It is a myth that the US doesn't spend enough on social services.

[jojoju1998]

If you take into account, state, and local government spending, we spend alot of money on social welfare/education for the population.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

[Vice President Christian Man]

There is a difference between spending and efficiency. Take our military for example. We spend by far more than any other country on Earth, but if we were to focus on quality over quantity, we could reduce our military budget while simultaneously improving the quality of our military.

[dead0man]

like with everything else, it's the administrative bloat.  Hopefully AI takes care of most of those leaches.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

We have more public spending on healthcare per capita than any country, and yet outcomes aren't anywhere as good as many other countries.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

You're arguing two separate things. 'Spending a lot' is not the same as 'spending enough.'

Both of these are subjective arguments to begin with. However, contrary to the posts above mine, I think the evidence of 'administrative bloat' is actually very thin and that there is a lot of truth to 'you get what you pay for' when it comes to public services.

What is correct is that it is extremely expensive to actually 'solve' any problem of any size and that there are nowhere near enough resources to come close to 'solving' every problem.

[ingemann]

like with everything else, it's the administrative bloat.  Hopefully AI takes care of most of those leaches.

Much of the bloat comes from the fact that people are terrified that the undeserving get anything. Sometimes you’re better off having less administration and simply let a few “undeserving” get some stuff.

[MasterJedi]

like with everything else, it's the administrative bloat.  Hopefully AI takes care of most of those leaches.

AI is nowhere close to being able to replace most jobs and the ones it are won’t be done well. Companies will be quickly trying and reaping the punishment for trying to be cheap.

Most “administrative bloat” is paying people trash wages to do important jobs that need to be done and getting the expected result of people doing the bare minimum when they’re not valued. 

[dead0man]

AI is nowhere close to being able to replace most jobs and the ones it are won’t be done well. Companies will be quickly trying and reaping the punishment for trying to be cheap.

but all the tears over the past year or whatever.  Did the perpetually panicked once again jump the gun?  I don't recall you being the voice of reason in those threads, but I'm getting old so perhaps my memory is failing.

Most “administrative bloat” is paying people trash wages to do important jobs that need to be done and getting the expected result of people doing the bare minimum when they’re not valued. 

why would anyone work for "trash wages" when the unemployment rates or so low?  I do feel sorry for dumb people, but don't most administrators have BA degrees?  I suppose that does fit with what we know that college does NOT produce intelligence if there was none there in the first place.

[TechbroMBA]

Yep but don't expect government employees to ever argue against a funding increase, or either major party to focus on spend efficiency. Dems just want to tax and spend more, Republicans just care about tax cuts (and largely don't give a sh**t about the deficit).

Much like inflation before 2021, people have forgotten about the constraints of government deficit spending. It's beginning to look like the debt markets may finally be ready to teach politicians and voters that they can't sh**t out endless amounts of IOUs unless they want to be paying half their taxes to interest.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We need to put time limits on rich folks receiving social security, hopefully when we raise the cap, we can adjust it for rich people it should be 10 yrs

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

More than half of total means-tested welfare spending (not including SS & Medicare) is Medicaid. For a lot of different reasons healthcare costs per capita are a lot higher in the US than elsewhere.

US also has a lot of social pathologies that other "developed" countries don't, including having the world's highest rate of children growing up without 2 parents and everything upstream and downstream from that. So even though we spend a lot, it's hard to say what's "enough"