Desperate business debt proves the economy is failing workers, not that workers are lazy.

Daily Debate #556: "Desperate business debt proves the economy is failing workers, not that workers are lazy.". You are arguing FOR the motion. Your opponent: Noam Chomsky.

A country should spend more on defence than healthcare

Wrong framing. Defence protects the state; healthcare protects workers. A failing economy needs healthy workers more than military readiness. Which actually generates wealth, soldiers or a productive workforce?

But if we stop sending on defence the employment decrease due to this the people will not have money for healthcare and it will ultimately lead to unhealthy population. Also., military guarantees stability which is bedrock of an economy. No one wants to set up businesses or invest with a country that cannot protect itself

You're conflating two separate problems into one false choice. Defence jobs are notoriously inefficient—they produce no consumer goods, no exports, no wealth creation. Redirect that spending to healthcare infrastructure and you don't lose employment, you shift it to sectors that actually generate economic returns. A stable economy needs healthy workers, not just borders. Why assume defence cuts mean economic collapse when every developed nation outspends healthcare less and remains perfectly investable?

You're dodging the real problem. Yes, you can theoretically redirect defence spending to healthcare, but that assumes a frictionless economy that doesn't exist. Workers in defence manufacturing don't instantly become nurses or engineers. Retraining takes years; unemployment spikes immediately. And your claim that developed nations outspend healthcare less ignores geopolitical reality—they can do that because they're protected by alliances or geography. A country that cuts defence unilaterally doesn't shift jobs smoothly; it invites instability that tanks investment far worse than any budget line item ever could.

You've just admitted retraining is hard, not impossible. But here's what you're actually arguing: we should waste resources on inefficient defence jobs to avoid the temporary pain of transition. That's not economics, that's fear dressed as pragmatism. Countries don't collapse from defence cuts; they collapse from unproductive spending that starves actual growth engines. Show me one developed nation that crashed because it invested more in healthcare than weapons.