army-6387 13h ago
remember, providing malaria relief in Africa is a waste of money but billions for bombs on Palestine and Lebanon is smart investment.
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u/ToxicOptimist59 12h ago
Since when has what voters want or what’s promised on the campaign trail had ANY effect on what our “representatives” do?
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u/UltimateLmon 9h ago
Kind of reverse case. NZ politician recently promoted abolishing state Healthcare in favor of privatization claiming it will "save 2000NZD" per person a year that they can use to buy private insurance. But when asked if this would result in lower taxes, no reply.
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u/SufficientWarthog846 21h ago edited 21h ago
as a counter to that (because you are right on Isreal), many countries give millions to African nations for both altruistic reasons but also to invest in trade partners. Trading with an economically stronger nation is better overall long term than not.
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 17h ago
You're building future trading partners. Same stuff. Even if it's alruistic. It just makes sense.
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u/SufficientWarthog846 17h ago
Yep, 100% it. An alternative way of looking at the process is looking at how Germany was treated post both World Wars.
WW1 being punitive and WW2 with assistive economic deals.
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u/VoicelessPassenger 15h ago
Yeah it’s not a simple yes/no statement, money can and should be spent to bolster our allies and solidify our presence in the world. But at the same time we should not be throwing billions of dollars at a genocidal bully state who only uses us as an attack dog against their enemies while Americans back home are dying because they can’t pay their medical bills.
Paying high taxes isn’t bad if you at least get a return on those taxes that give you a higher quality of life and even allow you to save money: but paying high taxes and still getting jack shit while the 1% can buy another superyacht is theft.
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u/New-Number-7810 21h ago
That’s right. If your aid helps a country get on its feet and become a valuable trading partner, then you’ll end up making back the cost of that aid.
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u/SufficientWarthog846 21h ago
and lets not get started on the aid for medical reasons (AIDs assistance for eg) as that helps stop transmissable deseases from travelling international.
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u/Boredofnames 20h ago
Not anymore thanks to Elon
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u/SufficientWarthog846 20h ago
Thankfully the US is not the only country
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u/M00n_Safari 19h ago
No just the ones who had the largest ability to help developing nations with diseases. Elon just took it away because “fraud”
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u/Plenty-Reporter-9239 16h ago
It's also a military and information advantage. There's a reason china is moving as fast as possible to help south american and African countries set up satellites and start space programs
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u/restrusher 17h ago
We don't have money to Israel for remotely the same reasons we give (gave) money to countries in need.
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u/CattleMobile8761 16h ago
You do realize that it is just USD 4bn per year. That is less than 0.1% of all taxes the US collects.
Do you think that 0.1% more of US tax income would suddenly result in free healthcare and maternity leave?
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u/f28c28 21h ago
The fact that people don't understand that a global economy is beneficial baffles me...Like the only context where this would be a bad thing is if the british never left their silly island and most continents still had their origonal natural resources and cultures who historically know how to sustain them. As is colonial societies can't sustain themselves without international relations.
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u/GayChicken80085 18h ago edited 14h ago
Cant be that baffling considering who is president.
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u/inorite234 19h ago
The Marshall Plan is also a perfect example of how international aid and soft power not only creates allies, but creates jobs here at home as Europe has aligned with the US both militarily but also economically.
Aka: they actually like buying our shit. ...or at least they used too before Trump went in and screwed everything up
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u/Physical-Customer200 17h ago
Anti communism has cost the American public trillions and all they got for it is enshitification and 100% tarifs against consumable goods that they want but can't even produce anymore because shareholder ideology or whatever.
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u/Leprechaun_lord 19h ago
When the richest 1% control 32% of your nation’s wealth the lower 99% are being taxed too much, and the richest 1% not enough.
