i could swear that in the early/mid 90's, the story was that germans were more awesome because they worked longer hours than we did. now we're not awesome because we work longer hours. am i misremembering the articles, or have we indeed always been at war with eurasia?
America's misguided culture of overwork
131–140 of 192 posts
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
(mini-rant: Well, to be honest I found your attitude a bit annoying. The poster mentioned three things. You asked for data. He provided one and your reply was: "Not sceptic of that", without specifying much. I provide different measures, including one covering one more of the three original points, and you complain that some of them are off topic. So yeah, if one gives you on topic data you are not sceptic of that, i…
You are correct, I should have originally specified that I was only skeptical of the claims on health care and luxuries (since working hours are easy to look up). That was my mistake, and I offer my apologies. You provided more data unrelated to health care and luxuries. One of your data points looked (at first glance) to be directly on point, but on further examination it turned out not to be. I pointed this out. I'…
I didn't say you were impolite because you disputed the facts. But because you were giving very vague definitions of what you were exactly looking for, and instead just turned down people who offered numerical evidence. Had you been more clear what exactly you were after, I'd wouldn't have had a problem (disputing the relevance of facts I think it's alright).
I agree health care is a badly defined word. And if you want to restrict yourself to services offered by medical professionals then I am fine.
Then I can argue with you that yeah, the USA is not so bad on the actual services provided. Although given the quality of the service changes with how much you can pay, we should really look at the average health care offered (hence those who can't pay and are not insured would count as horrible service). Also having universal health care helps simply because people can take much more advantage without worrying if it's worth the money. For example screening for diseases or cancer. And where I live now (UK) doctors will also check your weight, discuss how you can improve your diet and so on. Not sure then if these would count in your definition or not.
I think anyway that the guy you replied to meant a broader concept of health care. When the government subsidises screening or healthy food at schools then I would have counted those under health care.
Incidentally I guess that's why the WHO used those other data that you disliked. Financial inequality matters because richer people can afford better health care.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like many things in economics, it's imperfect. If you compare the US with Canada, which has a similar mixed ethnicity, the dollars to life expectancy is still way better in Canada. To save some time, I think the typical libertarian argument is to admit the system in the US actually does stink in terms of costs, and argue that if only we had a truly free market, where people could instruct their ambulance drivers to d…
If you compare the US with Canada, which has a similar mixed ethnicity,... False. Canada has more long lived Asians and far fewer short lived Blacks (and "some other race") than the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Stat... In any case, I'm not asserting that ethnicity is the only factor affecting life expectancy. My claim is that many fact…
Ok, but the real difference is in spending. People in the US live to 78, Canadians to 81, according to that site, which isn't a huge difference. The difference in spending, however, is, which is why the US is such an outlier on that chart.
... and around ...
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#134"How did Germany become such a great place to work in the first place? The Allies did it.” What? I’m pretty sure the European labour movement and the Social Democrats wouldn’t agree with that answer. On a list of possible explanations, I think ”You can thank the Americans for it” would rank rather low.
Thanking Americans for it is definitely on the list. My parents were both born during WWII - they are very greatful to the US.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Excuse me but where did that "ignorance is bliss" come from? The poster asked for some information, I tried to provide it. Did I belittled American's achievements? No. Did I provide wrong data? No. So maybe I am not being ignorant as just naive. There was very little opinion in my comment. Anyway... Life expectancy may be low because people eat crappy food, but the eat crappy food because they are cheap. Sure it cost…
"Excuse me but where did that "ignorance is bliss" come from?" People that don't have freedom and are stuck in one system don't know what they are missing. "But the number of people that can afford those in the USA is so small that when you look at the average, most are worse off." The majority of people (last I heard it was > 70%) have some form of health care in the US. Our health care system does need to be reform…
What makes you think that I don't have freedom? Or that I am stuck in my current system?
In how many countries have you lived in?
Having some form of health care is not the same as having good health care, and most definitely not the same as having the best health care that the USA provides.In fact, I am puzzled how you can quote a statistics like that with a straight face: you are saying that less than 30% of the population doesn't have any form of health care! That's A LOT!!!
A quick check online (I don't have time to find better data) gave me this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninsured_in_the_United_States
which quotes around 15% of the population WITHOUT insurance. And to those you may need to add all those whose insurances don't cover everything you may have.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you compare the US with Canada, which has a similar mixed ethnicity,... False. Canada has more long lived Asians and far fewer short lived Blacks (and "some other race") than the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Stat... In any case, I'm not asserting that ethnicity is the only factor affecting life expectancy. My claim is that many fact…
Ok, but the real difference is in spending. People in the US live to 78, Canadians to 81, according to that site, which isn't a huge difference. The difference in spending, however, is, which is why the US is such an outlier on that chart. ... and around ...
I was questioning the claim of "more luxury, more free time, and better health-care".
Much like free time, claims about costs are easily googleable.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#137How about moving to Sweden? We have 4G (the real LTE-kind) in the three largest cities now, and even better social safety net than Germany. ;)
Isn't it incredibly difficult for non-EU citizens to move to Sweden to work/live?
I don't know. I would think that moving from the US is not a problem.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#138How about moving to Sweden? We have 4G (the real LTE-kind) in the three largest cities now, and even better social safety net than Germany. ;)
That's easy if you only have 3 "large" cities :) Stockholm (1.2 mil+), Goteborg (0.5 mil+), Malmo (0.25 mil+)
I don't think there's anything easy about it. It's the first commercial deployment of LTE in the world (Oslo in Norway also has it, but that's also TeliaSonera). I'll grant you that it's cheaper with fewer cities, but not easier. Btw, the cost is 359:- SEK ($45 or so) per month. They include the modem and give you a laptop if you sign up now..
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#139"How did Germany become such a great place to work in the first place? The Allies did it.” What? I’m pretty sure the European labour movement and the Social Democrats wouldn’t agree with that answer. On a list of possible explanations, I think ”You can thank the Americans for it” would rank rather low.
Thanking Americans for it is definitely on the list. My parents were both born during WWII - they are very greatful to the US.
Yes, I’m sure your parents have great reasons to be grateful to the US, as do I, I’m just saying that German labour laws aren’t one of them.
Re: America's misguided culture of overwork
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Life expectancy is low because of the vast amount of people that eat crappy food in the US. And what makes people eat crappy food in the US? Could it be that crappy food is sold starting from the school's cafeteria? Could it be that people don't have enough time to cook or eat at better restaurants? This to me just means that in those other countries, the government is re-distributing wealth It could also mean any nu…
"And what makes people eat crappy food in the US? Could it be that crappy food is sold starting from the school's cafeteria? Could it be that people don't have enough time to cook or eat at better restaurants?" Crappy school food does need to be changed. If people "don't have enough time" to cook or eat better, it's because they are lazy. You need to make time for these things. "It could also mean any number of thing…
... are you suggesting that Americans are inherently more stupid than Europeans?