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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

#231

Post by teh64 »

olalonde wrote: post #193
teh64 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "corpora…

> What would the incentive of healthcare providers to lower prices? In case of life or death emergencies, your insurance or ambulance driver would send you to a reasonably priced doctor, and doctors that charge unreasonable prices would go out of business. But my guess is that life or death emergencies do not account for most doctor visits. > Also blaming "corporatism" is basically just a meme at this point, because…

So for life or death decisions, the ambulance driver would first go on some price comparison website or ask the insurance and see "ok, this person wants a doctor in the $10,000-15,000 range, the closest of which is 30m away. The hospital next door costs at least $50,000 minimum, so we will not send them there for life saving medical care." And what incentive would insurance have to send me to a reasonably priced doctor, when they can send me to one in their network which is more expensive but means they keep more money? Also, they could send me to an expensive hospital and then just not pay out. These are both things Obamacare tried to fix [0]. Insurances want to maximize profits, which means paying as little as possible themselves and extracting as much as possible from customers. Your system would only work if insurances had to always pay 100% of medical costs and could never deny care, which is similar to how it works in Germany (at least for some baseline level of care).

Again, what incentive would there be to lower prices? New doctors could just be bought out and the prices jacked up. There are a lot of industries where there is little barrier to entry (for example tech), where the big companies just buy anyone trying to "get in on their territory".

Also, why would the "unreasonable prices" (what would that even look like?) doctors go out of business? They could just provide some kind of "luxury deluxe" ("no poor people here") state of the art care for people who can afford it.

[0] https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/docto....

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#232

Post by astrobe_ »

varispeed wrote: post #51

I know someone who immigrated from a former communist country. She talked how they lived in extreme poverty and now despite having great job and substantial savings, she pretty much lives the way she learned. For instance cooking the same food her parents used to cook from whatever they managed to find, only wearing used clothing. When her phone was stolen and she had to buy a new one, she literaly cried for a week t…

> she pretty much lives the way she learned

This is for me one key to understand this effect. I was a small kid in the 70ies, I didn't have any idea about gas prices and how much a driving license costs - I didn't even know that my toys did cost something - but I grew with parents who would scold me whenever we left some light on for no reason, or a door open for too long when it was cold outside, or opening the fridge for too long.

I remember I was witnessing the exact opposite behavior in the American TV shows of that time. The "traditional" food battles were in particular not entertaining at all, but rather we were disgusted by the huge waste of food - this, although we were a middle class family that certainly had less money problems than your friend.

To this day I still turn off unused stuff and close doors as soon as possible. And I try not to waste water too. And I check the price-per-weight rather than the unit price. Despite the fact I could afford to not give a huck to all this.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#233

Post by swatcoder »

There was an article here yesterday[1] about a study showing a correlation between Glucosamine and reduced lung cancer mortality. The top comment[2] challenged the worth of the study on the grounds that these sort of observational studies in large populations have too many confounders to be taken seriously.

There's truth to that point, but it's interesting to see which topics slide into skepticism and critiques of method, and which take results at face value and build a discussion on top of them.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31746980 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31747822

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#234

Post by teh64 »

kaesar14 wrote: post #126
nradov wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the primary bottleneck in the supply of new doctors is lack of federal (Medicare) funding for residency slots. Every year, students graduate from US accredited medical schools but are unable to enter clinical practice because they can't get matched to a residency program. Ask Congress to increase funding. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun...

Using an AMA source is disingenuous since it’s a professional cartel with a massive vested interest in keeping doctor supply as limited as possible.

But they are arguing in the source for more doctor supply?

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#235

Post by collinvandyck76 »

mabbo wrote: post #206
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.

My wife grew up very close to the poverty line, with her parents always just about to lose the house. And she has this anxiety. (Edit: to be clear, she's a successful civil engineer, considered one of the best in her field locally and makes great money- she has nothing to worry about.) In order to help with it, we have a bank account that our bills come out of that has a little more than 6 months worth of all our bil…

with the market being as it is, actually very wise to have a lot of cash on hand :) we also operate this way. i could become unemployed today and we buffer enough so that it's not an emergency at all.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#236

Post by bombcar »

photochemsyn wrote: post #90

Mindless consumption is nothing but a disease, of the mental illness variety. People who get a dopamine burst or some similar neurotransmitter release when they go shopping have been indoctrinated into patterns of behavior that do them no good in the long run. They'll end up with a house crammed with possessions they never use, bought on a whim in order to make themselves feel better. A better mentality is to always…

> what's wrong with a steady-state economy with a stable human population and fixed levels of demand for goods and services, anyway?

In one word, debt. The debt must be paid, which requires growth.

(I guess one could argue that the growth demands debt.)

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#237

Post by thebigspacefuck »

mabbo wrote: post #206
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.

My wife grew up very close to the poverty line, with her parents always just about to lose the house. And she has this anxiety. (Edit: to be clear, she's a successful civil engineer, considered one of the best in her field locally and makes great money- she has nothing to worry about.) In order to help with it, we have a bank account that our bills come out of that has a little more than 6 months worth of all our bil…

I have a high yield savings account and interest is 0.75%, 6 withdrawals per month and the transfer completes same day if I need it in an emergency, plus it’s FDIC insured. Same peace of mind plus interest.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#238

Post by moneywoes »

corrral wrote: post #205
bsagdiyev wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus where do you live? I moved from San Diego to Raleigh, didn't get a pay adjustment and even that place wouldn't be anywhere near that cost here.

I'm looking at moving to a significantly nicer [edit: than where I am now, that is], coastal region with excellent schools and within occasional-but-not-daily commute distance of two top-tier US cities, including by rail (some of you may be be able to guess the area, at this point), and the housing prices (4-bedroom with some land, even) are surprisingly affordable. Nothing like that, certainly. Houses within daily c…

Where

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#239

Post by ricardobayes »

hansword wrote: post #47
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.

It's being poor, that scars you. As with everything, during childhood impressions are stronger and effect your life more, but being really poor in your 20s has quite a similar effect.

That's true, I grew up during the 2008 recession so I constantly have that at the back of my mind. Massive layoffs, housing crash, breaking news everyday, everyone in just constant worry for an extended period of time. Now in 2022 I find myself reliving these memories a little, and I have observed my behavior to be extremely risk-averse these days.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#240

Post by thebigspacefuck »

DrBazza wrote: post #172
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.

Another way of stating that article is that most people in their 20s and 30s have only ever known low-inflation and stability. Those in their mid-40s onwards are possibly young enough to remember how what their parents dealt with in the 70s.

What about the Great Recession?
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