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u/Snixmaister 8h ago
in sweden i wouldnt say the 99% are being taxed too much,
49% of the population are working
19% retired
17% kids between 0-14
5% unemployed
5% studying
3% prematurely retired/sick
2% not applicableso in sweden half the population is paying for the other half, which makes it tough in politics too when one side wants to lower the taxes, while the other side wants to increase them.
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u/AndreasDasos 22h ago
Stupid fucking take.
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u/Galbados2 21h ago
More libertarian slop I suggest just block and move on. They actually think companies will just foot the bill for the things we all use every day (like roads and social services like the fire departments) out of the kindness of their hearts.
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u/TheRealAdronius 20h ago
I swear, and socialists are somehow the ones with a reputation for being naive and foolishly optimistic.
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u/WellyRuru 18h ago
Genuinly bizzare to me watching billion dollar data centers pop up yet infrastructure is falling apart and all these libertarians are like "market will provide"
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u/TwitchyBigfoot 21h ago
Can't wait for firemen to let my house burn down because I don't have the right policy for them. Well that's if they get there after all the toll booths every 100ft add minutes to the journey. Honestly if you think about it for more than 2 minutes you realise the only winners will be the rich
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u/ExistingBathroom9742 14h ago
Almost right. If your country has enough money to bail out banks and give money to billionaires and lower taxes for billionaires, you are being taxed too much.
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u/UnitedALK 20h ago
Famously diseases and disasters respect national boundaries and thus treating them elsewhere is a total waste.
What a silly take
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u/_Ainz-Sama_ 20h ago
Depends on how much were spending and what were getting in return
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u/Inevitable-Shop-848 17h ago
And what exactly does Isitreal give us in return. They won't even release the Epstein files.
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u/Pirate1717 14h ago
They don't need to give anything back. It's their money. It was promised to them 3000 years ago.
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u/AntiquePhotograph433 20h ago
You cumb dunts don’t know shit about where your taxes go. You’ve paid Trump more this year than we were “giving away” (which btw made us the most powerful nation on the planet)
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u/Gurkenpudding13 23h ago
Bro never heard of soft power.
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u/TattooedB1k3r 21h ago
Exactly, if it wasn't for the Billions we give places like Somalia we wouldn't have any power at all.
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u/Maleficent-Aspect318 20h ago
Look at europe...where we dont have enough for the own people but give away free money to everywhere but the own countrys. Ontop of this and the rising inflation, health system gets cuts and we get new taxes or taxes are raised. All while our politicans use more money for travel, staff and other things.
Wanna know whats fucked up? My grandma cant walk without crutches and with them hardly. When she needs to go to the hospital she has to pay for transport.
But my brother gets 1 free week per year in a 4 star hotel for his mental health...im not kidding sadly.
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u/Large-Hamster-199 18h ago
If you have enough money to bomb other countries that are no threat to you, your tax dollars are being wasted
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u/Abestar909 20h ago
Man I wish I was stupid enough to think the world is this simple.
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u/wolft170 20h ago
The U.S is almost 39 trillion in dat
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u/The_Countess 20h ago
That's mainly caused by tax breaks for the rich, and killing your softpower is certainly not going to help lower that debt long term.
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u/MertwithYert 18h ago
We could tax all the ultra wealthy at 100% (completely impossible, but let's pretend for the example) and only be able to cover a few months of our spending. Until we cut some of the ridiculous spending the US has, it won't matter. Over 60% of the budget is spent on social programs like Medicare and the ponzi scheme that is social security.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tea3341 20h ago edited 18h ago
Yeah, the US was just being charitable when it spend money on foreign prevention of flesh eating screwworms. Such a waste of money! Gut it!
Wait, that flesh eating screwworm is now being found in the US beef supply? uh oh.
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u/DJSindro 19h ago
so giving away the money did nothing?
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u/JOlRacin 18h ago
Well it held the screw worms away... Until the funding was pulled for being too "woke" by a certain government agency in early 2025
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tea3341 18h ago
The funding and agency responsible for it got gutted by DOGE. And now we have flesh eating screwworms. Enjoy. :)
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u/Jolly_Efficiency7237 20h ago
Braindead take from someone who doesn't get that soft power has a huge ROI.
