4 ms·
You may feel like a slave, but you can retire after 5 years of working. Even the other 95% of us have almost always have been poorer than we now are. Here in
by mac01021 11y ago
You may feel like a slave, but you can retire after 5 years of working.
Even the other 95% of us have almost always have been poorer than we now are. Here in the suburban northeast a person can work about 40 hours per week at any restaurant or department store or do almost any other kind of normal menial labor to bring home something like $20k per year.
On that income, they can live a much better life than almost anyone ever did 50 years ago. Sure, they'll spend half of their income on housing, never be able to afford much time off from work, and may never travel anywhere by air, but people have always lived like that. Meanwhile they benefit from ever improving medical technology and the boundless educational opportunities afforded by the worldwide web.
People may be incapable, for psychological or emotional reasons, of taking proper advantage of the exceptionally good circumstances they find themselves in. That doesn't make them poor in my book.
- Margh 11y agoI mostly agree with your comment except for > benefit from ever improving medical technology As I understand it (not a US citizen) most of this technology comes with a mortgage sized debt if you aren't insured? If so I think this reinforces the GP's case.
- mac01021 11y agoI'm not an expert on this, but google searches yield the following prices for various medical undertakings in US Dollars: ---- MRI: ~$2.5k Laparoscopic surgery: $2k -$5k One day of hospital inpatient care: ~$2.2k Heart bypass: ~$100k 3 months chemotherapy: $20k-$30k ---- I'll let you judge for yourself whether these are outrageous and crippling or not. I'll only add that, from my limited experience here in CT, the hospital will waive most of your bill if you show financial need. I'm not sure if the state picks up the tab or if the hospital just eats the cost when this happens, but I've seen the waiving of medical fees firsthand. I have no experience with the big expensive ones like chemo or heart bypass.
- devishard 11y agoYes, the waiving of medical fees sometimes happens, but "financial need" is a pretty high bar to meet. I was saddled with around $10K of medical debt after a bike accident a few years back when I was unemployed because a) I had made $70K the previous year and b) they don't consider student loan payments when calculating income. And that was with insurance (a high deductible combined with some things not being covered because they were out-of-network; the accident occurred on a different coast from any in-network-provider).