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Losing two jobs in one year

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Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#181

Post by smsm42 »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #51

Whenever I read articles like this, I’m so grateful that in the U.K. healthcare is not tied to your job. The NHS may struggle and have its issues. But I have never had to experience the stress of the thought of losing access to care.

Most group health plans have COBRA continuation option, which means you can stay on the same plan for 18 to 36 months. If you haven't found work during that period, you'll likely qualify for one of the subsidized care packages. The catch of course is that COBRA premiums have to be paid out of pocket (or, given some foresight, HSA savings plan) and for a family plan they can be pretty costly (my last COBRA plan had $1600/month price tag). That said, if you had a well paid hi-tech job in a major company, you usually have some savings that can sustain this coverage for at least a several months until you find the next job. So the situation is not exactly like you lose access to care the moment you lose a job. There could be exceptional situation where you for some reason have no savings but your past income does not qualify you for subsidized plans, and in that case it can be tough, but it's not the usual case.

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#182

Post by megamix »

iExploder wrote: post #121
megamix wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my bad! You can either categorize them as 'artisans' and 'blue collar'. E.g. in no particular order: metal smith (silver gold etc), welder, carpentry, plumber, mechanic, fine artist, sculptor, textile. Basically the 'real trades' that have been around and should be around for many years. The type of jobs that the white collars can't do without. Either you outperform other CEOs and get rich on your own business, or…

Subject to automation as any other human endeavour. Might as well say to get a real job like hunting, foraging for berries or animal herding.

Yeah I'd like to see someone automating carpentry :)

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#183

Post by megamix »

dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #178
doix wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything that can be mass produced, yes. Anything that requires bespoke work with dexterity, unlikely. I think it's much more likely LLMs become good enough to replace programmers before we have robots replacing plumbers.

>robots replacing plumbers That would be utopia.

Exactly!

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#184

Post by iExploder »

megamix wrote: post #182
iExploder wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subject to automation as any other human endeavour. Might as well say to get a real job like hunting, foraging for berries or animal herding.

Yeah I'd like to see someone automating carpentry :)

Not a carpenter, but what would be the problem?

Granted it might be still cheaper for humans to do the labor for some time, but eventually we will have most houses manufactured (home printing) or done as a prefab and assembled. For luxury some could be custom made by AI powered robots, based on user prompt.

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#185

Post by sjducb »

stringsandchars wrote: post #89
sjducb wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, lung cancer CT scans happen inside a week. I know this from experience. You might wait a year for a knee replacement.

> lung cancer CT scans happen inside a week. I know this from experience. This is such a mischaracterization of the Swedish healthcare system, which is much more a lottery than your 'personal experience' suggests. I have my own experience of a service that is plagued by delays, inefficiency and outright dystopian suffering alongside other people who have had fast and efficient help. It's very much the luck of the dra…

I’m talking about the UK. No idea about Sweden.

Regarding long waits for care. You want to be the patient who has to wait for ages. It means you’re going to be fine. You don’t want to be the person who gets rushed past the queue.

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#186

Post by eru »

greenie_beans wrote: post #148
eru wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they could also deregulate their insurance and healthcare markets a lot. Profit is only a small part of the overall costs. See https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/04/20/the-amish-health-care-... for what's possible in the US right now: > Amish people spend only a fifth as much as you do on health care, and their health is fine. What can we learn from them?

yes, this is a good example of an anti-capitalist solution to health care.

From the article:

> Patients sometimes went along with this, being indifferent between spending $4 of someone else’s money or $2000 of someone else’s money. Everything in the US health system is like this, and the Amish avoid all of it. They have a normal free market in medical care where people pay for a product with their own money (or their community’s money) and have incentives to check how much it costs before they buy it. I do want to over-emphasize this one, and honestly I am surprised Amish health care costs are only ten times cheaper than ours are.

People voluntarily getting together to do stuff and not forcing anything on anyone is pretty compatible with capitalism (whether it's 'capitalist' by itself is a question of definition).

The main thing I take from the article is: you can lower costs dramatically, if you can avoid some of the more onerous regulations. And as a second point: if you can build up a reputation for being honest and trustworthy, you can bring down transaction costs a lot.

The point about Amish never suing doctors mixes both: they are capitalising on that point via reputation; but in principle you could also sign those rights away with a contract. But while we allow companies to sign these kinds of contracts with each other, regulations doesn't allow patients to sign those rights away.

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#187

Post by greenie_beans »

eru wrote: post #186
greenie_beans wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, this is a good example of an anti-capitalist solution to health care.

From the article: > Patients sometimes went along with this, being indifferent between spending $4 of someone else’s money or $2000 of someone else’s money. Everything in the US health system is like this, and the Amish avoid all of it. They have a normal free market in medical care where people pay for a product with their own money (or their community’s money) and have incentives to check how much it costs before t…

i'm sorry but this is a very anti-capitalist solution — a collective, shared resource in a community that everybody has access to if they contribute to it, and the organization is structured in a way that all participants have the chance to participate in the decision making.

you can rationalize that it's not however you wish but that won't change the fact that the amish community is very much at odds with capitalism, and the way they do healthcare is very anti-capitalist.

> People voluntarily getting together to do stuff and not forcing anything on anyone is pretty compatible with capitalism (whether it's 'capitalist' by itself is a question of definition).

this is how anarchism works, too. anarchism is an anti-capitalist political theory and one of the fundamental premise is free, voluntary association. people always see the words "free market" and conflate free market with capitalism when a free market can be a component of any economic structure.

it's okay if you agree with anti-capitalist solutions, i swear that the capitalist gods won't smite you. i appreciate scott alexander's slimely writing skills to get capitalists to think that an anti-capitalist solution is a good idea.

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#189

Post by nh23423fefe »

erwincoumans wrote: post #123
jeffrallen wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> addiction to food and shelter You didn't get hooked on dihydrogen oxide? That's the worst, a very difficult addiction to kick. Hang in there!

If you like dihydrogen oxide, I highly recommend you try to inhale a mix of 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen once in a while.

i like a little argon when i huff. people say it makes no difference, but i can tell!

Re: Losing two jobs in one year

#190

Post by eru »

greenie_beans wrote: post #187
eru wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: > Patients sometimes went along with this, being indifferent between spending $4 of someone else’s money or $2000 of someone else’s money. Everything in the US health system is like this, and the Amish avoid all of it. They have a normal free market in medical care where people pay for a product with their own money (or their community’s money) and have incentives to check how much it costs before t…

i'm sorry but this is a very anti-capitalist solution — a collective, shared resource in a community that everybody has access to if they contribute to it, and the organization is structured in a way that all participants have the chance to participate in the decision making. you can rationalize that it's not however you wish but that won't change the fact that the amish community is very much at odds with capitalism…

> i'm sorry but this is a very anti-capitalist solution — a collective, shared resource in a community that everybody has access to if they contribute to it, and the organization is structured in a way that all participants have the chance to participate in the decision making.

That's pretty silly. By the same token, you would have to argue that companies are anti-capitalists, because they are largely run on a command-and-control model. Or families are anti-capitalist.

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