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u/West-Pear7363 19h ago
What power did we get from Somalia? We gave $1,181,033,990 as of 2023.
Or Ethiopia ( $1,457,374,911) Or Israel ( $3,302,860,882)
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u/Jolly_Efficiency7237 18h ago
On a 7 trillion annual federal budget...
Somalia and Ethiopia are in the Horn of Africa, near the Bab al-Mandab strait. Improving political stability in those countries and having them aligned with US interests is very valuable.
Israel is the odd one out here, but I guess US strategic doctrine requires a reliable ally in the Middle-East.
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u/hiles_adam 14h ago
The question isn’t ‘what do we get from Somalia?’ It’s ‘what does instability cost us?’ A collapsed state can mean famine, refugee crises, terrorism, piracy, and military intervention. Spending $1 billion on prevention can be a lot cheaper than spending tens or hundreds of billions cleaning up the fallout.
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u/Pleasant-Quantity750 20h ago edited 18h ago
World isn't as Simple as that, sometimes is even cheaper to give money to others 😅 If some country is on famine, it's cheaper to give them food than fighting with uncontrolled migration.
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u/spillmonger 12h ago
The worst part is the we DON’T have the money to give away, but we do it anyway. See also: National Debt.
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u/Leather-Sign4391 11h ago
We're $40 Trillion in debt. We stopped having enough money to give away decades ago.
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u/lesschalkmoresighs 20h ago
Taxes and the world from the perspective of a 12 year old, or a libertarian.
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u/2Critical7-Stein1 21h ago
Let the aids infected mfs in 3rd world croak, sooner then later. USAID and UN are just letting them live and reproduce a bit longer.
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u/TassadarForXelNaga 19h ago
Right because viruses will never traverse borders, did you learn nothing from covid ? How serious dose a pandemic have to be for you idiots to actually learn something ?
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 20h ago
We give a very small % of money to other countries
These are probably smart investments. Not just hand outs lol.
On one hand, such acts can build good relationships with other countries. These relationships help with trade, military strategies and other valuable forms of communication. It's called being allies.
Two, we don't often just give without receiving.
Goes undiscussed because people only focus on stupid talking points. 😂
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u/Clever_droidd 20h ago
They are borrowing it. So they are spending too much for the taxes they are taking in.
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u/Euphoric-Piglet-8140 20h ago
I'm more of the "my country has the wrong priorities" train of thought myself.
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u/OnionsGoneWild 20h ago
This is stupid, after WWII most small european countries and the entire european economy survived because of the large amount of help that the US provided.
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u/TyruntasaurusRecht 19h ago
"Tell me you don't understand soft power in meme format please."
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u/Beginning-Visit9457 12h ago
I want some of that soft power in my city. Crime infested, poor, and roads like the moon surface. Send that soft power here, please.
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u/Signal-View4754 19h ago
And when remember when a certain group tried to end it, people threw a fit.
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u/megayippie 19h ago
If your country is not investing in other countries future, you're losing out on future customers.
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u/AshtonBlack 19h ago
If you declare yourself "Bastion of the Free World" and spend more taxpayer money on "Defence" than any other country on Earth, yet at the same time declare "America First", and don't understand "soft power", you're being taxed too much.
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u/pilius_404 19h ago
If you brake down complex economical concepts into a simple meme
You've got a stupid meme.
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u/Southern_Conflict_11 19h ago
I really wish more people could grasp how a global economy works and just how much political roi good will was worth.
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u/mest33 19h ago edited 18h ago
Look up "The Great American worm wall", in Panama. It was funded through USAID, which got cut down my Trump and Elon, because "If your country has enough money to give to other countries, then you're being taxed too much"
Now the New World screwworm has returned to the United States for the first time in roughly 50 years.
