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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

#521

Post by WalterBright »

grafmax wrote: post #486
WalterBright wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy fractional shares from robinhood for $10. The internet has brought a great democratization of access to the stock market. If you don't have an investment program, the best time to start is right now.

The point is that workers have far less money to save. Therefore when stocks go up due to increased productivity, even workers who have enough money to save still don’t benefit, in absolute terms, as much as owners.

Becoming an owner by founding a company is the way to reach the top tier. Jobs, Gates, Bezos, Musk, etc.

BTW, I know a person who worked as a fruit picker as a young man, he's now a multimillionaire. And a woman who grew up in a mobile home who is now worth 9 figures.

America is a great country.

P.S. my first business was selling greeting cards door to door.

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

#522

Post by grafmax »

WalterBright wrote: post #521
grafmax wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that workers have far less money to save. Therefore when stocks go up due to increased productivity, even workers who have enough money to save still don’t benefit, in absolute terms, as much as owners.

Becoming an owner by founding a company is the way to reach the top tier. Jobs, Gates, Bezos, Musk, etc. BTW, I know a person who worked as a fruit picker as a young man, he's now a multimillionaire. And a woman who grew up in a mobile home who is now worth 9 figures. America is a great country. P.S. my first business was selling greeting cards door to door.

Unfortunately our society’s structure is such that only a small number of people can ever be wealthy. They do this by belonging to the ownership class. There is not enough room there for everyone, because owners make money simply through owning, because others do the work for them, while the owners pay themselves with the profits these workers generate for them.

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

#523

Post by cool_dude85 »

WalterBright wrote: post #476
grafmax wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, ability to buy stock is predicated on having the money to do it, after paying for basic necessities. People who work for a living have less money than those who don’t. So when stock prices rise, even workers who can save see less absolute benefit than owners.

You can buy fractional shares from robinhood for $10. The internet has brought a great democratization of access to the stock market. If you don't have an investment program, the best time to start is right now.

But this is not meaningful. If I buy 10 dollars of stock, at 10% return I am earning 1 dollar per year. This amount is not relevant to my life in any way and is probably dwarfed by variation in the amount of cash I find lying on the ground annually.

It's like saying everyone has access to clean water, look over there, there's a drop.

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

#524

Post by grafmax »

ffsm8 wrote: post #245
potato3732842 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All these "doubled since 2015/2019/20whatever" stats tie back to a dirty word that starts win In and ends with "flation" And, as everyone who wasn't lying for various reasons predicted and anyone can see by looking at prior comparable events in history can tell you, wages are one of the last things to go up.

You do realize that inflation hits at least as much for employees though right? (Likely even more, because all things equal, you're still better off if numbers are bigger ) If anything, you'd be strengthening cameldrv and Epa095s point...

Inflation is typically better for the wealthy. Cost of living goes up. This hits you if you are a worker. But if you’re wealthy this is a small dent in your budget at best. On the contrary, you hold many assets, which generally appreciate with inflation, effectively hedging away the negative effect.

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

#525

Post by andrekandre »

beezle wrote: post #490
pessimizer wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Is there a reason they can't use the internet that is available from their phone data plan?

try downloading an os update over your 5g connection, or maybe watching some instructional videos on youtube, now your out of gb and have an offer for purchasing 1gb additional data for 10 bucks a pop

better to have an unlimited home internet

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

#526

Post by andrekandre »

thrance wrote: post #480
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…

It wouldn't be America if people didn't blame the poor for everything. Surely, the housing crisis is just stupid poor people drinking too many lattes, there is certainly no greater issue there, nope.

  > It wouldn't be America if people didn't blame the poor for everything.
to be fair, this has now evolved towards blaming the immigrants for everything...

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

#527

Post by phyzix5761 »

GoatInGrey wrote: post #344
phyzix5761 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation, which means a steady rise in prices overall, happens only when the total money supply in an economy grows. This increase in money, often called "printing money," can be physical cash or digital money created through lending and government policies. Without more money in the system, if prices go up in one area, they have to go down somewhere else because the total money available limits how much can be spen…

Inflation is caused by a greater number of dollars chasing the same number of goods and services. Look at the used car market, or the housing market, or the GPU market during the crypto craze several years back. It all falls back to basic supply versus demand mechanics. Inflation can be caused by printing, but it can also be caused by redistributing money from location X (Microsoft stock) to location Y (food spending…

But it would reduce demand somewhere else if you have a fixed money supply. Therefore, the overall inflation rate would stay the same.

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

#528

Post by kamaal »

prasadjoglekar wrote: post #456
tossandthrow wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that vain health insurance is never insurance. Getting a kid is not an accident for most modern people, and should never be seen as an event that could bankrupt anybody. Hence, deferring to the definition of insurance is futile. Then again - the US is the only country I know of that insists that health is something you insure.

You need to broaden your horizons then - look at the medical plans that are on offer in India. Or the travel medical insurance that every EU country requires you to carry. They are classic insurance. Having a kid without complications should not cost $50K. It should be a few grand at the most. If the kid now needs NICU, then yes, that's what insurance is for.

>>- look at the medical plans that are on offer in India.

The one's that companies offer are quite good, actually.

I'd have depleted my life savings, and gone bankrupt several times around COVID years with my parents health, if I didn't have company health insurance.

Good for me, because I knew people in hospital sitting in the waiting lobby literally crying because they were done financially. Like finished for life.

Having said, this in India the market for this things is still building up, and given how big India is it will take years before it reaches the US stage of profit seeking.

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

#529

Post by aidenn0 »

marcusverus wrote: post #467
aidenn0 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. That is radically below par. The nice thing about the American system is that if your GP sucks (as yours clearly doe…

> in-network (non-specialist) referral for a same-day appointment

My HMO takes 5-10 business days to approve a non-emergency referral; 3-days for an emergency one doesn't matter what my GP does. Though it's partly moot by the fact that I would have to drive hours to find a specialist that isn't booking many weeks out, it's exacerbated by the fact that no specialists let one schedule an appointment prior to the referral being approved.

> Surely it's better for both of us if you just find a new GP?

Or I can just go to urgent care if I have an urgent issue?

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

#530

Post by positr0n »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #66
t1234s wrote: post #18

In the US insurance (of all types: car, house, health) is a major expense and only getting worse.

Vehicles in general. In Houston, I share a car with my girlfriend since I work from home. But some days I don't feel very independent when I want to run an errand while she's at work. I'll look up the price of a used Corolla and think about all the additional expenses, and I'm immediately disabused of the idea. Instead, I decided to book some motorcycle lessons so I can use a $3000 moto. But then I need to pay for li…

What is the purpose of life insurance or you have no kids (or dependent parents/spouse I suppose)?

I guess to pay for your funeral costs if cashing out all your savings and possessions wouldn't cover that?

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