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Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

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Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#141

Post by endorphone »

candiodari wrote: post #129
endorphone wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments such as yours -- parroting Donald Trump like talking points -- are remarkable when you consider that the US has the second highest purchase power in the world . The US really has no incentive to allow this to happen Except that it has opened trade for US companies, and the reported numbers are often laughably misleading. Apple, for instance, nets almost all of the profits from an iPhone, yet in the trade bal…

> Except that it has opened trade for US companies, US trade balance: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade How to read that graph: if the line is above zero, it's a net benefit to the US to allow free trade, if it is below, it's a net cost. In the last 50 years, not once has it been positive, and it's systematically gotten worse. TLDR: free trade is a massive cost to the US economy. It is in fa…

In the last 50 years, not once has it been positive, and it's systematically gotten worse.

The US must be a 3rd world country then, right? 50 years being apparently looted like that. Oh wait, it is actually right at the pinnacle of strongest economies in the world.

How can that be?

Because maybe, just maybe, it isn't zero sum. As I mentioned the trade balance is largely a myth (Apple brings hundreds of billions home, while China nets tens of dollars per iPhone, yet the whole gets attributed to China. This goes across every major US manufacturer), and the US has been an enormous beneficiary of it, not only in economic power but in quality of life.

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#142

Post by CryptoPunk »

asdffdsa wrote: post #65

There has to be a point where mere unemployment isn't stigmitized. Of course, being lazy, unproductive, and at worst destructive has to be condemned/disincentivized, but the association of unemployment to unproductive and from unproductive to some sense of worthlessness/leeching has to be amended in our society. Whether it's UBI, an increase in non-profits, and/or a proliferation of diverse and meaningful government…

Living on handouts or at the taxpayer's expense is not dignified or sustainable, and should be discouraged. A fruitful strategy in my opinion would be to encourage people to become financially self-reliant from passive sources of income, to the point of not requiring employment income, by building up their capital, and looking at the interventions done by the government that impede capital formation, especially for those starting from nothing, like:

* licensing restrictions that exclude amateurs and small businesses from participating in various industries (e.g. securities laws that prevent non-public-companies and unaccredited investors from issuing stock to the public and buying stock from non-public companies, respectively)

* occupational licensing

* high tax burdens

* government deficits crowding out lending to the private sector

* zoning restrictions causing housing costs in core economic regions to increase

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#144

Post by dragonwriter »

DrScump wrote: post #137
dragonwriter wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Free insurance with no co-pays and deductibles is worth a lot of money if you consume any healthcare services, and you can only get it if you don’t work. The Medicaid expansion population is up to 138% of Federal Poverty Level, so it's not “available only if you don't work”, and the vast majority of states participating in the expansion impose cost sharing requirements (which work like deductibles, though at least…

The Medicaid population excludes those who pay any portion of subsidized ACA policies, even when the subsidy is 95+% (e.g. paying $10/month for a Bronze policy with the taxpayers paying the other $500+).

> The Medicaid population excludes those who pay any portion of subsidized ACA policies

The ACA subsidy minimum income in Medicaid expansion states is the exact minimum amount that fails to qualify for Medicaid expansion in the first place, so such an exclusion is irrelevant to the expansion population (the ACA minimum is lower—100% of FPL—in states that don't expand Medicaid, but that's obviously immaterial to the effect of Medicaid expansion.)

Medicaid cost sharing is, in case you are unclear, also a completely different thing than the recipient paying a subsidized ACA premium, it's being on Medicaid and paying the first $N/month for Medicaid services, where N is income dependent, out of pocket.

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#145

Post by badpun »

user5994461 wrote: post #90
orangecat wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the universal expectation is that you are available and ready to work Maybe among Silicon Valley startups. That has absolutely not been the case at any of my jobs at companies ranging from 5 to tens of thousands of employees.

It's the same in every company. Things need to run 24/7 and there are never enough people to take care of it. There will always be some suckers who are pushed to work overnight and week end.

My company has people hired (production assurance) especially for this. Being on call is part of their job description. I suspect it's a common arrangement.

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#146

Post by badpun »

madaxe_again wrote: post #79
DougN7 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how do you survive. I don’t feel like I’ve ever had the option to opt out, unless I wanted to move home with Mom. The opportunity might be different than it used to be.

I sold my equity back to the business when I left. It wasn't crazy money, but enough to tide me over while transitioning to self-suffiency - I'm now the proud owner of a shack and a few acres of halfway decent arable land in a remote corner of Uruguay. $25,000 outlay. Becoming a citizen and all that is easy here. I know it's not an option open to everyone, and I'll be honest and say that a lot of the folks I've met h…

> I'm now the proud owner of a shack and a few acres of halfway decent arable land in a remote corner of Uruguay.

So you became a farmer? How's that working out?

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#147

Post by CryptoPunk »

DanBC wrote: post #47
ComputerGuru wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only applies to companies accepting only (or virtually only) government health insurance, of which there are either few or none. In reality, it’s part of the reason treatment is so expensive. They charge private entities a lot more to make up for the government mandated rates. The law is that you can’t charge the government more than anyone else. And this is after we swore we would never let another Rwanda or an…

US healthcare spending is almost equally split between government and private insurance. US government spends more per capita on healthcare than eg UK government, and doesn't have universal coverage and has worse results across a range of indicators. https://visual.ons.gov.uk/how-does-uk-healthcare-spending-co... US tax-payers are subsidising the US's terrible healthcare.

The US has the best cancer and heart disease survival rates in the world. But spending levels are still not commensurate with indicators.

One possible explanation is that a lot of money is spent on healthcare toward the end of life, and much of it is just chasing a sliver of hope. In a system where people spend according to their priorities, instead of to improve some statistical indicator of system-wide efficacy, 'irrational' spending like this could be much higher in the US.

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#148

Post by humanrebar »

YokoZar wrote: post #136
tomohawk wrote: post #49

I personally know several people who are no longer competitive in various jobs due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants. These are tradesmen, landscapers, and others who used to be able to support their families and live in the area. Many of them now commute long distances (so they can live in lower cost areas) for far less pay. Their children are not following them into these jobs. And its not because they're…

Their own government is also failing to make it possible to affordably live in the area. Local governments doing their best to keep new housing illegal, but government nonetheless.

Some local governments do that. Houston sure doesn't, but commuting around Houston can still really cut into family time. We can't blame NIMBYs for all problems making ends meet.

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#149

Post by humanrebar »

yusuke10 wrote: post #26

On the one hand, US is doing great. US grew 3% annualized last year, on a base of 19T, the most in the world. That's very impressive considering how big the base is to even have such a big percentage. You can compare that to China, where they had to keep reporting a fake 7% growth despite their provinces confessing to a 20-30% fake revenue. In the last 40 years, America's middle class shrank 7%. However, the lower mi…

> and contrary to popular belief, one can easily save $50-60k/year by renting a room in a house at $1000/month

What if you have a family?

Re: Why 3.5M Americans in their prime years aren’t working

#150

Post by ghthor »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #98
kmonsen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We see this all the time in tech, cannot find people is usually cannot find people with the skills and experience we want for the price we are willing to pay. This will always be true if you offer less than the current market rate which startups seems to think they are entitled to.

Often skills that could be learned in a week by an experienced practitioner, but we refuse to let you learn them on the job! Even if you'll be at the job for years. Rather wait a year instead for a unicorn to show.

This is pretty much why I won't give anywhere near 100% at a company that treats me or my co-workers like that.
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