221–230 of 269 posts
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Yeah, all these Europe's way are better articles and books fall a little flat considering how terrible their economies are nowadays. It sounds like they are saying, "come be like us! Our nations can't even make their debt payments!"
as if the US didn't go through a debt-ceiling crisis every other year.
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A data point from the USA: I take a very low dose of lamotrigene extended-release (mild epilepsy). The brand-name cost of this was $1200-$1400 per month. The recently available generic version of this costs nearly $400/mo. And this is, again, for a very low dose. For someone with a moderate or severe seizure (or bipolor - it's used for that too) disorder, the cost might be 4-5x this. While one might argue that the na…
That's insane. I take the generic lamotrigine, but even at a high dose it's something like $36/month here in Canada. I have a half-decent private insurance policy, but at US prices I'd burn through my yearly prescription rebate limit in a month.
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Finding oil did make Norway prosperous. Have you ever looked at their economic condition prior to 1980?
Yes, it did. And how it is and has been managed is a large part of well it has worked for the country, which is a lot more involved and interesting than "Oil was found in the North Sea in the late 60's and everyone lived happily ever after, the end". But since you seem to be an expert, how about you enlighten me on this subject.
You seem to want to pick a fight, based on something I didn't even actually say or imply (which you carried over from another comment). That doesn't seem like very friendly behavior for HN. I never said a single thing implying Norway's financial well being was guaranteed or automatic or required no effort.
I said Norway is prosperous due to oil. That is true, and their prosperity began with the oil boom, and that is not a coincidence.
A five second comparison between how Venezuela has managed their resources and how Norway has, would tell you everything you need to know about the care Norway has taken to manage their good fortune, but that doesn't change in any way the fact that their good fortune is derived from the oil boom that saw their output peak at a massive 3.4 million bpd (particularly massive compared to their tiny population).
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GDP per capita doesn't say anything about the wealth of the median person, either. Maybe in this case, GDP per capita should be coupled with the gini coefficient, which in the US' case is high (less equality) for a first world country.
Why is equality more important than, say, how poor your average citizens are? Most of Europe is exceptionally poor by American standards. I would rather the average person earn $45,000 per year, with wide inequality due to a lot of rich people, than have the average person earn $8,000 or $14,000 per year like a dozen poor European countries that may have a better gini number.
Yes, the point in this case is actually to have fewer poor people - specifically a strong middle class. As supposed to, say, a vast percentage of poor workers and an exceptionally rich upper class.
You'll have to be more specific, or else your post looks like a derailment from what was under discussion, namely US GDP per capita compared to other first world countries.
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What I mean to say is that Amercians are overworked because they like to be overworked. Typically an American's sole sense of identity comes from his or her job, and while we give lip service to 'happiness' as our life's goal unless happiness means ambition and success in one's work, you are an oddball. The problem isn't that Americans are hurting the economy with over work; the problem, if you want to call it one, i…
I don't get how you come to the conclusion that no one minds it. I am very lucky and have built a business where I have lots of free time, and I have yet to find a person who says I am wasting my life by spending my free time learning new languages, teaching myself new things, backpacking the world, and developing new hobbies. People say they like their work and they "live" for their work because it's all they have,…
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>The US has lower generic prices that most of the EU due to fierce competition for the US market This is not the case. From direct person experience I can attest that: Betaserc is 1/25 the price in Spain as the generic in the US Nebivolol is 1/10 Lovastatin is 1/5 Enalapril is 1/2
I have no doubt there are examples of cheaper generics in the EU than US, but overall, US generics are cheaper.[1] [1] http://www.gabionline.net/Reports/Are-generic-medicines-too-...
"We also see that in countries that have free market pricing of medicines (where companies can decide for themselves the price of a new medicine), such as Germany, the price of generic medicines tend to be higher than in countries which regulate medicine prices."
This seems to contradict the claim as well.
