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Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

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Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#391

Post by lanfeust6 »

Epa095 wrote: post #138

I encourage everyone to do the following simple exercise: look at the main stock market in your country, and see how far back you must go for the main index to be half of what it is today. The answer is probably somewhere between 5 and 7 years. Then find salary statistics, and see how much the average salary has increased in the same time. The answer is probably somewhere between 20 and 30%. And it really is as simpl…

> we have tremendously increased productivity

Productivity has not increased tremendously. See e.g. https://www.seeitmarket.com/u-s-productivity-why-key-underst...

https://www.bls.gov/charts/productivity-and-costs/labor-prod... .

Inflation is not that.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#392

Post by lanfeust6 »

slater wrote: post #379
lanfeust6 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real wages are up and quality of life is on average better than it's ever been. But news organizations do in fact report on self-reported data periodically like living paycheck-to-paycheck (which just means they spend everything and don't save). Self-reported sentiments about stress are not useful. Rich boomers who voted for Trump would take this poll and just as easily say the cost of groceries is a major source of…

> which just means they spend everything and don't save Here, lemme fix that for you: "Which means everything costs too much and they can't save because they can't earn a livable wage thanks to everything going to the top 1%"

Except the data doesn't reflect that at all. Americans on average are among the richest people in the world. People who make the median income just often spend it all.

Housing is an issue, primarily because people want detached homes and we don't build enough of anything including condensed or mixed-density builds. Aside from that people are obviously still spending. Tech and gadgets, cars, restaurants etc.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#393

Post by aidenn0 »

marcusverus wrote: post #269
inerte wrote: post #200

A few months ago I had a persistent irritation on my right eye, as if some dust was stuck there. Worried about it, I went to Urgent care and got billed $3400 (dollars) for antibiotics, WHICH WERE WRONG, an actual ophthalmologist said I had it scratched and just had to apply some drops. $250 for the ophthalmologist and about $50 for the drops. This week I am in Brazil for vacation, and my mother-in-law had a lot of ba…

> persistent irritation > went to Urgent care You waited until it became a problem, then went to an expensive option instead of contacting your GP and getting a recommendation for an in-network care? And were surprised that it was expensive? This is healthcare 101 in the US. You could have gotten the same care for a reasonable price had you done 1 hour of due diligence. We do not need to remake the system--which will…

It takes about 6 months for me to get an appointment with my GP, and then it takes up to a month for their referral to a specialist to be approved, and only then can I make an appointment with my specialist, which is usually booking a few months out, making it about 9 months before I can see someone.

Or I can go into urgent care, and get a referral submited that day, and see someone in only 3 months.

My father in law has a tumor, and was able to start radiation therapy almost 18 months after he first went into a doctor for his symptoms. The specialist scolded him for how long it took saying "there's permanent damage if you don't start treatment within 6 months, you should have come in much sooner" He nearly punched the guy.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#394

Post by whateveracct »

ryandrake wrote: post #381
whateveracct wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is when you take into account the tax advantages of an HSA. If you're like me and can shake off a few grand medical expense out of pocket, suddenly it's the best plan. I have a HDHP and paid less than $10k all year for my family's medical expenses and we had a freaking baby lol.

> tax advantages of an HSA The minuscule tax advantage here is that 1. you're paying for your health care costs with pre-tax dollars, but you can generally still deduct these even without an HSA, so +0 advantage there, and 2. you are allowed to invest the savings, and gains are not taxed at the federal level (but may be taxed at the state level), so the advantage here is your savings account size x your effective tax…

> for most of us

yeah so for most of you, don't do it?

I like that I can stuff away $7k+ I'd be stuffing away anyways tax free. And all I have to do is keep a responsible emergency fund.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#395

Post by ryandrake »

diet_jerome wrote: post #356
Steve16384 wrote: post #73

Exactly the things that a well meaning society should provide to its citizens. What's the point of "progress" if we can't provide the basics to the majority?

If market forces were allowed to operate, these needs would be fulfilled. Instead, the usa and a lot of europe have an enormous amount of regulation and government involvement in housing, healthcare, and food. Those of us who want progress and the world to be a better place to live should politically push for deregulation in these three markets/industries.

An unregulated (or just less-regulated) free market is not going to fix health care cost. The problem is we treat it as a market, full of middle-men spooning away profit, and where people get care generally proportional to the amount they spend.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#396

Post by whateveracct »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #351
whateveracct wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is when you take into account the tax advantages of an HSA. If you're like me and can shake off a few grand medical expense out of pocket, suddenly it's the best plan. I have a HDHP and paid less than $10k all year for my family's medical expenses and we had a freaking baby lol.

Right, but it's also nuts that a lot of people are on a health insurance plan that encourages avoiding medical care because it offers tax-advantaged investing. You get how that's nuts, right?

It doesn't seem nuts to me? I have a good emergency fund and a stable job and no big debts (cuz I'm good with money generally), so I can choose to use my health insurance to make a little more money.

That's only fair given all the pre-work I did to set it up for myself.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#397

Post by aidenn0 »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #360
alexjplant wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...in what world does it make sense to charge the cost of a motorcycle for a few minutes of a doctor/NP's time and $15 worth of drugs? Jumping through bureaucratic hoops to avoid this is a waste of everybody's time.

Urgent care is pretty widely known to be a scam that preys on those too impatient to "jump through buerocratic hoops (make an appointment in the future with a highly-paid professional instead of paying the premium for the surplus staffing it takes to always have someone available for walk-ins)"

That's interesting because my co-pay at urgent care is the same as with my GP. Maybe there are regional differences? (ER on the other hand I know I won't walk away without many thousands of dollars in bills, on top of a much larger copay, because even though the ER is "in network" none of the contractors working there are)

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#398

Post by fritzo »

bravetraveler wrote: post #111

Despite early success I'm truly no closer to stability [in terms of housing] . With the wrong landlords, I'm practically living with Mom/Dad while nearing my 40s. Fiefdom-building isn't helping at all. I can deal with the responsibility of a leaky roof. I can't deal with another year of No Dogs Allowed.

I'm curious, where do folks place dogs/pets on the necessity-to-luxury spectrum, or in the hierarchy of needs?

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#399

Post by lesuorac »

username332211 wrote: post #214
Epa095 wrote: post #138

I encourage everyone to do the following simple exercise: look at the main stock market in your country, and see how far back you must go for the main index to be half of what it is today. The answer is probably somewhere between 5 and 7 years. Then find salary statistics, and see how much the average salary has increased in the same time. The answer is probably somewhere between 20 and 30%. And it really is as simpl…

On the 8th of August 2018, the FTSE 350 closed at 4320. The current level is 4980 giving us a 7-year rate of return of around 15%. I assume the United Kingdom of Great Britain must be a paradise for the workers, right?

China is flat compared to 10 years ago so yeah I think this argument checks out?

The whole stock market on fire is really a US-specific phenomenon.

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/stock-market

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#400

Post by pessimizer »

beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

> You do not need cable tv or home internet.

This is a deeply stupid comment. Right now, the way marginal people get any work is from from the internet, and people interviewing for even awful jobs expect you to get on zoom calls with them.

Every single step you expect people who can't afford to feed themselves makes them that much more unemployable. You don't need new shoes, you don't need a haircut. Hell, you don't even have to wash your clothes that often, I'm sure no one will notice, and washing your clothes costs enough to feed you for three days.

> head of an HOA

You sound like it.

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