which fear?

In a little follow-up to Monday’s post.

It’s interesting how many people are opposed to “socialism” that are in support of the military. I think this is because a) people think socialism is mostly about paying people who don’t work and b) people think the military is mostly about people who “serve” instead of “work”. I think both are a quite a bit more complicated than either statement but I also think it’s mostly about fear.

Do we fear terrorists? Russia? Nuclear war? Being invaded? I’m not sure what else, but there are lots of fears out there that a military can definitely take care of.

Interestingly enough, there’s some other fears. Cancer. Heart disease. Diabetes. Addiction.

At the end of the day, some would rather spend money on the first list of fears than the second. Also interesting is that one of those lists is pretty vague and perceived and the other is very real and in our face, at least in my opinion.

I suppose one could argue that the reason the first in vague is because we spend a lot on it. True.

To add all kinds of intrigue on this whole debate the U.s. actually spends more on healthcare than any developed nation. It’s just mostly private spending and it’s mostly administrative. And while we do have the world’s largest (and probably best) military we definitely don’t have the world’s best healthcare system - in relation to other developed nations - and according to most stats.

You could say you get what you pay for but that’s not entirely true in our case. Maybe you get what your government pays for and makes important?

Which fear grabs our attention is the question? Or maybe, which fear grabs our government’s attention? Or maybe, which candidate’s fears do you vote for?