Hacker News Reader

Comment by shimman | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

You don’t have any savings in the bank, right? That money you’re hoarding could be buying mosquito nets to save lives - you’re killing people by not donating everything you have.

There is no moral requirement for me to impoverish myself in response to an idiot cutting government/public spending on critical assistance to those in need.

There might be other moral imperatives which indicate that I ought to cash out the 401(k) and give it to people who need support, but this guy and his fucked up "DOGE" bullshit ain't it.

Why is that money I'm hoarding currently being devalued by tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and bonuses paid out to ethnic cleanser shock troops?

Note the same, maybe if my bank account was equivalent to Elon Musk's it would be a fair argument but hardly the same to expect a shitposter to be equivalent to a man who is a billionaire.

Totally the same. $1 is $1, and it can go to saving those very lives you’re talking about. Put your money where your mouth is - otherwise you just want to virtue signal with my tax dollars.

> Put your money where your mouth is

I do, through my tax dollars. And the amount of money that was DOGEd was literally couch cushion change on the scale of the federal budget. And not only did those cuts directly lead to deaths but weakened US soft power all around the world, letting China step in.

China’s soft power play yielded returns: ports, minerals, oil, factories, customers for their exports.

The only Americans benefiting from the existing aid scheme are the network of lobbyists and NGOs.

As I said upthread, if you’re that motivated, donate $500 to a high-impact charity and you’ll do far more good for people on the ground than what your taxes were doing at USAID.

So you don't believe in soft power?

How's that? Are you referring to his work on the DOGE team efforts that were simply recommendations?

Ah yes the "recommendations" that lead to dismantling USAID and where ~400k people have already died due to those direct cuts:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary...

[citation needed]

Take your pick homie:

https://ph.ucla.edu/news-events/news/research-finds-more-14-...

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary...

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...

This one is a PDF, so warning:

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/media/som/news/news-logo...

So right now, there are nearly 400,000 verifiable deaths due to the cuts of these programs. It's on track to be way worse than what I imagined, several million to 14 million.

I'm sorry but that's just straight up evil behavior.

These are hypotheticals / estimates, not verifiable.

If the funding cuts were so critical why have other wealthy countries or individuals not stepped in to fund them?

Are they all evil too?

It's not just a matter of funding, but infrastructure in place (much of which constituted relationships with local communities) that Marco Rubio ordered dismantled immediately.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com