I work a job where I end up taking to a lot of people. When politics come up I usually hear a lot about how workers aren't getting their fair share and are being screwed over by the government (a good start) but then veers off into "the government doesn't pay nurses enough because we're giving it away to other countries!!"
Why is this misguided talking point so common? How do you respond to it without being dismissive and calling them dumb and wrong?
People have a really skewed idea of where government money goes. Once you get past like a hundred thousand dollars then intuitively it's all just the same incomprehensibly large number, you have to learn how much goes where.
I'm not sure what you can do besides being like, "we send about fifty billion dollars in foreign aid every year, compared to spending eight HUNDRED billion on the military. That's sixteen times more, and instead of getting spent on food and infrastructure to make the world better that military money gets spent on bombs and tanks that either sit in a warehouse or get used to make the world worse."
edit: just noticed the sub, amend my numbers to 7.5 billion and 36 billion, 5 times more. The point still stands.