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Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

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Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#181

Post by Bilal_io »

curo wrote: post #153
telchior wrote: post #59

One of the items this article doesn't cover is healthcare spending, which has increased between 2 and 8 times since 1980 (depending on whether you're looking at individual spending or share of GDP). Here's a decent collection of charts: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spe... It has been shocking to me to see how cheap and effective healthcare can be in other countries, from an emergency visit…

I've heard this so often yet we left the UK for no other reason than the healthcare. My wife was pregnant and the experience from 0-7 months was so terrible, we flew to the US to have the child. Post-operative outcomes and survival rates in the US are far better than in the UK and many European countries. Statistics about better birth outcomes or higher longevity is best attributed to healthier lifestyles in Europe/U…

You're very lucky! Where can I find a plan that costs $1k/mo in the US for 2 people and I assume you got kids as well.

Is it paid fully by you or does your employer contribute to it? If your employer contributes, how much would it cost you if you leave the job?

I assume the $1k/mo is only premiums. How much do you pay for deductibles and copays?

Does your insurance cover 100% of your medical bills when you meet your deductibles? Or are you still on the hook for 20% of it?

What happens if one day you lose everything, and you can no longer pay the monthly premiums?

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#182

Post by Kaze404 »

telchior wrote: post #59

One of the items this article doesn't cover is healthcare spending, which has increased between 2 and 8 times since 1980 (depending on whether you're looking at individual spending or share of GDP). Here's a decent collection of charts: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spe... It has been shocking to me to see how cheap and effective healthcare can be in other countries, from an emergency visit…

I took a sabbatical month between jobs, living in a (somewhat cushy) emergency fund, and while we were traveling my partner got sick with something and had to be rushed to a hospital. I called an ambulance at 7AM, and by noon she was back in bed, medicated and feeling much better. We didn’t spend a single dime, not even on the medication, and it’s crazy to me to think that if we were in the US that experience would’ve basically bankrupt us for no reason other than bad timing.

It’s in these moments that the fact that I’ve paid an absurd amount in taxes over the years just… disappears.

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#183

Post by dan-robertson »

phonon wrote: post #159
falcolas wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something to remember - the median family in the '70's had one income. A median family today has two. So the margins (single income households) are in more dire straits today than they were in the past. Measuring in households and not individuals hides a large number of changes in how people are paid. It also doesn't account for things like pensions, which were common in the '70's and earlier.

There are also more single person households now[0], and the average household size has decreased by about 15%.[1] [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/242189/disitribution-of-... [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183657/average-size-of-a...

There are also more two-person households, so perhaps part of the change is young people not living with their parents for so long? Or perhaps it is old people living alone. I don’t think I have very good priors about this. I think the kind of people I know are not going to be a great cross section of US society (and I suspect this is true for basically anyone too).

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#184

Post by Skunkleton »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #26

This doesn't make sense at all to me. They're comparing income in constant 2022 dollars with the CPI. That's saying "if we adjusted historical salaries for inflation, then assumed that the constant 2022 dollar numbers were actually nominal numbers for each point in history, then people would've been able to buy much more stuff back then". Which is true, but not very meaningful. The whole point of the constant 2022 do…

Maybe they are arguing that GenZ should commute to the past? That way they can spend their 2022 dollars on good value 1970s products?

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#185

Post by geysersam »

WalterBright wrote: post #168
telchior wrote: post #59

One of the items this article doesn't cover is healthcare spending, which has increased between 2 and 8 times since 1980 (depending on whether you're looking at individual spending or share of GDP). Here's a decent collection of charts: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spe... It has been shocking to me to see how cheap and effective healthcare can be in other countries, from an emergency visit…

Healthcare costs increased in step with inflation until 1968, when the rate increased dramatically and never slowed down. What happened in 1968? LBJ's Great Society massive efforts at free medical care started. The same thing happened with college tuition. Government attempts to reduce its costs resulted in greatly expanded costliness. The most expensive things in the world are government provided "free" stuff.

How does this rhyme with the fact that many countries have well functioning, tax financed healthcare systems?

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#186

Post by WalterBright »

notch656a wrote: post #174
WalterBright wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is still something very wrong with the healthcare system in the US Government interference with the free market.

I would take straight up communism health care or ancap pay-or-die unregulated over our current bastardized system that combines the worst aspects of both.

Really? I remember a thread on reddit about the HBO series Chernobyl. A lot of posters who lived through it commented. One I recall said that root canals were free in the USSR, but you didn't get any anesthetic. Another commented that the hospital stay was free, but you had to bribe the nurses to take care of you.

Having had a root canal myself, it's "no thanks" to free communist health care.

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#187

Post by WalterBright »

xadhominemx wrote: post #171
WalterBright wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare costs increased in step with inflation until 1968, when the rate increased dramatically and never slowed down. What happened in 1968? LBJ's Great Society massive efforts at free medical care started. The same thing happened with college tuition. Government attempts to reduce its costs resulted in greatly expanded costliness. The most expensive things in the world are government provided "free" stuff.

The US has less government provided care than any other industrial country and by far the highest costs in the world

The US cost far less before the government got involved in it.

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#188

Post by WalterBright »

geysersam wrote: post #185
WalterBright wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare costs increased in step with inflation until 1968, when the rate increased dramatically and never slowed down. What happened in 1968? LBJ's Great Society massive efforts at free medical care started. The same thing happened with college tuition. Government attempts to reduce its costs resulted in greatly expanded costliness. The most expensive things in the world are government provided "free" stuff.

How does this rhyme with the fact that many countries have well functioning, tax financed healthcare systems?

Just because it's "free" doesn't mean you aren't paying plenty for it.

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#189

Post by Kaze404 »

mf_tomb wrote: post #178
nerdponx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not agree more. I won't romanticize 1950s or 1970s cheap junk products compared to 1990s cheap junk products or 2020s cheap junk products, but something definitely has changed. Here's how I like to argue it: TVs might be cheaper "per unit of TV", but it's also difficult to just buy a basic TV. This is also offset intensely by "shrinkflation", which applies as much to durable goods (cheapening components) as i…

It's conspiratorial to assume that advertising and marketing is responsible for the status quo, rather than it being reflective of the genuine preferences of consumers to have new toys. Consumer preference has rewarded lowest-common-denominator dopamine trains in basically every facet of modern life. See the gaming industry with microtransactions/lootboxes, or entertainment with the move towards short-form content.

It’s not conspirational to assume that advertising and marketing is part of forming the status quo, by virtue of those fields literally exploiting human weaknesses to do so. If they simply reflected what consumer want, not only would they not have a reason to exist, but if they did they wouldn’t need to resort to endless amounts of FOMO to get you to buy Season 329 of their Battle Pass.

Re: Gen Z have 86% less purchasing power compared to baby boomers in their twenties

#190

Post by Bilal_io »

missedthecue wrote: post #161
QuarterReptile wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French people are rich enough to be proficient English speakers, as are people in Tokyo. Seems like it'll probably work out. I spent about a week in Japan, split between Tokyo and Nagasaki, and had no problem, having not even tried to learn any Japanese, except that I couldn't get the right train stop because I couldn't even recognize the characters, much less read them.

Apparently Japan has fewer bilingual citizens than even the USA.

> than even the USA.

The US has a lot of immigrants, so I wouldn't count it as a country with a low percentage of bilinguals.

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