this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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I am studying internationally now (including with several Ukrainians, hello!) and it has been surprising for both of us to convince them how bad America has historically been and how much worse it has become lately.
America lacks many of the basic social rights and programs that a lot of other countries take for granted. It was easier to shoulder that burden individually when the economy was stronger, but now that it is collapsing and the current administration is further cutting social programs, some people are falling completely out of the system. It's why the criminalization of homelessness is so terrifying. It is a pit everyone will fall into eventually. America is on a very bad path towards fascism and we have typically voted down social assistance programs because there is a belief that individually we do not need them and that people that do are social and economic leeches.
I mean Ukraine has the opposite problem, soviet created a system where only having connections with people in power matters. And trust me, you'd rather be discriminated by wealth rather by not being part of someone's family.
Post-soviet, majority of economy was state-controlled, lots of money go through state via taxes. This created a class of oligarchs who gained their wealth controlling state owned factories and leeching money to their personal accounts. These people own TV channels and elect their politicians on populist leftist platforms. Ofc they don't deliver, but hey, lots of money are spent on social net, got stolen along the way to the end user.
Naturally, oligarchs have no interests in other people to be able to open up their businesses or whatever. So smart people in Ukraine do look up on how capitalism works, cause more private money would circulate in the country, the faster things will change.
Oh yes, I don't mean to imply anyone has it good, we're all screwed in different ways. Just to say that the US is often not what it appears at all.
Capitalism creates oligarchs in different ways. Without taxes, Elon Musk has accrued immense wealth. There is almost literally no way for him to spend $400B of his wealth and return it to the economy. He can't buy groceries or patronize stores to any meaningful degree. Large purchases such as super yachts just move the money to somewhere else. Without some sort of taxation to redistribute that wealth it sits with him like a bloated tick and allows him as a single, private citizen to put his fingers on the political scales of whoever wants a slice.
I don't know what the solution is ...