[oceante]

Your comment is distinctly American.

The rest of the world is perfectly happy with universal healthcare, strong social safety nets, and "handouts" to children.

How do you think Brexit was sold to the British? Do you realize that the Brexiters (and all the European nativists) have been selling their agenda primarily on the basis that it would mean more handouts?

America is different. And we all know what that difference is. Americans are very much unique in rejecting basic social guarantees out of the fear that the "wrong people" will benefit.

[virmundi]

I don't think that this is due to "fear that the 'wrong people' will benefit". I think the fear is that such programs will sap our will to improve. We fear becoming European. We fear becoming docile wards of the state. Keep in mind that everyone in the US descends from people that decided that the risk of exposure, wolves and bears was more tolerable than staying with their peers.

We now stand at a crossroads unseen by past humanity: unnecessary man. How do we deal with the fact that a portion of our population, perhaps even half, is quickly becoming a millstone about society's neck? Ideas like UBI are our first attempt to deal humanly. Soon we'll probably add to UBI voluntary sterilization or other population controls. How will we collectively in the West solve this? Burdening our State coffers by maintaining useless populations might not be the best thing.