The Absurdity of Sending American Tax Dollars Overseas

As an aspiring intellectual and a citizen who believes in thinking deeply about what makes a society just, I often find myself dumbfounded by one of the strangest features of modern America: our government’s compulsive habit of sending money overseas while millions of Americans are left behind. It’s one of those things so absurd that most people stop questioning it because it seems too big, too systemic, too far gone to fix. But that’s precisely why it deserves our attention.

The Illusion of the Dollar

Since President Nixon ended the gold standard in 1971, the United States has lived in a world of financial fiction. The dollar is no longer tied to anything tangible: no physical gold, no real limit, no inherent constraint. The government, through the Federal Reserve, can simply create money out of thin air. And the banks, freed from reserve requirements, have joined the illusion. Once upon a time, if you deposited $1,000, the bank could only lend out a fraction of it. Today, it can lend out many times that amount…money that doesn’t exist, conjured into being with a keystroke.

The entire system operates on confidence, not collateral. And as long as the public keeps believing in the story, the illusion holds.

The Greatest Economic Magic Trick in History

If this weren’t so destructive, it would be impressive. The Federal Reserve prints money, inflates the currency, and calls it “stimulus.” Congress votes to spend trillions it doesn’t have and calls it “investment.” Banks lend infinite sums and call it “growth.” It’s the greatest magic trick ever performed, but it’s not performed for you or me.

Because if the government truly has unlimited money, and by every observable measure, it does, then it makes the suffering of ordinary Americans not just tragic, but obscene.

The Cruelty of Abundance

Consider this: hundreds of billions of dollars are sent overseas to fund wars, rebuild foreign infrastructure, or “stabilize” regions that remain perpetually unstable. Whether one believes in the nobility of those causes is beside the point. Why should a single dollar leave this country while one veteran sleeps under a bridge? Why should a foreign government receive “aid” while an American child studies in a classroom with broken air conditioning and outdated textbooks?

It’s not about isolationism, it’s about priorities. No reasonable person would feed their neighbor’s child while their own starves. Yet that’s precisely what our government does every single year, under Republicans, under Democrats, under every administration that runs a deficit and calls it leadership.

The Great American Betrayal

This is not a partisan issue; it’s a moral one. Joe Biden did it. Donald Trump did it. Every president before them did too. They all claim there isn’t enough money to fix Social Security, provide decent healthcare for veterans, or pay down the debt. Then, with a straight face, they send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign governments that couldn’t care less about the average American taxpayer.

And where does that money come from? From you, from me, from every working citizen whose paycheck is sliced before it even hits their bank account. It’s not just theft, it’s insult on top of injury. The government steals from its people through taxation, then sends the spoils abroad under the banner of “democracy,” “defense,” or “humanitarian aid.”

A Simple Principle

If taxes must exist, and I’ve made clear elsewhere that I believe most shouldn’t, then at the very least, they should serve the people who pay them. Fix our roads. Pay our teachers. Feed our hungry. Shelter our homeless veterans. Equip our firefighters. Fund innovation, infrastructure, and education before wiring another dime to a foreign account. That’s not extremism. That’s common sense.

Until we rediscover that principle, America will continue to be a nation of staggering wealth and self-inflicted poverty…a country that can create infinite money but not enough compassion to spend it where it’s needed most.