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Comment by mywittyname | Hacker News Reader

For better or worse, those same anti-government people do functionally support social programs from which they directly benefit. They may pay lip service to their ideological stance on the subject, but the money is green and they will happily continue to take what they are "entitled" to.

Their major opposition is to social programs they don't benefit from.

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There is nothing ideologically inconsistent or hypocritical about saying "I don't think this government program should exist" and also making use of the program that currently exists. There's a game-theoretical issue here: you might want everyone to stop, but unilaterally stopping hurts no one but yourself.

Along the same lines, from a different political perspective: many people advocate higher tax rates, but few people will unilaterally send in a higher tax payment or decline to take a deduction.

My neighbor is a good example. He is on Medicare but he is violently opposed to socialized health care and Medicare for All.

This is extremely common in middle America where I live. People using social services but opposing it for others. They believe they have earned and deserve it, and the others are abusers who haven't.

Exactly. Which is so strange when you see which states are against government involvement and which states need the most government assistance.

Maybe we should take them up on their offer.

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