Thread by @wmhuo168

America didn’t get this broken by accident. It was an inside job.

One ideology gutted public investment, rigged the economy, and turned citizens into debt slaves.

Name it: Milton Friedman.

Here’s the biggest heist you never learned in school.

newyorker.com/magazine/2023/…

The U.S. spends THREE TIMES as much on its military as China.

Yet Americans ask the wrong questions.

Let’s fix that.
🧵 (1/10)

1. Why isn’t America more advanced?

Because it stopped investing in itself.

Instead of engineers and infrastructure, we fed Lockheed, Raytheon, and a million think tank grifters.

We don’t build. We contract.
And they overbill.
(2/10)

2. Why do Americans drown in student debt?

Because college became a for-profit Ponzi scheme.

Milton Friedman’s “human capital” theory said education was a personal investment.

So the state cashed out.
Now your degree buys Uber shifts.
(3/10)

3. Why doesn’t America have national healthcare?

Because Milton Friedman taught that markets fix everything, even cancer.

So we got “choice.”
Which means middlemen.

Which means the world’s most expensive death spiral.
(4/10)

4. Why can’t America build high-speed rail?

Because public works = socialism, and socialism = evil.

So we let McKinsey consultants gut Amtrak while China laid 45,000 km of track.

Our answer?
Bigger highways and more traffic deaths.
(5/10)

5. Why is America buried in debt?

Because Friedmanites told us deficits don’t matter if they help the rich.

So we spent trillions on wars, tax cuts, and bailouts,
But never schools, bridges, or healthcare.
Now the bill is due.
(6/10)

Milton Friedman didn’t just win the economic debate.

He rewired the system.
Public good? Bad.

Private profit? Holy.

That’s how we ended up with hedge funds managing hospitals.
(7/10)

China didn’t beat us by outspending us.
It beat us by governing.
It builds. It plans. It invests.
We outsource. We deregulate. We “incentivize.”
And then wonder why we’re collapsing.
(8/10)

This isn’t left vs right.
It’s statecraft vs grift.
China has engineers in charge.
We have financiers, consultants, and lobbyists.
Milton Friedman was their patron saint.
(9/10)

So next time someone asks:

Why can’t America have what China does?

Tell them the answer’s the same every time.
Milton Friedmanism.
It hollowed the country out.

You’re not broke.
You were robbed.
(10/10)