[t1lthesky]

Americans spend too much on nearly all government provided services. Anyone who thinks that more government spending is the solution really doesn’t understand the underlying issues at all.

When it costs 5x as much to build a new subway line in NYC compared to Paris [1], spending 20% more on infrastructure isn’t going to do anything. Arguably it will make things worse, allowing the existing inefficiencies to continue.

This problem occurs in all the areas where America lags behind other first world countries. Education, healthcare, infrastructure - spending is equal or greater than comparable nations, but the returns on each dollar spent is much smaller.

People try to simplify this issue in a partisan manner to having bigger government (Democrats) vs having more free markets (Republicans), but when you look at each of these areas in greater depth you realize that it’s not that simple. There are a multitude of causes unique to America that contributes to costs being so high, as exemplified in this thread’s article. In the case of health care, elsewhere in the world there exist both free market and government provided solutions that deliver better outcomes than the American system.

For a more in depth coverage on this topic, I highly recommend: http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/09/considerations-on-cost-...

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...