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The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

nytimes.com

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Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#11

Post by endisneigh »

fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

It's unlikely you will get a representative set of answers form this site, which skews towards what you might call "upper-class" individuals.

That being said, if you're very, very poor it's not terrible to be a US citizen.

- Community college is free via a Pell grant.

- Housing is expensive, but you will qualify for Section 8 (welfare) and will eventually get housing for free.

- Hospital costs are irrelevant if you're very poor (5th percentile or so)

- Life-saving medicine is in the same boat. You would likely qualify for Medicaid if you're dirt poor

- You would likely work multiple jobs if you're dirt poor.

- You likely wouldn't have vacation if you're dirt poor.

- Same thing with maternal and paternal leave.

That being said your life in the USA depends very much on where you live. If you lived in Massachusetts, for example, you get maternal and paternal leave.

The real struggle in the USA is if you're between the 25th and 50th percentile. Where you're rich enough to not qualify for the things I mentioned above, but not so rich that you're on a more or less guaranteed path to financial independence.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#12

Post by fredrikholm »

spoonjim wrote: post #9
fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

Well you definitely have the wrong idea. About 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity. But things are not out of a horror movie. That’s in fact why there hasn’t been a violent revolution, things aren’t bad enough here (yet?).

> 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity > That’s in fact why there hasn’t been a violent revolution

You're being sarcastic, no?

A fifth of the people are living in extreme economic precarity.

Your Capital was stormed by terrorist from your own country.

Widespread policy brutality lead to protests over the entire country, culminating in city blocks being burnt down in what, a dozen cities?

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#15

Post by fredrikholm »

endisneigh wrote: post #11
fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

It's unlikely you will get a representative set of answers form this site, which skews towards what you might call "upper-class" individuals. That being said, if you're very, very poor it's not terrible to be a US citizen. - Community college is free via a Pell grant. - Housing is expensive, but you will qualify for Section 8 (welfare) and will eventually get housing for free. - Hospital costs are irrelevant if you'r…

That sounds more reasonable, thank you.

Your final point applies here too (Sweden), where you're in a position of maximal welfare, where taking a job would disqualify you. Most people end up taking the job to get out of the hellhole that is welfare, but you find the occasional individual that settles and feeds off of the system despite ability and opportunity to work.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#16

Post by stouset »

spoonjim wrote: post #9
fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

Well you definitely have the wrong idea. About 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity. But things are not out of a horror movie. That’s in fact why there hasn’t been a violent revolution, things aren’t bad enough here (yet?).

> Well you definitely have the wrong idea. About 20% of Americans do live in extreme economic precarity.

I think they do have the right idea. Many of their points stands for even the bottom 80%. We've simply grown to accept that "this just is the way things are".

22% of the population between 18-65 owe student loans, which might not sound like much until you realize that only 40% of the population has a college degree. So over 50% of college-educated adults still have student loan debt. That number is also heavily weighted towards those 40 and younger due to rapidly ballooning costs, and will likely increase to 75%+ of college-educated adults within the next twenty years.

0.35% of adults file for medical bankruptcy alone every year. I couldn't find direct statistics on the total number of bankruptcies, but naïvely this implies that somewhere around 5–10% of the adult population will file for medical bankruptcy at some point in their lifetime. The majority of these bankruptcies were for people with health insurance.

Maternal leave is by law unpaid, and few companies offer paid leave and paternal leave is virtually unheard of outside of extremely progressive companies.

59% of the workforce is hourly and thus generally does not get paid leave of any kind.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#17

Post by rhino369 »

fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

America has a high ceiling and a low floor for quality of living.

For above average, America is arguably better (with some caveats). For the average person, its better than Europe (in that you can afford more since you are paid more and taxed less, but Europe definitely gets more paid time off / leave). If you are poor enough to qualify for government assistance its roughly on par with Europe--though maybe a bit worse.

But there is a bottom 10-25% (where the line is, I'm not sure) that would be a lot better off in Europe.

The average college debt (~30k) is about the same as a single year's difference income between high school and college graduates (~30k). They are paying for a personal investment.

Housing (not in California, NYC, or DC) is cheaper in the USA than other rich countries).

90%+ have health insurance that covers hospital visits

A high percentage will have medicine covered by their insurance

Less than 6% of people have multiple jobs.

No mandatory paid vacation (but any halfway decent job will get you 2-3 weeks). Europe gets more, but we get paid more. I'd probably rather have the time off, but some people would rather have the money.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#18

Post by lotsofpulp »

spoonjim wrote: post #8
jostmey wrote: post #2

I remember baby formula from Amazon arriving with the tamper seal opened. I immediately realized what happened. Someone purchased baby formula, used it, filled it with powder, sold it at the Amazon market place, and then Amazon shipped it to me (Amazon thought the tampered product was indistinguishable from its factory purchased products). I stopped ordering anything food related from Amazon. Pay attention to the tam…

No the lesson is don’t order food products from Amazon! Order them from Target which has a far more controlled supply chain.

Unfortunately, Target has also introduced third party sellers on their website so it's no longer as easy to trust them as it once was.

Costco or the brand's website itself is my most trusted source for now.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#19

Post by lotsofpulp »

endisneigh wrote: post #11
fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

It's unlikely you will get a representative set of answers form this site, which skews towards what you might call "upper-class" individuals. That being said, if you're very, very poor it's not terrible to be a US citizen. - Community college is free via a Pell grant. - Housing is expensive, but you will qualify for Section 8 (welfare) and will eventually get housing for free. - Hospital costs are irrelevant if you'r…

>The real struggle in the USA is if you're between the 25th and 50th percentile.

I would say 20th to 80th percentile. You're phased out of benefits, but you're not earning enough to build wealth, especially in higher cost of living areas where the 60th+ percentile earnings are.

Re: The Baby-Formula Crime Ring (2018)

#20

Post by mateo411 »

fredrikholm wrote: post #5

Genuine question: Is living in America as horrible as it sounds for the average, non-rich citizen? Impression I get from the media: * Education sets you in semi-if-not-permanent debt. * Housing is impossibly expensive. * Single hospital visit can be thousand of dollars. * Critical medication is hundreds of dollars a month (or more). * Unpaid, (effectively) mandatory overtime. * Many people work several jobs (as adult…

Education can be really expensive. However, there are many great state schools, and there is also a lot of financial aid. Many people get a great education and are not saddled with debt.

Housing is impossibly expensive in metro areas where people make a lot of money. The US is a large country and there is a lot of variability to housing costs throughout the US.

A single hospital bill could be thousands of dollars or 0 if it's covered by your insurance. If you are really poor then you get insurance from the State. If you have a good job, then you get insurance through your work.

It could be or it could be not very much depending on the factors described regarding hospital visits.

Unpaid, effectively mandatory overtime applies to salaried people with well paying jobs. It's a bad situation, but if this applies to you, then the other issues aren't as bad.

Many poor people work more than one job. Working class people need to get paid more. Maybe the minimum wage will be raised at the Federal level, but probably not. Minimum wage is also location dependent, so it's already higher than $15 in some locales.

People with good jobs get PTO. Working class people in bad jobs do not get paid vacation.

States provide some benefit for maternal and paternal leave. It's not 100% of your wages though.

I don't think Paternal leave is taboo or strange. I don't think that's part of the culture.

Maternal leave depends on the State and the company that they work for. If you have a good job, then you will get more Maternal leave.

I'm sure there were a lot of rugged individuals in 1930s Poland.

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