Alas, this is about the level of analysis I've come to expect from years of reading The New Republic on issues like this. Neither cultural nor legal conditions surrounding employment in the United States are ideal for workers who have the preferences of the author of this article,[1] but neither are they so horrific that the economy is "hurt" in a big way, especially compared to the economies of other countries. Othe…
> Other comments posted before mine have already pointed out that overall prosperity in the United States is quite high, I've seen more that people have pointed out that America is prosperous, not necessarily that America is overall prosperous. The US seems to have one of the highest gini coefficients out of the OECD countries. > For me, the crucial fact to keep in mind in any of these decry-America threads on Hacker…
For example, if America doesn't have paid maternity leave, that's considered very backwards, and America frequently gets bashed for such things. If Spain has 34% real unemployment, somehow that isn't considered wildly backwards by comparison, because hey they have paid maternity leave and six weeks of vacation.
Or if Albania (or Nigeria or Congo or Vietnam) has a drastically better gini number than the US, somehow that's considered amazing. Except it's ignorant analysis.
I see this all the time in regards to Europeans bashing the US. They're counting on Americans not knowing enough about most of Europe to lodge a counter response.
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Why is equality more important than, say, how poor your average citizens are? Most of Europe is exceptionally poor by American standards. I would rather the average person earn $45,000 per year, with wide inequality due to a lot of rich people, than have the average person earn $8,000 or $14,000 per year like a dozen poor European countries that may have a better gini number.
I was comparing the US to first world countries, not Europe as a whole. And no first world country is exceptionally poor compared to the US. Yes, the point in this case is actually to have fewer poor people - specifically a strong middle class. As supposed to, say, a vast percentage of poor workers and an exceptionally rich upper class. You'll have to be more specific, or else your post looks like a derailment from w…
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Yes, it did. And how it is and has been managed is a large part of well it has worked for the country, which is a lot more involved and interesting than "Oil was found in the North Sea in the late 60's and everyone lived happily ever after, the end". But since you seem to be an expert, how about you enlighten me on this subject.
I am in fact an expert. I have a background in finance and economics and could speak for hours on this subject. You seem to want to pick a fight, based on something I didn't even actually say or imply (which you carried over from another comment). That doesn't seem like very friendly behavior for HN. I never said a single thing implying Norway's financial well being was guaranteed or automatic or required no effort.…
Pick a fight? You're refering to that whole 'care to enlighten me'? Would you have preferred a bit less sarcasm to go with that question? It seems to me that the aggression started with you, implying that I didn't understand the importance of the petroleum industry. Even though it was the only thing I was discussing in that post that you replied to.
All I said was that the combination of petroleum and the management of it has been important. Clearly, if you take petroleum out of the equation, management doesn't really help much, now does it? So I took it for granted that readers could see that petroleum was a crucial part of the equation.
You might appreciate that, after explaining how management of natural resources like this plays a significant part in how well it works to a nation's advantage, someone comes in and reduces it back to "oil, that's it", I might get a bit irritated? And if the point was not to reduce it to that, why would one even reply with a one-liner like that, as it doesn't really say anything novel on the topic?
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In the past two years, I've spent six months living in Germany. The quality-of-life difference between that country and the US is striking. In Germany, it appeared that ordinary people could both afford to, and were inclined to, partake often in small pleasures such as having a Bier and a bite at outdoor cafes in the summer. The streets were lined with these cafes and restaurants, most doing a brisk business. I never…
What part of the US are you comparing to? We must be living in very different countries, because the things you describe, I know very few people who can't afford simple things like cut flowers whenever they want them, or to go eat out at a cafe. Average / middle class people I knew while living in LA did these things constantly.
Average people I've known in the places I've lived most definitely did not frequent flower shops or cafes. And by "average", I include Target employees and Walmart employees and the clerical employees of most companies large and small. That is to say, most people in the US.
Apart from the financial issue, my point was that there's a cultural phenomenon going on. In Germany my feeling was that the residents had a joie de vivre that is largely missing in the US, something which is probably both a cause and effect of the cult of overwork.