Complaining that no one agrees with you does not mean that there is no "diversity of ideas." It means that people have decided your ideas aren't good.
Yes I'm sure that's what they taught you at Vassar kiddo. Do you need a safe space now?
Readit Newsnunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
The problem with infant mortality figures is that different countries measure them differently. There are cases (e.g. very premature births) that the US considers a live birth (with a high risk of mortality) while other countries consider them miscarriages and hence don't count them in infant mortality.
There have been attempts made to correct for these discrepancies. They end up accounting for a large fraction (but not all) of the difference in infant mortality rates, if I recall correctly.
Most of the rest of the effect is that premature births that everyone considers "births" have a higher prevalence in the US (for various reasons, not all of which are clear). Premature births have higher mortality, obviously.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-infants-mortality/u... is actually trying to look at an apples-to-apples comparison, and a few things jump out at me:
1) Birth defects. I wonder how much of this has to do with differences in abortion availability and again differences in definition of "birth". Many other countries count a child that dies within some number of days after birth from birth defects as a stillbirth, not an infant mortality event.
2) SUID (aka SIDS) is a huge contributor in the US. In the US this is highly concentrated in ehthnic groups that are largely missing in the comparison countries. Why that is is a good question, but makes this comparison less apples-to-apples.
To know where you'd want to be you want to know the outcomes for your specific demographic in the different countries, which is not something that gets reported very much...
"Infant mortality rates for full-term babies vary across the U.S., but all states are worse than many European countries, a new study suggests."
From your own source, literally doesn't help your case at all.
nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
Americans have the worst Health outcomes while spending the most by far out of all developed nations. Your libertarian shtick can't get you out of that one.
The downvote brigade is out in force today. Truly disgusting how the vast majority of those SV are either left wing SJW types or "da free market cures all ills" nuts. Diversity of ideas is nonexistent.
nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
The US has higher cancer survival rates than Europe
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/07/most...
Also the US develops most of the drugs used by those other countries. IF Drug companies charged UK prices in America, they would not be profitable. Someone has to pay the bill for drug development. In this case, it's the US.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-90fb34d138bbf4ebc946ca...
it's not a libertarian view, just the data.
>The US has higher cancer survival rates than Europe
First of all that source is from a pseudo-intellectual religious journal and carries little to no weight in my opinion, even if it did they admit that those numbers are differentiated by early screening in the US and this has little to do with treatment quality, such a statement on quality would need to control for this difference in screening.
>Also the US develops most of the drugs used by those other countries. IF Drug companies charged UK prices in America, they would not be profitable. Someone has to pay the bill for drug development. In this case, it's the US.
Only 5 of the top 10 largest Pharmaceutical companies are American and 3 of the top 5 are European so this statement is just not true.
Your quaint views on Economics are obviously libertarian, in the failed American political party sense, and frankly the data is not on your side.
nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
this figure puts it at only $3,500 http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/07/01/having_a_bab...
Women with insurance pay out of pocket an average of $3,400, according to a survey by Childbirth Connection, one of the groups behind the maternity costs report. Two decades ago, women typically paid nothing other than a small fee if they opted for a private hospital room or television.
But one must take into account the risk of complications; if something were to go really wrong, would you rather be in the US hospital or the UK one? I suspect the NHS is more affordable, but does not handle complications and individual patient cases as well as the US system.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.MORT?view=map&ye.... Infant mortality is nearly 2x higher in the US. I know where I'd want to be.
nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
The skyrocketing sticker price of healthcare absolutely has led directly to skyrocketing insurance premiums and out of pocket costs are still high for many people depending on their insurance plans.
The vast majority of the 'generous' college financial aid is loans with partially subsidized interest rates. Default rates on these loans are high and keep rising.
In response to paul's bs about drug prices.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-drug-price-sofosbu...
Costs $1000 in the US and $4 in India.
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nunya213 commented on If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/dluan
Regarding necessities such as healthcare and education, yes, sticker costs are rising faster than inflation and wages, but one must also take into account that:
Individuals seldom pay the stick price. A $10k/month drug does not mean one pays $10k/month out of his or her own pocket. Same for a $1,000 emergency room visit. Or college tuition, due to generous financial aid and payment deferment programs (some universities have huge discounts for low and middle-class students).
So one must adjust prices for what one actually pays, not the MSRP.
Second, although people are spending a lot on healthcare, they are getting more healthcare and better healthcare, which is the key distinction. This means cutting-edge treatments for diseases that decades ago would have been fatal (a notable example is CML, which used to be fatal within 3-6 years of diagnosis but can now be managed as a chronic condition like diabetes).
Healthcare would be very cheap if drugs were limited to Advil and Aspirin, but also very bad. People would be irate if those were their only options. Not saying the system is perfect or that drugs are not overpriced, but one must take into account quality and quantity than just the price.
Rent, however, is an example of a cost that has exceeded inflation, but where there is no notable improvement in quality, and there are no payment deferment programs. People are paying more and more for the same 2-bedroom apartment. I suspect part of the problem is due to the difficulty of evincing deadbeat renters and due to regulation, so landlords pass the costs to renters both in the form of high rents and huge, upfront, multi-month down-payments. But also, the housing bust in 2008 created a construction shortage, so people who lost their homes in 2005-2010 found themselves with no option but to rent, and this created more demand, but also due to less housing constitution. Housing starts plunged in 2008 and never really recovered: https://www.census.gov/construction/img/c20_curr.gif
Americans have the worst Health outcomes while spending the most by far out of all developed nations. Your libertarian shtick can't get you out of that one.
Look at it this way: conspicuous displays of wealth are very cheap signals for the rational members of the human race to pick out what we call, in technical sociological language, "wankers".
Indeed, nice cars say to me: "there's a moron who lacks taste/perspective, and probably is really bad at managing their life and money. They probably have large amounts of debt and leverage.".
You can call me judgmental, but its an infinitely better attitude to take than anything approaching admiration/jealousy.
Yeah the guy in a 1982 Volvo spewing black smoke and rusting to pieces is obviously more financially savvy and responsible than someone driving a BMW.
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