r/askanything • u/SignificantCrow • 9h ago

Political Question Are Republicans inherently selfish?

Not referring to every individual obviously but as a whole, compared to democrats/independents they seem to really only care about themselves or their immediate family and pretty much have a “f**k em” attitude towards literally everyone else. Does anyone else feel this way?

This would explain why so many are against social policies but have no issue dumping much more money into the military instead, for example.

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

Rather than talk about people, I’ll talk about ideology. As far as I’m concerned, the current ideology of the democrat party is one of selfishness and envy. They try to appeal to voters with promises of government provided healthcare, college loan forgiveness, government run grocery stores, pitting rich against not rich. That’s greed and selfishness when people want or promise something for nothing and then say the ones we’re demonizing will be made to pay for it.

To be perfectly honest, the Republican Party is only marginally better. Their handouts may come in different forms, but promising money or benefits to people didn’t earn it is theft no matter how it’s branded. Oh we’re giving out child tax credits? Unfair and theft. We’re going to give this energy company $100 million to subsidize a project? Also theft from taxpayers.

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u/GapProfessional6573 8h ago

100%. Democrat socialism is also terrible. Let’s not respond to radicals getting power and screwing us over by putting the other radicals in power to screw us harder. House and senate ideally are purple to force compromise and actually good policies

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u/Ovie-WanKenobi 8h ago

We don’t want something for nothing. We want the taxes that we pay to benefit us rather than the millionaires and billionaires.

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

How about you keep more of your money through lower taxes and we all just take care of our own business? I don’t want my taxes going to millionaires either. The best way to prevent that is to pay less taxes.

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u/JackyGboy 8h ago

We would keep more of our money if we had universal Healthcare

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

No. I don’t want to pay for your health care. Pay for it yourself and I’ll take care of mine. That’s the only truly fair way to do it.

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u/No-Carrot4267 7h ago

Except hospitals will treat everybody regardless of payment because they took an oath.

They have to increase costs to pay for that treatment if the individual has no insurance. Insurance raise prices to compensate for higher medical costs.

Same thing for car insurance too btw.

The socialized medicine model costs $4 trillion/year and the current insurance model we have costs $5 trillion/year. And healthier society contributes more to the economy instead of draining its resources with sick days

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u/Specialist-Hurry2932 8h ago

Do you understand how insurance works? Are you even voting age?

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

I know exactly how it works and I wish to purchase it myself, not rely on the government to treat me as a child.

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u/Specialist-Hurry2932 8h ago

So you would rather spend more money on worse care just so you can feel like a rugged individual, even though you’re already paying for others people’s healthcare through insurance premiums?

You are so goddamn stupid, lol.

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u/Dog_Bless_America 7h ago

Insurance is common, but not universal.

I agree with him, and I have no health insurance.

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u/FrostingFun2041 7h ago

I get insurance through work, its part of my salary package, I pay $100 a month and my employer also contributes $50 per paycheck into my HSA. My yearly deductible is $3500, I do not need referrals and once my deductible is met I pay zero for any type of medical service or procedure and my policy works if I travel put of the country. My insurance is far better then anything the government would provide and it costs less. Im also a veteran and could use the VA but the VA is horrendous and theres a reaso we say VA Healthcare gives veterans a second chance to die for the country.

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u/JackyGboy 8h ago edited 8h ago

Lmao you already pay for other people's insurance. That's what your premium is for. It's incredible how stupid people are sometimes. You would literally be paying far less money with universal Healthcare.

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

I also pay for my groceries. My home. My gasoline. My clothing. My vacations. I don’t want the government to pay for those either. I have a job and get paid. It’s my responsibility to buy what I need and want.

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u/Specialist-Hurry2932 8h ago

The government wouldn’t be paying for anything.

You’re either a bot or being purposefully obtuse because this sub is full of other bots/morons.

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u/JackyGboy 8h ago

You can keep doing all of that. You would still be paying for your own insurance. You want to argue for fiscal responsibility, but ignore the billions of the dollars this country would save by switching to universal healthcare. You are being unnecessarily ripped off by thousands and thousands of dollars for private insurance with no guarantee of coverage. You think you're being independent by being against universal healthcare, but you're just being stupid

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u/MushroomFondue 8h ago

I'd say that Democrats generally see beneficial things (education, healthcare, retirement, etc) as PUBLIC goods and the government is the best way to make sure that everyone can enjoy the good things.

Republicans view most of those things as PRIVATE goods, so want to leave those things for individuals to pay for, if they can. Rich republicans can afford all the good things so they don't really care if others can. Hence their focus on cutting taxes so they can have more money for their good things, and cutting education since they don't use public schools.

Tell me: which of these two viewpoints is selfish?

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u/Sea_Low879 8h ago

This is such a myopic way of looking at the world. Wanting to help people isn’t the purview of a specific political party. The argument here is over the function of government in our lives. I want the government out of my life as much as possible. Perhaps you find a nanny to be comforting. But I don’t.

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u/MushroomFondue 8h ago

So you're saying that you don't want the government to do any of these things for you? That these are personal things and you'll decide if you want/need any of them? If other people want them then they can acquire them for themselves?

Or are you complaining about not being able to do just anything and not being able to treat people in any way you want?

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u/Sea_Low879 7h ago

It depends on the thing. Law enforcement. Military. Fire. Courts. I want the government to handle it and use my taxes to do those jobs. Health care or health insurance? No way in hell I want the government involved at all. That ship has sailed though. The goal now is to prevent the government from getting MORE involved.

Most of the taxes we pay go to government run social programs. Like 65-70% of all federal spending is entitlements and social programs. I don’t hear many people saying “wow, that federal government is doing a bang up job with social security and Medicare.” Why the hell would I want the government to spend MORE on entitlements when it is failing at managing the ones that already exist?

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u/MushroomFondue 6h ago

And yet, the alternative to government healthcare is to go back to way it was before the aca. People bankrupted, people dying because their insurance doesn't cover it or it's a previous condition.

And Medicare works pretty well. Of course, the loudest voices are the complainers.

And the kicker is, the US would save billions and trillions if we went single payer. Taxes would go up, sure, but people's out of pocket and insurance would go to zero. And corporations wouldn't have to subsidize insurance, which counts as a significant cost overhead on salaries. Corporations could either save that money or add it to our salaries. Of course, we all know what corporations would do.