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The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

conradbastable.com

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Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#141

Post by jstanley »

noonespecial wrote: post #136
lotsofpulp wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not overpriced if there is no monopoly. No one is stopping other providers from moving to Northern California and stealing business by offering lower prices. If people want to live in a place with great weather, outdoors, food, and career opportunities, then they have to compete for it because lots of other people do too, and hence they have to compete to purchase things like homes and service from healthcare pr…

You are quite wrong about that. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_need

> A number of factors spurred states to require CONs in the health care industry. Chief among these was the concern that the construction of excess hospital capacity would cause competitors in an over-saturated field to cover the costs of a diluted patient pool by over-charging, or by convincing patients to accept hospitalization unnecessarily.

That is an incredible misunderstanding of supply-and-demand. Just, wow.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#142

Post by bryanrasmussen »

kasey_junk wrote: post #130
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark it costs 0, also since we're raising the next generation of payers into the tax system we get paid money quarterly (about $700 [guesstimate] for the first couple years decreasing over time, our 9 year old gets a governmental stipend of $200 per quarter [another guesstimate]) I guess what I'm trying to say as someone who lived a lot of years in the U.S - why the hell they gotta screw you so hard there? on e…

You (or one of your countrymen) pay for it with taxes, that isn't the same as it costing $0. Now, it likely a) does cost a lot less in Denmark than in the States in real terms and b) paying for it with taxes might absolutely make the most operational sense. But it isn't free.

wooo, I hadn't realized we pay for it with taxes! Wow thanks for correcting me, this sure has been a week for me, why yesterday I just barely learned that water was wet - imagine that!?!

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#143

Post by maxxxxx »

phkahler wrote: post #97

He misses what I consider a major issue. The price of college education is going up much faster than the cost of providing it. If you look at tuition vs what a professor is paid, one goes up much faster than the other. If you look at housing costs things don't add up either - renting an apartment seems to be a source of revenue for the schools. These are the obvious places the schools are making a ton of money - wher…

" The price of college education is going up much faster than the cost of providing it. If you look at tuition vs what a professor is paid, one goes up much faster than the other. "

That's the most important question. Same applies to health care. Where does the money actually go and how has that changed over the last 50 years? Everybody immediately complains about their favorite scapegoat but there is no comprehensive accounting.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#144

Post by throwaway5752 »

phkahler wrote: post #97

He misses what I consider a major issue. The price of college education is going up much faster than the cost of providing it. If you look at tuition vs what a professor is paid, one goes up much faster than the other. If you look at housing costs things don't add up either - renting an apartment seems to be a source of revenue for the schools. These are the obvious places the schools are making a ton of money - wher…

Since the current expectation is leisure, access to top technology, low class size from highly educated scholars, medical care, lodging, and administrative help... it costs $60k to house a prisoner per year, why do you think college costs should be much lower?

I'm not defending it, but there isn't Trader Joe's or Aldi of college yet (slightly better than average generic product with low/no frills).

If you want the answer: college loans are very lucrative, so they are pushed on the consumers heavily, just like home loans were 10-15 years ago. The people that profit from that benefit from irresponsible behavior and a broken system.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#145

Post by maxxxxx »

chrisco255 wrote: post #7
jstanley wrote: post #2

> Google tells me that the most common reason for hospitalization in the US is childbirth. Thankfully, here in San Francisco, that would only set me back $15,000 Surely this is not true? Does having kids just bankrupt ordinary people in the US or what? I'm not asking about exceptional cases, like what is the normal way of dealing with having to pay $15,000 just to have a baby climb out of your body, when I'm assuming…

Assuming you don't have healthcare insurance, which 90% of Americans do, it would set you back around $3000, according to: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/considering-baby/financing...

On average yes but if there are complications or the hospital does some billing shenanigans it may cost you much more and there is almost no way to protect yourself from that other than just having a lot of money.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#146

Post by unstuckdev »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #144
phkahler wrote: post #97

He misses what I consider a major issue. The price of college education is going up much faster than the cost of providing it. If you look at tuition vs what a professor is paid, one goes up much faster than the other. If you look at housing costs things don't add up either - renting an apartment seems to be a source of revenue for the schools. These are the obvious places the schools are making a ton of money - wher…

Since the current expectation is leisure, access to top technology, low class size from highly educated scholars, medical care, lodging, and administrative help... it costs $60k to house a prisoner per year, why do you think college costs should be much lower? I'm not defending it, but there isn't Trader Joe's or Aldi of college yet (slightly better than average generic product with low/no frills). If you want the an…

>> "I'm not defending it, but there isn't Trader Joe's or Aldi of college yet (slightly better than average generic product with low/no frills)."

Community college.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#147

Post by hef19898 »

gutnor wrote: post #43
chrisco255 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you don't have healthcare insurance, which 90% of Americans do, it would set you back around $3000, according to: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/considering-baby/financing...

Does healthcare insurance pay for that in the US ? In the EU, this is considered a personal life-choice procedure and very rarely handled by insurances - like cosmetic surgery. (being the EU though, you can get it for free using public healthcare)

In which country? I don't know of any. Except for added services like a private room and stuff like that are more comfort oriented than medical.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#148

Post by maxxxxx »

verisimilitude wrote: post #111
jstanley wrote: post #2

> Google tells me that the most common reason for hospitalization in the US is childbirth. Thankfully, here in San Francisco, that would only set me back $15,000 Surely this is not true? Does having kids just bankrupt ordinary people in the US or what? I'm not asking about exceptional cases, like what is the normal way of dealing with having to pay $15,000 just to have a baby climb out of your body, when I'm assuming…

That is correct. To corroborate: my health insurance contract states I must pay $13,600 towards my medical expenses (this is AFTER premiums) per year, before they will begin paying on my behalf.

That's an extreme deductible. How much are your premiums?

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#149

Post by annabellish »

Raidion wrote: post #123
annabellish wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the linked article is trying to explain is that the opposite is true. It isn't that everyone wants to live in the trendiest areas, it's that they _have_ to in order to find a job that has any hope of paying off their debts fast enough for them to save up enough so that when the next huge expense comes through they can afford it... likely taking on more debt even so. It isn't that everyone wants a degree - certai…

I disagree. I think it would be interesting to do that same article, but replace the MIT tuition with that of a decent in state school, and replace the housing prices with those of a medium/large midwest city like Omaha, Cleveland, or Pittsburg. Salaries don't scale like rent does. In Cleveland, you can get a 1 bedroom for around 900 dollars, in SF, that's 3.5k+. That means to maintain the same purchasing power and k…

It's possible that if you did that you might be okay _today_, if your kids are also gonna go to a "decent" school instead of a better school, if you're also gonna get a "decent" house, et cetera, and you happen to live in the right place to enable all of this. The trend lines are strongly suggesting that everywhere is going down similar paths, though. There's no indication there's anywhere specific they're going to -stop-.

The problem here is the trends, not today, because those big expenses are in the future and we need to worry about what they'll be then, not what they are today. The trends are happening just about everywhere, just to different degrees.

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