Indeed. “Raise the minimum wage and solve all these problems!” Oh. That’s how that works. If you force a store to have 50% off sales every Friday that doesn’t stop them from raising their prices 300% at 11:59pm Thursday night. Amidst historically low wages we saw record profits. Amidst massive recession we saw massive profits. Amidst lay offs and mandatory wage hikes we saw massive profits. The greatest recession in modern times was literally caused by unethical and unsustainable business practices that produced… record profits. Then the rules were changed to help prevent that same scenario and we saw those same companies adapt to the rules to make.. record profits. Despite growing legislation to raise wages and supposedly protect consumers we have seen increasingly bad metrics for satisfaction and finances among consumers while seeing.. record profits.
While news of unprecedented homelessness and vagrant encampments and failure to be able to afford basic things sweeps the nation we see record numbers of newly minted billionaires reaching new heights of wealth surpassing the richest before them. If you give people more money to buy houses, houses become more expensive. Look to California where 10-20 years ago homes 50- 100 miles from major cities were close to national averages even when in the urban centers homes were above averages. Fast forward and the places people used to move to be able to afford to live or own a home went from $200k to $1 million in a decade or less. Plenty of people in those areas make quarter or more millions a year of have millions in stocks, and as the number of people who could call themselves millionaires increased, houses ballooned.
Housing is ideally 30% or less of your budget. A sound financial calculation would say that with good credit, a person making $150k a year could afford a $400k home.
Find a $400k home within 50 miles of San Francisco or Silicon valley. You have people making $150k a year with $700k+ mortgages. Making the money available- agreeing to loans at 2x or more what a person could reasonably be expected to afford is part of the problem as sellers can charge $700k when they know average buyers can get that in credit- but why are we letting houses sell for $700k?
You can’t just throw money into the pot and let it sort itself out.
It is not a coincidence that near the end of the last century we saw sweeping deregulation and coinciding to that deregulation in industry we started to see an increasing consolidation of wealth amongst a smaller percentage of the population and increasing issues with finances in the economy and to those not in the upper earnings brackets. Deregulation is touted as a boon to the little guy and in some cases it can be- but what we have seen and continue to see is deregulation which is aimed at creating opportunity and wealth for the wealthy. Don’t think the democrats get a pass as they are usually the ones pushing regulation. The “well meaning” regulation set to “get us back on track” has itself been a tool to funnel money to the “right people.”
Leading up to government mandated health insurance industry insiders and many in the public shed tears over all the money the health care industry would lose. How will they even afford to eat? And then afterwards… record profits. My health insurance and that of everyone I know save a couple people has only gone up and coverage has only gotten worse. Staffing issues abound in the industry and yet… profits are healthy and personal wealth is exploding for those at the top. I can’t as a consumer refuse to participate in the whole mess, and the bar they set for requirements on “affordable options” or offering alternative options is so low and so disorganized and convoluted and confusing that consumers are for the most part now a captive market forced to buy goods for whatever price the companies want to charge.
There is of course push back against the idea of government healthcare- and the are some valid concerns there, but the US government already pays 70-80%+ of the PRIVATE health care costs. Let it sink in that we are already primarily funding health care at a government level but have little say or control over the industry or spending of these tax dollars- while companies and by extensions executives and share holders or partners receive record setting personal pay outs for continually declining quality of care.
So the sorts of regulations we need are ones to set standards- actual standards reflective of not a minimum but what any given person in society would want the standard to be when it was them who needed something. Standards that push improvement. And of course- we need regulation to both support local economies and jobs while also preventing abusive and unethical pricing. We need to de commoditize certain essentials and prerequisites and create better systems that don’t simply incentivize profiteering on necessities.
Regarding US "Healthcare":
On average, other large, wealthy countries spend about HALF as much PER PERSON on healthcare, as the U.S.