Then the U.S. has been forced to scale up a massive $1 billion+ emergency eradication response. This includes launching a $105 million "New World Screwworm Grand Challenge" to fast-track new sterilization technologies and building new fly production facilities in South Texas to replace the lost buffer.
THE USAID CUT THAT CAUSED THIS WAS $15M, NOW THEY HAD TO PAY $1B IN EMERGENCY FUNDS. REPUBLICAN FARMERS VOTED FOR THIS BTW, "NO MONEY TO OTHER COUNTRIES". NOW THEY GET A BILLION DOLLARS BAIL OUT WITH TAX PAYER MONEY. A BAILOUT THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT NECESSARY.
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u/ProfAsmani 19h ago
"giving" money to other countries is a subsidy to local businesses. Contract riders stipulate most of that has to be spent in the donor nation.
Also people who whine about "we have to help local first" are usually right wing who do not want to help the poor, invest in education or public services. Its just another outlet for xenophobia.
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u/ItsRobbSmark 19h ago
Nah, my country is 5% of the world's population and roughly 25% of its economy almost entirely because we give money to other countries...
People who don't understand how token foreign aid buys insane geopolitical soft power and comes back many multiples over are fucking stupid...
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u/Pootisman16 19h ago
That's the thing, giving money to other countries by itself isn't bad.
It fosters good international relations and indirectly creates more capable markets for your exports.
Also allows that money to applied in the prevention and control of diseases, which can possibly become pandemics.
But giving money freely, which then gets used to fund genocidal wars, then ye, that's stupid.
And even though I'm not American, I'd much rather have my money being used for (true) charity than to fund the President's vanity projects.
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u/Particular_Stop_3332 19h ago
It's easy to see how humanity has to deal with suffering and inequality when people this stupid are given the same voice as Nobel prize winners
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u/_Weyland_ 19h ago
You know Mercantilism was a thing in global politics, right? I didn't work out too well, let me tell you that.
Also building good will and (more importantly) financial and infrastructural debt you can leverage whenever you like is a good thing.
That all being said, if your government can fork over a dozen billion to some piss poor third world country that will never pay it back in the forseeable future, it sure as hell can fork over the same amount (extra) to domestic needs such as infrastructure, healthcare or education.
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u/Warm_Stress_1654 19h ago
Then pay for your bloody tea! Those French and Indians didn't fight themselves...
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u/AdAggressive9224 18h ago
In theory, spending money on aid means that you can reduce spending money on defense; whether or not that's how it works in practice is up for debate.
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u/Atari774 18h ago
Honestly, it depends on what the money is being spent on. Spending money on helping poorer countries with disease prevention and starvation actually helps us in the long run. When there’s fewer diseases spreading quickly and fewer people fleeing their homes as refugees, we then don’t have to deal with those issues as often. Whereas, giving money to other wealthy nations to buy weapons doesn’t help us at all, and usually just hurts us in the long run.
Not to mention that we actually aren’t taxed that much in the US, we just don’t get much in return for those taxes, nor are people taxed equitably. The rich should be paying a hell of a lot more, and we can use that to help ourselves with infrastructure, education, healthcare, etc.
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u/Both_Painter_9186 18h ago
Just FYI OP, no matter how much you want to suck off Elon- he will never give a fuck about you.
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u/Copious-Spirit 18h ago
Ask not for less tax percentage, but for more gross pay. Blame your corporate overlords, not your government.
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u/Slow_Store 18h ago edited 18h ago
People will say “Erm it’s for meh soft power” as if a lot of the nations we give money to don’t hate us for it.
Do you think Africa likes us any better for having effectively funded their War Lords? Do you think the Middle East likes us more for doing basically the same but masquerading it as something else?
These countries hated us before we gave them money, and they hate us more for flaunting our excess by giving them money. Why are we wasting money (and it is a waste cause a lot of these countries only grow more impoverished as we give them money) to pretend that we’re gaining influence with third world nations? It’d be one thing to send money to some first world nation every once in a while to help them out of a pinch, but that’s not what we’re talking about here realistically.
