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Funding war is a problem, I agree, but it might not be as connected to poverty in the US as it appears. RM is right to say that the aid ‘to Ukraine’ goes straight into the pockets of US imperialists. However, RM says the reason US infrastructure is poor is because the money is spent on something else (war).
Ukrainians will be paying for this ‘aid’, not USians. If Ukraine ever wants to spend dollars (which is necessary in a unipolar dollar hegemony) Ukraine will at some point have to repay the value of all this aid and more.
The US military is largely funded by the rest of the world, by the countries surrounded by and which host its military bases. It’s the taxpayers of other countries who financially support the US military. Military spending will always be too high but even if it were cut by 90%, this would not create a huge surplus to spend on domestic social welfare services.
The US could already print enough money to provide libraries, free healthcare, and free higher education, etc. The fact that this is not done is not because the military is too expensive. Michael Hudson explains this, here: https://michael-hudson.com/2023/06/buying-us-debt-subsidizes-imperialism/
The reason for poverty in the US is because its ruling class steal what is produced in the US (and elsewhere!) as profit, keeping wages low, etc. The challenge for socialists in the US is working out how to redistribute wealth produced domestically without relying on mechanisms of unequal value transfer. RM’s heart seems to be in the right place, but he may fall back on some imperialist tendencies—likely by accident, I hasten to add. With multipolarity round the corner, the need for an answer is fast approaching.
Funding war is a problem, I agree, but it might not be as connected to poverty in the US as it appears. RM is right to say that the aid ‘to Ukraine’ goes straight into the pockets of US imperialists. However, RM says the reason US infrastructure is poor is because the money is spent on something else (war).
Ukrainians will be paying for this ‘aid’, not USians. If Ukraine ever wants to spend dollars (which is necessary in a unipolar dollar hegemony) Ukraine will at some point have to repay the value of all this aid and more.
The US military is largely funded by the rest of the world, by the countries surrounded by and which host its military bases. It’s the taxpayers of other countries who financially support the US military. Military spending will always be too high but even if it were cut by 90%, this would not create a huge surplus to spend on domestic social welfare services.
The US could already print enough money to provide libraries, free healthcare, and free higher education, etc. The fact that this is not done is not because the military is too expensive. Michael Hudson explains this, here: https://michael-hudson.com/2023/06/buying-us-debt-subsidizes-imperialism/
The reason for poverty in the US is because its ruling class steal what is produced in the US (and elsewhere!) as profit, keeping wages low, etc. The challenge for socialists in the US is working out how to redistribute wealth produced domestically without relying on mechanisms of unequal value transfer. RM’s heart seems to be in the right place, but he may fall back on some imperialist tendencies—likely by accident, I hasten to add. With multipolarity round the corner, the need for an answer is fast approaching.