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Measuring absolute outcomes ("lifestyle") instead of relative ones like inequality may seem more objective. But you'll find that the ultimate outcome, life sati

Measuring absolute outcomes ("lifestyle") instead of relative ones like inequality may seem more objective. But you'll find that the ultimate outcome, life satisfaction, is tied more to the latter than the former. Case in point: Your lifestyle almost certainly has a higher value than any of the British monarchs except Queen Elisabeth II. If you look at Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, it has "self-actualization" at the very top. Achieving that level requires more than just a comfortable life. You need a degree of power over your own life that many even in the middle class don't have. One small example that may resonate in this community may be the freedom to try your hand at a startup, and how such plans can be stymied just by the problem of giving up employer-sponsored health insurance.

closeparen 9y ago
Tall poppy syndrome may well be a real and common element of human psychology; that doesn’t mean we should design policy around it. Preventing others from having things because you can’t have them is (outside a political context) rightfully considered petty and childish. Single payer health insurance would be based on a philosophy of lifting up the deprived. The tally poppy syndrome approach is to ban employer-sponsored health insurance with no replacement.
- shaki-dora 9y ago
  Considering that single-payer health care is among the most well-known proposals, and banning employer-sponsored health insurance isn't really even part of debate: perhaps "Tall poppy syndrome" is just a made-up smear to tar anyone who thinks it's blasphemous that the world's second-richest country has 20% of children living in poverty?
  - closeparen 9y ago
    Single payer is a solution to the problem of people lacking healthcare. The “inequality” people are telling me it’s wrong and disingenuous to care about absolute poverty (like the lack of healthcare) and that I should be focused on the real problem of some having healthcare where others don’t. I don’t think it’s blasphemous that 20% of people are in the bottom 20% of a distribution. When you define poverty in relative terms, the fact that x% of people are in poverty is a tautology. I do think it’s blasphemous that anyone lacks health care.

closeparen 9y ago

Tall poppy syndrome may well be a real and common element of human psychology; that doesn’t mean we should design policy around it. Preventing others from having things because you can’t have them is (outside a political context) rightfully considered petty and childish. Single payer health insurance would be based on a philosophy of lifting up the deprived. The tally poppy syndrome approach is to ban employer-sponsored health insurance with no replacement.

shaki-dora 9y ago
Considering that single-payer health care is among the most well-known proposals, and banning employer-sponsored health insurance isn't really even part of debate: perhaps "Tall poppy syndrome" is just a made-up smear to tar anyone who thinks it's blasphemous that the world's second-richest country has 20% of children living in poverty?
- closeparen 9y ago
  Single payer is a solution to the problem of people lacking healthcare. The “inequality” people are telling me it’s wrong and disingenuous to care about absolute poverty (like the lack of healthcare) and that I should be focused on the real problem of some having healthcare where others don’t. I don’t think it’s blasphemous that 20% of people are in the bottom 20% of a distribution. When you define poverty in relative terms, the fact that x% of people are in poverty is a tautology. I do think it’s blasphemous that anyone lacks health care.