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Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

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Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#141

Post by teh64 »

olalonde wrote: post #97
daniel-cussen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors say they are the only profession that saves lives. Well they're the only profession allowed to save lives. And the only profession making money saving lives. Charging for saving lives. Price discriminating to save lives. What happens when they make a mistake in what someone is able to pay? EDIT (I tried replying but can't yet): The basic solution to make medicine cheaper is supply more medics. In Chile anybod…

> The basic solution to make medicine cheaper is supply more medics. It's shocking how little this is talked about... This is so obviously the root of the problem. People like to blame the free market but there is no free market in medicine. Corporatism is to blame for artificially restricting the supply of doctors and artificially restricting who is allowed to render medical services, both of which benefit the corpo…

Even if they supply of doctors was infinite, there is still the problem of demand being basically inelastic. What would the incentive of healthcare providers to lower prices? Inelastic demand means there is no incentive to lower prices, because there is no where else for someone to go and comparison/price shop. If you are hit by a bus, there is no ability for price negotiation to get healthcare.

Also blaming "corporatism" is basically just a meme at this point, because it is just used by libertarians when someone criticizes capitalism. Its the same when communists say "true communism has never been tried".

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#142

Post by josephcsible »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #125
CalRobert wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We were surprised to discover after her death (in the late 80's) that my great grandmother kept $1,000 in a pouch in her bra. I can understand not trusting the banks and wanting to always have some sort of cash on your person.

I cannot understand not having at least a couple hundred cash on you, and much more at home. What are people’s plans if the power or payment networks go offline? Earthquake, hurricane, ice storm, volcano, etc.

Carrying significant accounts of cash on you all the time seems like a good recipe for it to get lost or stolen.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#143

Post by travisporter »

nradov wrote: post #124
freeone3000 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I promise you, Canada and Germany and Chile and France also have MRI machines and blood pressure cuffs.

Canada doesn't have enough MRI machines. Wait times are long and increasing. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wa... All healthcare systems impose some sort of rationing. Canada rations care by imposing long queues for non-emergency cases, with significant variations between provinces. Affluent Canadians frequently travel to the US as medical tourists and pay for treatment out of pocket in ord…

Well I’m waiting in the US. Appointment times for a dermatologist are out to 6 months earliest.

The Fraser institute is a libertarian think tank so even if their data is right I don’t trust their conclusion. So what if 3% of people are waiting on a procedure? This needs to be apples to apples compared to other countries, per capita healthcare spending, life expectancy before drawing conclusions

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#144

Post by lotsofpulp »

Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #131
lotsofpulp wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot understand not having at least a couple hundred cash on you, and much more at home. What are people’s plans if the power or payment networks go offline? Earthquake, hurricane, ice storm, volcano, etc.

You obviously have considerable wealth if you think most people have the savings to keep hundreds of dollars on them at all times and much more at home. A large percentage of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Also, many people don’t carry cash because they’re worried, rightfully or not, about being robbed. Same idea behind leaving stuff in your vehicle.

I thought it would be obvious that my comment would preclude people who did not have emergency funds. Or who live in areas where the probability of robbery is high enough to negate the benefit of having some cash on you.

My intent was to show that while electronic payments are nice and convenient, I still like the peace of mind of knowing I have a resilient payment method like cash on me.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#145

Post by spaetzleesser »

jodrellblank wrote: post #87
daniel-cussen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors say they are the only profession that saves lives. Well they're the only profession allowed to save lives. And the only profession making money saving lives. Charging for saving lives. Price discriminating to save lives. What happens when they make a mistake in what someone is able to pay? EDIT (I tried replying but can't yet): The basic solution to make medicine cheaper is supply more medics. In Chile anybod…

> " Lowest medicine costs in the OECD, blows every other developed country out of the water. America is the most expensive and Chile is the cheapest. " I just happened to have this RAND corporation ranking of "most expensive insulin in the world" from 2018 handy; America is first, Chile is second. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-i...

Looking at this it’s mind boggling how much the US is being overcharged vs all other countries. How are Americans putting up with paying 400%-900% more than any other country?

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#146

Post by dixie_land »

throw8383833jj wrote: post #138
giantg2 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive." Sure. But you also have to realize that a loaf a bread cost a nickle and that cards didn't exist. People carried around change because you could actually buy meaningful stuff with it and there wasn't really an alternative to cash (sure someplaces give credit but much different than using a card today).

yup, it's pretty easy to forget that the dollar has already lost over 98% of it's value.

exactly, back in the days a penny coin actually was worth more than the metal in it

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#147

Post by lotsofpulp »

josephcsible wrote: post #142
lotsofpulp wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot understand not having at least a couple hundred cash on you, and much more at home. What are people’s plans if the power or payment networks go offline? Earthquake, hurricane, ice storm, volcano, etc.

Carrying significant accounts of cash on you all the time seems like a good recipe for it to get lost or stolen.

There are always tradeoffs. Based on how much fuel and food costs these days, I would not say a couple hundred dollars is a significant amount of cash. Not even enough to get you a bed at night in case of an emergency.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#148

Post by [deleted] »

cs137 wrote: post #12

I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…

[deleted]

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#149

Post by [deleted] »

quantified wrote: post #5

Yeah, we don't just burn gas driving everywhere. "Scar consumption" as a phrase assumes that consumption in the American style is a healthy activity to begin with, and this outcome is damaging or ugly. "Permanently reduce consumption" would be more worthy of an academic setting, that title is clickbaity. Perhaps some will overdo avoidance of something because of fear of expense. Better than masses overdoing from buil…

[deleted]

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#150

Post by lotsofpulp »

mgkimsal wrote: post #137
lotsofpulp wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot understand not having at least a couple hundred cash on you, and much more at home. What are people’s plans if the power or payment networks go offline? Earthquake, hurricane, ice storm, volcano, etc.

Plenty of us didn't always have 'a couple hundred cash' at all, much less 'free' to just carry around 'in case of emergency'. I can now , but don't for the most part, partially because of decades of not being in that position. We have a modest amount of cash on hand at home - we sometimes pay service folks in cash, or can tip a delivery person now and then, but those are rare instances. Neighbor kids selling door to…

> If there's earthquake/hurricane/etc with resulting power outages, most of the places I'd go to wouldn't be able to even open their POS systems to take cash in the first place.

Businesses or anyone wanting to get paid will figure out an alternative. Dealing with cash is not complicated.

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