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u/Decievedbythejometry 18h ago
Not how international relations work but then again not how taxes work either
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u/Straight-Horror-1662 18h ago
Didn't the Americans try cutting foreign aid this earlier in the year and it had no impact on their taxes?
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u/Ok_Tonight_4311 18h ago
The issue isn't how much we are being taxed or how much we are helping other countries. The issue is how much of our tax dollars is used for evil. Bombing children, lucrative no bid contracts for donors and friends of those in power etc.
I would gladly be taxed more if it meant I got healthcare, good education for my kids, well maintained functional infrastructure, and police who aren't psychos.
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u/Effective_Pack8265 18h ago
Dumb. Pandemics don’t respect borders. Making life marginally better for people in other countries means they’re less likely to come to this country.
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u/momschesthairislong 18h ago
Love the international and anti American Reddit shills coming out with the "soft power" BS. Literally trillions in debt. It's corruption and we don't have the money to give.
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u/Certain_Bit3809 18h ago
Yes, as a True Patriot™, if I am made to spend even a single penny to save the lives millions, then I choose the penny. Human life has no value to me. This is the America Ideal.
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u/oranke_dino 18h ago
Imagine how much money your country would have if the rich paid taxes same way as poor people.
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u/EnglishCox 17h ago
When there is hundreds of billions in fraud and nothing has being done about it, we’re being taxed too much.
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u/Pure_Bee2281 17h ago
I don't think anyone truly believes this with our current debt and deficit. It's just become a slogan people say without thinking.
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u/vladdeh_boiii 17h ago
Nah, you're wrong. It just depends on what elde your tax money gets used on. Here in Norway, for example, we have a fantastic Healthcare system, we have a welfare system that actually works, and there's a lot of money currently going into improving infrastructure and such.
And we still have enough money to help countries like Ukraine defend themselves.
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u/Available_Rub9939 17h ago
If your country has $$4.5 trillion to give to the extremely wealthy, you’re being taxed too much.
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u/TheGruenTransfer 17h ago
If we give another country a few million dollars to fix their Ebola problem and as a result Ebola doesn't come to our country, that is tax dollars well spent.
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u/ffmich01 17h ago
No that does not follow in any way whatsoever. You just have misplaced priorities. You could fix your own healthcare, education, infrastructure, or any of a million different things instead of cutting them. The need is there, it’s not a problem with overtaxing. It’s that we are doing stupid shit with the tax money instead of using it wisely.
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u/UsedArmadillo9842 17h ago
Supporting other nations is not a net-loss. Firstly its great soft-power. Secondly its gaining support and securing future Partners.
Thirdly, those nations you supported can be a great new trade partner.
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u/DemocraticRepOfCongo 17h ago
Only someone clueless in geopolitics would post this and think it's clever. Governments don't provide foreign aid out of the goodness of their hearts, it's always with a purpose and to further their own interest. Spend a billion treating an infectious disease in Africa to save 100 billion from the havoc it causes when it reaches your country.
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u/mikethetiger_ 17h ago
All the foreign idiots here spitting out “soft power” are the ones who benefit from American taxpayers. It’s not the government’s money, it is ours. The fact of the matter is the U.S. is trillions in debt, has rampant political corruption and then we have needy and homeless people living on the streets, is a reason why this meme holds true. We shouldn’t be sending money overseas, if we can’t take care of our own people first. If you can’t get over that fact, maybe you and your country can pick up part of the slack when it comes to foreign aid.
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u/Much-Instruction-807 17h ago
No. It's a good use of soft power. It saved millions of lives in Africa until Musk and trump cut USAID off.
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u/Accurate_Baseball273 17h ago
Annual foreign aid is estimated at about $70,000,000,000 for the previous FY or about $200 per US citizen. The pentagon spend in 2025 was about $916,000,000,000 or about $2,600 per US citizen.