Health consumption expenditures PER CAPITA, U.S. dollars, PPP adjusted, 2021 or nearest year:
United States-$12,914
Germany-$7,383
Switzerland-$7,179
Netherlands-$6,753
Austria-$6,693
Sweden-$6,262
COMPARABLE COUNTRY AVERAGE-$6,125
France-$6,115
Canada-$5,905
Australia-$5,627
Belgium-$5,407
United Kingdom-$5,387
Japan-$4,666
Though the US spends the MOST on health care, per person, they're the ONLY country with 10's of millions of uninsured citizens and even more under-insured individuals.
Ironically, the "Land of The Free" has millions TRAPPED in jobs they hate, unable to pick up roots and seek greener pastures, because they HAVE to VERY CAREFULLY factor in their existing job's healthcare "benefits" over what new health insurance rules and restrictions they may come up against in a potential new job.
Furthermore, the generally shit coverage and onerous co-pays causes many to put off timely doctors visits that then evolve into more costly health emergencies.
Then there's the cost of drugs and hospitalizations. Other countries negotiate drug prices as a single massive purchase, while each separate, American "insurance" company, with a much smaller customer base, weakly capitulates to Big Pharma and passes the costs on to their captive customers. Same for the PROFIT DRIVEN hospitals. They charge outrageous prices, thus jacking up premiums for all.
Well said and great points. There are quite a few dirty not so secrets about the US healthcare system. One of the only countries that allows prescription medication to be marketed directly to consumers, stockpiles of government and even private purchased supplies and medications that expire unused rather than supplying them to people who need them but can’t pay or don’t meet qualification criteria… all sorts of fun stuff. Now, I do want to say that for those able to navigate and/or afford the tangled mess of US healthcare, it is an advanced system and there are problems faced in other countries health care systems which aren’t common or present in general in US healthcare.
I also want to say that isn’t an excuse- other countries do have issues in their systems but at least in theory the US system could be improved and reformed without falling into those same problems.
It is a complicated topic and there are reasons to be wary, for example the government regulates pharmacom and could theoretically easily force pricing caps on companies or leverage that for bargaining- but that raises concerns over freedom in commerce. A slippery slope of strong arm tactics and an open door to persons in power to abuse well meaning precedent. It is also the case that the US government doesn’t always run things the best or most efficiently. Government ran systems are often a major point of issue. The quality and inequity in public compulsory education for example and the compensation of teachers or availability of resources.
Find a $400k home within 50 miles of San Francisco or Silicon valley. You have people making $150k a year with $700k+ mortgages. Making the money available- agreeing to loans at 2x or more what a person could reasonably be expected to afford is part of the problem as sellers can charge $700k when they know average buyers can get that in credit- but why are we letting houses sell for $700k?
You can’t just throw money into the pot and let it sort itself out.
On average, other large, wealthy countries spend about HALF as much PER PERSON on healthcare, as the U.S.
Health consumption expenditures PER CAPITA, U.S. dollars, PPP adjusted, 2021 or nearest year:
United States-$12,914
Germany-$7,383
Switzerland-$7,179
Netherlands-$6,753
Austria-$6,693
Sweden-$6,262
COMPARABLE COUNTRY AVERAGE-$6,125
France-$6,115
Canada-$5,905
Australia-$5,627
Belgium-$5,407
United Kingdom-$5,387
Japan-$4,666
Though the US spends the MOST on health care, per person, they're the ONLY country with 10's of millions of uninsured citizens and even more under-insured individuals.
Ironically, the "Land of The Free" has millions TRAPPED in jobs they hate, unable to pick up roots and seek greener pastures, because they HAVE to VERY CAREFULLY factor in their existing job's healthcare "benefits" over what new health insurance rules and restrictions they may come up against in a potential new job.
Then there's the cost of drugs and hospitalizations. Other countries negotiate drug prices as a single massive purchase, while each separate, American "insurance" company, with a much smaller customer base, weakly capitulates to Big Pharma and passes the costs on to their captive customers. Same for the PROFIT DRIVEN hospitals. They charge outrageous prices, thus jacking up premiums for all.
I also want to say that isn’t an excuse- other countries do have issues in their systems but at least in theory the US system could be improved and reformed without falling into those same problems.