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Haha I like that comment about how everybody is bashing the use of median income while offering a more arbitrary and harder to measure metric instead. Somebody
by HiLo 11y ago
Haha I like that comment about how everybody is bashing the use of median income while offering a more arbitrary and harder to measure metric instead. Somebody correct me... but wouldn't that be a pretty good metric if it's pre-tax, since that would be without healthcare costs on both sides anyways? I would think that using anything but pre-tax "revenue" (median income for individuals) you would have to argue why one cost (healthcare) should be considered but other costs (shelter, food, autos, education) shouldn't. So I guess you would want to carry it through to one of the logical ends, but to use disposable income you would have to then be able to compare quality of life on a quantitative basis, which rules that one out too (in my opinion).
- collyw 11y agoHealthcare ends up costing a lot more becuase it is not state run in the US, and there are middlemen to pay.
- Arnt 11y agoFWIW, it's not state-run in Germany either, and there are middlemen. Still it does the job and AFAICT at about one third to one half of what it costs in the US. If you subscribe to the Economist you'll get a survey of reasons every few years. (Actually part of German healthcare is state-run. I think perhaps half of the big hospitals in town are publicly owned; some by the city, some by the state.)