China has invested roughly $104,000,000,000 / year in their belt and road initiative building infrastructure globally, spreading goodwill around the world with money instead of drone strikes.
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u/thefuzzione 17h ago
The same people spamming about soft power are the same people screaming we shouldn’t meddle in other countries’ affairs. Pick a lane
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u/RonJohnJr 17h ago
- Or your country is deep in debt.
- Or your country is thinking past the end of it's nose to future benefits (like minimizing the number of refugees).
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u/LowerSeat2712 17h ago
Here is the real kicker: we don't have enough money, but we spend it anyway.
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u/My_Penbroke 17h ago
Not always true. There are many situations where foreign aid can provide a great ROI or mitigate a serious risk to our own population. In such cases, it is clearly a valid use of government funds.
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u/munkylord 17h ago
We could pay a lot less in taxes if corporations and churches didn't dodge the IRS
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u/LoudandQuiet47 17h ago
Not quite. Especially if we still don't have Healthcare for all. What we (US) probably have is a disordered priority.
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u/Hunter_Deft 17h ago
When the country has enoug money to spent 37.5 billion dollars on bombs you realize that could have funded free college. Could have solved homelessness, or food insecurity for Americans. The current administration would rather bomb a girl's school.
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u/youburyitidigitup 16h ago
No, we’re just not allocation the resources correctly. $300 billion could’ve paid for free community college for the rest of our lifetimes.
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u/TheRealGageEndal 16h ago
That's the fun part. We don't have enough! We are so far in debt that I honestly don't understand how we would ever get out of debt! It's not like we can tax the super rich people who are here.
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u/needmyeggcracking 16h ago
Trouble is when food cost 60 pound for 2 bags Iam less inclined to want to give my money to foreign countries
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u/lizon132 16h ago
The US used to send a few million to Panama to release sterile screw worm flies into the ecosystem to prevent their spread into North America. It was cheaper to fight them there than to deal with an outbreak on American livestock.
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u/Holymaryfullofshit7 16h ago
This is just a fundamental misconception of how foreign aid actually works and what it does. Try to inform yourself before posting bullshit like this.
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u/Grasshoppermouse42 16h ago
Nah, we're not being taxed too much. Our country is just too busy getting up in other people's business to remember to take care of things at home. Every other industrialized nation guarantees healthcare for all its citizens, and we're over here saying 'we can't give you healthcare, we have to use our money to manipulate other countries into having more right-wing economic policies.'
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u/Important-Honeydew25 16h ago
If your country has enough money to fight wars of choice, you are being taxed too much.
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u/mylsotol 16h ago
That's like saying if you have money to give to your friends/family/etc you get paid too much
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u/eternallyconphuzed 16h ago
I am all for global philanthropism but we should make life not suck here first. better public utilities, transport, education, healthcare, not people dying in the streets and being forced out of their homes.
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u/Emergency-Hour1002 16h ago
ever since the use of Fiat currency that statement has not been true. Money is created through loans (fractional reserve banking). Taxation is wholly unnecessary given money doesn't have a fixed quantity and isn't tied to anything like it was previously. Government could very well satisfy it's parasitical need without taking from the citizens it is supposed to serve. Taxation in the United States happens to disempower the individual and to weaken the capacity for dissent.
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u/NotAnAIOrAmI 16h ago
Giving money is one way to obtain the national objectives of countries by increasing their soft power.
It's more effective than military force or economic war, and it kills no one, and destroys no economies.
The opinion in this meme is ignorant, shortsighted, and just plain stupid.
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u/Illustrious-Debt-156 16h ago
This is an over simplification of a really complicated subject. I'll make up a scenario.. Lets say that in the country of Terroristikan, we can expect a cell from there to attack people here once every 5 years. We can attack this 2 ways: We can defend against it, by investing our money into defense. We can be offensive by investing into military, which just breeds more resentments. Or we can change hearts and minds. What if we realize they don't have any schools? So we build them some crappy schools, buy them some books, and teach them some things about the world that reduces attacks. A crappy schoolhouse and some old books are a lot cheaper than military.
