In most of the world, there’s this sort of collective pool of money set aside at a governmental level so that, when, say, a child faces death from a treatable illness, we can use that money to just take care of it with the miraculous technologies of modern medicine.

Then there’s the United States.

Where you get stories like this:

AITA for not giving any money for cancer care for my dad’s stepchild?

I (19f) have been very low contact with my dad since I moved out in April 2024.

Very low contact being I have replied to him once since then and replied exactly zero times until this.

Then he asked for us to talk on the phone a couple of months ago.

I didn’t, so he sent me a long text saying one of his stepkids has cancer and they are raising money to afford all the surgeries and treatments they will need.

He has two other stepkids and all the kids are under 8 so he was saying it was a need that they can keep their heads above water.

He sent me a link to a GoFundMe that was set up for donations to help them out.

He’s pretty sure she has the money.

When I didn’t reply he told me he knew I got a partial scholarship for college and I had help from my mom’s parents and I had money mom left me (she died two years ago).

He said I could afford to give a few thousand if not tens of thousands.

And he was like this is about a sick child, who is my family, and two other kids who are also my family who need to be taken care of.

He begged me to care and to overlook the fact I don’t have a relationship with the kids in question or his wife and help because we’re still a family.

And it’s getting desperate.

I didn’t donate and I replied saying I would not be donating and he needed to just accept what others would give.

He kept spamming me with the updates and any social media post they made where they asked for money because of the costs of this stuff.

I didn’t read any of them I just ignored it and I muted him for a week.

He’s still trying.

About a week ago he said they were already facing some challenges because his wife quit her job to care for her sick child.

I didn’t reply but he started to get [angry] and accused me of being heartless and selfish because I don’t need the money more than them.

And it seems like yeah, she does have some spare money, but she’s not budging.

Dad has no idea how much I have.

Since him and mom weren’t together he never had access to what she left me and was never given any info by me or by my grandparents.

I think he has a pretty good idea that it’s more than 5k or even 20k.

But he doesn’t know know.

Figures were never discussed.

So I can’t just tell him I can’t afford it but I already decided I wouldn’t donate.

And he’s getting more frustrated with me because I know they’re having difficulty and won’t help.

She feels conflicted.

AITA for not donating?

I was always planning on going no contact but after this I feel like I might need to bring that forward because we’re not coming back from any of this.

People responded in the comments:

“A lot of money” is a relative term.

Maybe there’s SOMEWHERE they can get better help around here?

But there’s no denying, they probably are truly desperate.

We really, REALLY don’t have to run our country this way, gang.

It’s a choice we make over and over with our votes.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.