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The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

conradbastable.com

181–190 of 269 posts

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#181

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

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#182

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…

It's an excellent point. As for housing, where does the extra wealth go? Nowhere. No one benefits when you lock up land that can't be used by anyone. Now you might argue that existing land owners benefit: but they actually don't. Because they're not moving and selling, they haven't realized any gain at all. If they sold but stay in the same area, there's no gain. And in states without the reprehensible prop 13, those in expensive housing will pay even higher property taxes.

We could literally print nearly free wealth, inflation free, if we just opened up land for development. It's a win win win.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is correct. To corroborate: my health insurance contract states I must pay $13,600 towards my medical expenses (this is AFTER premiums) per year, before they will begin paying on my behalf.

That's an extreme deductible. How much are your premiums?

I just got next year's fees: premiums are $911.86 per month for family of three. More than the principal and interest on my house...

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#184
post #37

The biggest trick that the FED has pulled is that it convinced the world that inflation is at 2% yoy. What a disgraceful joke! Had they been real about the inflation, the interest rates on savings would've been higher. Sure, it would crash the stock market but the stock market only benefits the rich disproportionately. Not teachers, admins, nurses etc. Oh btw, has anyone noticed that 20% of the 20 trillion dollar US…

I use this for inflation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreamurphy/2017/10/18/the-pri...

5% avg inflation

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#185
Whenever people mention real wages, I get the feeling they're not really "real". What I mean is that I don't think they're calculating inflation correctly. Inflation doesn't seem to take into account Housing costs, which often cost significantly more than their constituent building blocks upon which inflation is based. Furthermore, I believe real wages should be calculated based on your ability to afford the necessities of life: shelter, food, water, transportation, medical rather than everything under the sun (most of which won't raise your living standard much). I'd like to see a chart that calculates real "real" wages for the last 50 years,.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#186

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…

It's an excellent point. As for housing, where does the extra wealth go? Nowhere. No one benefits when you lock up land that can't be used by anyone. Now you might argue that existing land owners benefit: but they actually don't. Because they're not moving and selling, they haven't realized any gain at all. If they sold but stay in the same area, there's no gain. And in states without the reprehensible prop 13, those…

> We could literally print nearly free wealth, inflation free, if we just opened up land for development. It's a win win win.

Doesn't neighboring real estate value decline as you put more capacity on the market? You can't print real estate wealth anymore than you can print dollars without consequence. At the end of the day, all of this "value" is trying to get dibs on the output of labor today (housing prices are usually tied to incomes, with some distorted market exceptions).

The more interesting question is: can you provide these basic necessities at such a low cost that you can drastically reduce the labor output required to enjoy them? What if you only had to work three days a week to meet your basic needs? What if healthcare inflation wasn't consuming wage increases as rapidly as it is?

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are rules that are EU-wide - because they're set by an EU regulation. If you're a resident in any EU country, you get the blue card. That makes you entitled to whatever (this is depending on the country and not set by the regulation) in your country of residence and basic care of life threatening issues in the rest of EU, Czech Republic included; however if you injure yourself doing e.g. sports in other EU coun…

I'm no expert on the gritty details of the German system (who would have thought health care could be that complicated, right?) but as German resident I have some insights. Everybody who knows better, please correct me. In Germany everybody who is employed in way that pays social insurance is also health insured, you cannot opt out of it. In that system, in addition to taxes, social security and unemployment insuranc…

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 security for entitled people (most of residents) in the EU.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#188
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does healthcare insurance pay for that in the US ? In the EU, this is considered a personal life-choice procedure and very rarely handled by insurances - like cosmetic surgery. (being the EU though, you can get it for free using public healthcare)

In which country? I don't know of any. Except for added services like a private room and stuff like that are more comfort oriented than medical.

The UK and Spain have a private health sector with Clinics, GP, ... To access those you either need to pay cash or have a private health insurance.

Both the UK and Spain have also a public health sector, with Clinics, GP, ... that is accessible for free.

In the UK and Spain, very few private health insurances covers Birth or Emergency Care: for those you are supposed to go to the public service or pay cash in a private clinic.

Other countries like Belgium have health insurances that give you the kind of extra comfort you mention. But they cost something like 5 EUR a month vs the 100 EUR in Spain and the UK.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Ballmer was talking about how healthcare costs have gone up like 400% over a 30 year period but expected lifespans only increased by .6 years. We’re pahing exponentially more for relatively insignificant gains.

But where does the money go?

In the case of healthcare, profits and inefficiencies.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an excellent point. As for housing, where does the extra wealth go? Nowhere. No one benefits when you lock up land that can't be used by anyone. Now you might argue that existing land owners benefit: but they actually don't. Because they're not moving and selling, they haven't realized any gain at all. If they sold but stay in the same area, there's no gain. And in states without the reprehensible prop 13, those…

> We could literally print nearly free wealth, inflation free, if we just opened up land for development. It's a win win win. Doesn't neighboring real estate value decline as you put more capacity on the market? You can't print real estate wealth anymore than you can print dollars without consequence. At the end of the day, all of this "value" is trying to get dibs on the output of labor today (housing prices are usu…

True, but the total wealth increases. Money is just a proxy for the things we want. the things we want are the actual wealth. When you can buy 50" LCD screen for 200$ instead of 700$, you've got more wealth, same for land: that's Progress.
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