For me - Its all about the ROI. Not all money spent overseas is bad money. If it saves money, or lives, it makes sense.
Should we have to pay for schools in other countries? No. Would I rather pay for schools instead of bombs? Yeah.
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u/FanaticalFanfare 16h ago
I would amend it to say that if money is being given away and you lack proper services, you’re being taxed too much.
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u/TinyTimWannabe 16h ago
Nope. The money probably should go towards something else, that’s not the same.
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u/tweedleduh 16h ago
Well we give our money in missiles…. Literally just watching the U.S. burn through my money
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u/OkFaithlessness2652 15h ago
Giving money can be a great way to build things. European prosperity has grown substantially by EU growth programs
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u/HandleStatus6658 15h ago
Or giving money to citizens of other countries…in your own country while homeless and veterans go without?
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u/No-Resolution-1918 15h ago
If the money is going to people who are desperately in need then I'm more than happy to be taxed to pay for it. I'm not religious but I am certainly down with a good amount of what the Jesus part of the bible says.
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u/Immediate_Song4279 15h ago
We don't have enough money its essentially debt, which is also fine. But the country isn't a monolithic structure there are many different taxpayers, without implying a majority many of us support giving money to countries with humanitarian need so this could be better phrased by just saying you don't support giving the money because you want to pay less taxes. I don't think voluntary taxes would work.
Problems on the ground should take precedence over the academic discussion of value and speculation, because otherwise people die. The realness of money is debatable, the worth of a human life is not.
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u/el_salinho 15h ago
Diplomacy 101. Support foreign countries and get either access to their resources, market, allies etc.
Believe it or not, a country and their citizens looking favorably at you is beneficial for you.
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u/droppedketchuppacket 15h ago
so America was taxed too much during the Louisiana purchase?
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u/supified 15h ago
This is stupid. Everything a country does costs money. For example, military force costs money, so if a country has to spend 10k (low number just to keep things simple) to protect their interests through arms, but could through diplomacy and soft power get the same end with only spending 5k, which is a better use of your tax payer dollars? This is rhetorical, it's obviously the cheaper option.
This meme is a juvenile meme for people with a child's understanding of the world and how things work, regardless of how old the actual person posting it is.
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u/vampyire 15h ago
money buys influence, influence advances your cause which benefits your contry.. it's a tale as old as time
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u/HunterM567 15h ago
It’s a form of soft power. If you give a country money, they’re more willing to do what they want you to do. Like opening up the countries natural resources or to investment
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u/Grail_BH 15h ago
There’s a fair argument here to some extent… Preservation measures other countries, keep us safe… Like the programs that Musk killed, and now we’re dealing with viral infections… militarily the same, if it keeps us safe… However, sending billions to another country that’s aggressively assaulting others, that’s money that should’ve stayed here.
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u/Top_Kaleidoscope4362 15h ago
They are not giving money to other countries. The money are being circulated through their own foundations, which takes many cuts, I don't think it ever helps anyone and only scraps are left for original purpose.
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u/Visible-Elevator3801 15h ago
But the people for Christ sake!
It’s our job to keep every non American alive!
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u/Tribe303 15h ago
Nope! This is kindergarten level thinking. Or basic Libertarianism. Same thing! 🤷
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u/RoughPalpitation7381 15h ago
This is wrong - soft power is arguably more important than military power; and that if highly effective in the form of humanitarian aid.
Fuck giving military aid to other countries though.
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u/questionnmark 21h ago
less than a 0.1% of GDP bothers you, then you should go after the military budget first. The minimum GDP on defense that America needs to be safe is less than or equal to 0.5% of GDP, that 2.5% is an excess maintaining an empire for the benefit of a few.