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The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

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Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#211

Post by TomMarius »

hef19898 wrote: post #202
TomMarius wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I got that part wrong. Sorry I misunderstood the text I read on the topic, you're right. My original comment was talking about people that are not insured (and not obliged to e.g. due to not being residents). My point is that healthcare always costs something, and the sum is very similar to the cost in the US once you get them to give you a discount for uninsured people - but of course there is better social secu…

Last time I checked, the US was among the most expensive countries regarding health care. But I don't have a source at the moment. And sure, health care ia costing money, nobody is argueing that. What Europe figured out is that a solidaric system, one where people with less individual costs are covering for those with higher costs, are the optimal solution from a national perspective. It still pizzles me how that can…

> Last time I checked, the US was among the most expensive countries regarding health care. But I don't have a source at the moment.

Yes, but that's comparing listed prices and not adjusted for purchasing parity. They will substantially reduce the price if you're not insured and ask them.

> And again, all legal residents are eligible for health care in EU countries. A good thing if you ask me.

I tend to agree, but that's not my point. I'm just saying that a clinic will bill you (indirectly) roughly the same as they'd in the US after you get it adjusted, but of course it's fully covered for most people here.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#212

Post by lotsofpulp »

nobody271 wrote: post #166
kartan wrote: post #44

I very interesting article. This kind of numbers should be on the news all the time (like global warming) so people focus more on them instead of what is the last Twitt from the president. > "Get rich or die trying" I have always seen this as USA's major flaws. You are not supposed to have a good life but to risk everything for riches. This was working when the rest of the world was under-developed. USA citizens had…

I thought I would roll my own side gig once. The plan was to find broken cars on Craigslist and fix them for a profit. We're talking things like needs an engine or a transmission. I could do maybe ten a year. I'd be keeping a car out of the junk yard (which I imagine is good for GDP in a very small way) and making a very modest profit of $10,000/yr if I was lucky. Well it turns out that is HIGHLY regulated. You need…

I think it would be in society's interest to know the credibility of someone repairing and selling 2 tons of metal that will go out on the road and pose considerable risk to others' and the driver's lives on the road. See the limo crash that just killed 18 in New York state.

There might be situations where corrupt government is inhibiting competition for the gain of particular parties, but some things do make sense, such as being bonded when the risk of the work you are performing could be result in large costs.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#213

Post by manquer »

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 fundamental problem is that education was priced traditionally priced using a cost + plus or a %cost basis what you can pay. Today education is getting priced using value pricing, if in theory you can get a job which pays X you can pay sum of multiple of X.

The second problem is that even if this was a reasonable system, people estimate the risk associated with getting the job paying X very poorly, colleges exploit this, even if only few people get a job paying X everyone pays the same costly multiple of X.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#214

Post by notfromhere »

VLM wrote: post #115
afpx wrote: post #45

Does anyone know why wages aren’t increasing? Unemployment is almost at a 50-year low.

Civilians think unemployment means people don't have a job. Reality is its a measure designed in the 30s and heavily gamed and politicized to not mean very much. A somewhat more realistic measure would be something like FREDs EM ratio. About a decade ago 62% of the population was employed, and after the great recession we've slowly climbed back up to 60%. Flat at 58% from the great recession until 2014, then continuo…

unemployment stat isn't gamed, people just don't understand U1-6 unemployment stats.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#215

Post by lotsofpulp »

annabellish wrote: post #149
Raidion wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 -…

Yes, with the wealth (and power) gap increasing, if you want your descendants to have a chance to move up class-wise, you have to try and be in school districts where they will make friends who are high achieving (usually from high achieving parents), so then they can get into high achieving colleges where they can create a network of high achieving people to rely on in their future careers and lives, and maybe even marry one of those. It all compounds, and the faster it compounds, the faster the gap widens and the harder it is to catch up. Until something causes the reset button (revolution) to be hit.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#216

Post by megaman8 »

frockington wrote: post #181
gbustomtv5 wrote: post #150

Cost of my childrens’ education will much more than $180k. Daycare is 70-80k then private school is 300k+. Public schools are in a very sad state. Children are a true luxury in this day and age.

Out of curiosity where are you living where the public school are so bad the only alternative is 300k+? I live in a larger midwestern city and the public schools are decent. Some students will go to Harvard, most go to a respected state school, some don't go to college

In some parts of SF, you don't even have the option of sending your kids to Public school, because they won't let anyone else in: all seats taken. They have a pretty massive shortage of teachers because no one can afford to live there. At that point, your only choice is private school or move.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#217

Post by distances »

stephengillie wrote: post #176
nerdponx wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the obvious places the schools are making a ton of money - where does it go? This is exactly the reason why I don't donate to my alma mater, neither should most people. Less "alma mater" and more "greedy mater who funnels taxpayer money into a growing bureaucracy".

I decided not to donate to my college when I saw them moving an entire historical house up a hill. They're a major research university with a $3 billion dollar endowment, a Pac-12 football team, and the largest employer in Washington State after its own government. I'm pretty sure my $100/month has more utility to more people at a food bank, than it would at that school.

Also the mixing of sports and education seems weird to start with. Are there other countries besides US doing that?

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#218

Post by hef19898 »

TomMarius wrote: post #211
hef19898 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked, the US was among the most expensive countries regarding health care. But I don't have a source at the moment. And sure, health care ia costing money, nobody is argueing that. What Europe figured out is that a solidaric system, one where people with less individual costs are covering for those with higher costs, are the optimal solution from a national perspective. It still pizzles me how that can…

> Last time I checked, the US was among the most expensive countries regarding health care. But I don't have a source at the moment. Yes, but that's comparing listed prices and not adjusted for purchasing parity. They will substantially reduce the price if you're not insured and ask them. > And again, all legal residents are eligible for health care in EU countries. A good thing if you ask me. I tend to agree, but th…

I higjly doubt the last part, but I don't have any numbers. Just as some added cintaxt, the actual ciats are also quite different between European countries. And treatment is not the only cost driver, the way the system is set-up also has a big impact. One of the reasons why Germany is also constantly among the most expensive countries.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#219

Post by Balgair »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #169
VLM wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd do all that complicated paperwork while semi-unconscious with pain before an emergency appendectomy?

I was referring to planned procedures such as giving birth.

Human childbirth is an amazingly complicated process with a LOT that can, and frequently does go 'wrong'. In CA, the first-birth c-section rates range from 15% to 60%, hospital depending [0]. That's 1/6th to 3/5ths of all CA first births, let alone the obvious fact that you cannot plan a birthday. Your pregnancy can go from 'low' risk to 'life-threatening' in seconds; there is no planning for this and no hospital will tell you the bills for it.

[0] http://www.chhs.ca.gov/Press%20Releases/Smart_Care_Californi...

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#220

Post by InclinedPlane »

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…

Absolutely true, having kids bankrupts plenty of people in the US, especially if there is a medical issue with the child.
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