Worse than the direct cost is opportunity cost. Wealthy have money to invest and over time it snowballs. An eventful day in the market can swing their net worth more than the average person will earn in a year or maybe even a lifetime.
Think about what that means for an economy too. It means tons of folks are trapped in poverty cycles instead of innovating, starting businesses, or going to school and getting training etc. Because these things are all risky and require investment, which they can't do.
Coincidentally accurate comment for me. Just had a tooth that I had grown very fond over the years removed and left vacant because of the cost associated with replacing it rivaling that of cars I've bought in the past. As the teeth shift and get loose because of the missing soldier, I'll just have to allow them to fall out or have them pulled until I can have dentures made up.
I have dental insurance, it's just none of that necessary tooth replacement if you want to keep the rest of your teeth stuff is covered.
Same boat here. I'm down 2 teeth already thanks to this bullshit medical system. 2 teeth I absolutely did not need to lose completely. Thanks guys. Also thanks Navy for pulling those wisdom teeth that didn't need to go, I really could have used them now.
Paying for healthcare is already bizarre as is. I still do not comprehend how Americans do not immediately revolt over this. Why exactly are you paying taxes for? If everything is privatized and costly... what's the explanation given for your taxes? I'm not being ironic, I truly do not understand.
Because us Americans have been taught that this is how it is. And unfortunately only one side wants to change this.
Never fun thing when I have to leave a job and I lose my health insurance for the reason I’ve just losing a job. Or I can pay full amount for the insurance after I leave like $800 a month for one person.
There are people who are convinced that the reason our healthcare is so expensive is because we "subsidize healthcare for the rest of the world." They live in this version of reality where exorbitant salaries of CEOs and dividends in the healthcare and drug industries are somehow not the cause of insulin creeping past $100/vial
The real answer is that Americans conservatives genuinely hate the poor, and will happily double their own healthcare costs if it means denying poor people access to care. They will fight tooth and nail to preserve the system that rich white Americans can afford, but poor black people can't.
Turns out humans are kind of awful. If you under-educate them enough and then feed them propaganda they'll believe almost anything. Also they're really resistant to change. Not a great combination of factors. You might have noticed their adverse effect on the climate lately...
For our taxes we get war in nine countries at the same time.
And not only that, our government has managed to spend more than 100 billion on another country's war too.
98% of the voting public in America thinks you're not entitled to anything you can't put cash down for. It's insane, but that's how we vote every two years.
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
I feel the same with my house. Small things are broken now that I can't afford to fix, that will become major in the coming years and I still won't be able to afford fixing them. Healthcare shit? Forget it, never had health insurance in my life. One major sickness and I'm dead.
Don't worry, when they become major repairs that you still can't afford, you'll start getting fines that you can't afford! And then your house will eventually be foreclosed on, and bought for pennies that you can't afford. And then you won't have to worry about it anymore!
If you have cancer and can't afford the treatment, you should just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and take care of that tumor yourself at home. Maybe start a small tumor removal business.
Hence why the minimum wage has been stuck at $7 in the US for fifteen years, no matter who we elect.
There are 30 states + DC that have minimum wage higher than the $7.25/hour of the Federal Minimum wage. Cities can also have a higher minimum wage than the state, so that would be possibly hundreds of cites/towns with higher than Federal Minimum wage. So I guess it does matter who you elect. Pay attention to the down ballot. Its not all Washington DC's job. Fix your locality. Fix your State.
Pay attention to the down ballot. Its not all Washington DC’s job.
So, by your logic, there are 20 states where people can legally paid less than the cost of a cup of coffee for an hour of labor. That's a dereliction of duty no matter how you try to rationalize it.
Or maybe, in the next election, start off all of your Pro-Democrat posts with an honest disclaimer: "Vote Democrat - They're Not Going To Do Anything."