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0 pointskubb1y ago0 comments

> The pattern for basically every small nation is "choose of which superpower you wish to be a client."

This is straight up Russian mentality.

> extravagant welfare states of the past decades, subsidized largely by American defense spending

This sounds to me like a US partisan narrative rather than anything else. It’s a nice story, because it strokes the American ego, but I’ve yet seen it backed up by serious analysis. Most likely it’s just a story.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

_bin_1y ago· 2 in thread

This isn't a russian mentality, this is more of a realpolitik reading of how things work. Don't mistake a positive statement for a normative one.

There was actually a really good article in the FT of all places on this subject: https://www.ft.com/content/37053b2b-ccda-4ce3-a25d-f1d0f82e7...

The fact that the FT is picking this up should tell us something given its typical perspective. There are two big groups of countries in this situation concerned with keeping russia in check: America and the Euros. The former has less of a direct concern but more ability to do something about it; the former have more concerns but less ability. So we settled on a compromise where each country would contribute a proportion of GDP rather than a dollar figure. This is fair-ish; it's still a huge benefit to the euros, but pretty fair. Yet for decades, they have consistently failed to meet their proportional obligations, instead directing those funds to things like "free healthcare".

Other major reasons they can do this include not having debt from having to finance the rebuilding of their continent themselves.

kubbOP1y ago

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?most_...

The US is spending more of its GDP percentage-wise on healthcare than any European country. How you can consider the European spending "extravagant" is inexplicable, you have to be deep deep in the ideological rabbit hole, and unable to admit new information.

_bin_1y ago

This is a good example of "lying with statistics". You are doing this by implying we are paying more for the same thing. You are then doing more of this by equating healthcare spend to the total welfare state. Europe is still spending a lot of money on healthcare; less than us, but their healthcare is pretty crappy.

Healthcare is one part of the profligate safety net europe has maintained for decades, not the whole thing. Europe has more pensions, more unemployment, more retirement benefits, more childcare, more socialized housing, more of almost every flavor of welfare. They pay for this by shifting the burden of defending themselves to America.

Here's a good and more in-depth analysis: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/04/europe-military-welfare...

It's a hell of a lot more useful than one graph. Please read it.

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rowanseymour1y ago

> This is straight up Russian mentality.

I don't know how you can look at nearly a century of US imperialism in Latin America and the Middle East and conclude that client states is a Russian thing.

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