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Comment by louwrentius | Hacker News Reader

In the USA, the main issue is that a lot of people are poor and can’t afford healthcare. And that’s really on them. They have to really do their best, stop being so lazy and just stop being so poor.

It’s the land of equal opportunity, a level playing field and if you can’t make it, you’re not working hard enough. They should really take personal responsibility seriously.

If you just felt for a split second any doubt about me being serious or not that should mean something.

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My split second of doubt came from not being American, and past experience of hearing Americas seriously make those points

On a similar note - it is literally impossible for one to pull themselves up by their bootstraps as it is a part of the very thing you're standing on

Gotta have bootstraps first as well

I have been thinking about this being poor thing. Isn't it like all of the losing weight advice. Earn more, spend less and save more simple to do it. It is all about money in and money out. If you have more money coming in and less going out you will be rich.

Trivial advice to follow and anyone should be able to do it right?

US public spending on healthcare dwarfs every European nation. The US public healthcare expenditure per capita is greater than Norway's Public + Private expenditure.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/283221/per-capita-health...

This is exactly why. Yes, this comment is in jest, but something like it is the culture in the US, from way back when it really was an unexplored continent where you could get rich just by doing anything.

This mindset has persisted to varying degrees, and it's why Americans are so opposed to a social safety net. After all, the only way for someone to be poor in the US is to deserve it.

It's true: if you're poor in the US, you definitely deserve it. This is true if you're a malnourished young child too: if you deserved a better life, you would have been born to richer parents.

I think the social darwinism in culture is in part the result of decades of red scare brainwashing and its fallout, like identitarian consumerism. It's really what sets the US apart. As a western nation, the US seems to lack a generation of collectivist (youth) revolt as a cultural balancing force. "The left" is, has been a joke in America.

I mean seriously, you still witness pavlovian reflexes on anything "social" all the time. Sometimes feeling mindlessly automatic, it's rather disturbing.

Exactly, and the "social safety net" gets the same scare. What? You want healthcare? That's socialism, one step closer to communism, which everyone knows is the devil!

Ah, the American dream/philosophy: "If you work hard, you'll be successful". If you believe this, then you have to believe the reverse: "If you're not successful, that's because you're a lazy fuck". Just look at OP preaching this.

https://youtu.be/bTDGdKaMDhQ

"equal opportunity", maybe a few decades ago. I could throw in the words "systemic racism" in here but you'll dismiss me as a stupid woke-brain whose arguments aren't worth listening to.

Meanwhile you don't realize how much luck you (or other billionaires) have encountered..

The commenter was being sarcastic

They actually say they're being sarcastic, and you still don't get it...

> They actually say...

Huh... apparently I'm illiterate!

The hard truth is that these babies are lucky to have been born in a country of equal opportunity, and those who don't manage to live beyond a year simply haven't worked hard enough.

Providing for the needs of lazy babies is the first step towards socialism.

Wild. I don’t have enough HN points to downvote, sorry

It's sarcasm without the sarcasm tag.

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