> No, the US is not subsidizing drug development for Europe. What is happening is that US pharma is profiteering in the US because they can.
2 ways of describing the same thing. The difference between US "profiteering" vs Europe "getting a bargain" depends on your reference point. At the end of the day, the US is doing more to foot the bill for new drugs, and Europeans point and laugh instead of saying thank you.
>The US is dependent on international trade - not least for Middle East oil
The US is now a net energy exporter. I think we should retool to reduce dependence on foreign oil and reduce foreign entanglements. Should be good for the climate as well. And much cheaper than helping Europe with defense.
>For sure Europe should shoulder it's burden when it comes to defense - but the reason you have homeless people in every major city is not because of your defense bill! It is because your society is malfunctioning.
Resources are finite. You earlier implied that the US govt should spend more on social programs. That means either taking on more debt (terrible idea), or reducing large expenditures like defense. Furthermore, if it's true that the US is "malfunctioning", increased expenditure on social programs (as you earlier implied, remember our discussion was originally about capitalism vs social democracy) wouldn't necessarily even fix the problem.
This was a sufficiently disingenuous argument on your part that I don't plan to reply further in this thread.
>Bear in mind that isolationism is exactly what Putin's Russia (and Xi's China) wants, be careful that you are not being indoctrinated by anti-US interests.
I see Europeans trash the US about as much as I see Russia/China trashing the US. Where are the anti-US interests?
I never saw a Russian or Chinese person claim that US society is "malfunctioning". How would you feel if I said Europe was "malfunctioning" due to its low GDP?
You're talking about US interests. Being friendly with other major powers like Russia and China is in the US interest, for the purpose of preventing another world war. But at the end of the day, NATO is not in the US interest -- certainly not after the cold war has ended, which you seem to have forgotten about (cf "Soviet lakes"). Nor does it make sense as a humanitarian alliance. It's time for the US to leave. It's also time to charge Europeans more for drugs. They need to pay their fair share.
(To clarify, it's clear to me that your comments are far more motivated by contempt than constructive critique. That's why I don't regard you as an ally, and I don't plan to reply to you further.)
2 ways of describing the same thing. The difference between US "profiteering" vs Europe "getting a bargain" depends on your reference point. At the end of the day, the US is doing more to foot the bill for new drugs, and Europeans point and laugh instead of saying thank you.
>The US is dependent on international trade - not least for Middle East oil
The US is now a net energy exporter. I think we should retool to reduce dependence on foreign oil and reduce foreign entanglements. Should be good for the climate as well. And much cheaper than helping Europe with defense.
>For sure Europe should shoulder it's burden when it comes to defense - but the reason you have homeless people in every major city is not because of your defense bill! It is because your society is malfunctioning.
Resources are finite. You earlier implied that the US govt should spend more on social programs. That means either taking on more debt (terrible idea), or reducing large expenditures like defense. Furthermore, if it's true that the US is "malfunctioning", increased expenditure on social programs (as you earlier implied, remember our discussion was originally about capitalism vs social democracy) wouldn't necessarily even fix the problem.
This was a sufficiently disingenuous argument on your part that I don't plan to reply further in this thread.
>Bear in mind that isolationism is exactly what Putin's Russia (and Xi's China) wants, be careful that you are not being indoctrinated by anti-US interests.
I see Europeans trash the US about as much as I see Russia/China trashing the US. Where are the anti-US interests?
I never saw a Russian or Chinese person claim that US society is "malfunctioning". How would you feel if I said Europe was "malfunctioning" due to its low GDP?
You're talking about US interests. Being friendly with other major powers like Russia and China is in the US interest, for the purpose of preventing another world war. But at the end of the day, NATO is not in the US interest -- certainly not after the cold war has ended, which you seem to have forgotten about (cf "Soviet lakes"). Nor does it make sense as a humanitarian alliance. It's time for the US to leave. It's also time to charge Europeans more for drugs. They need to pay their fair share.