6 ms·

I agree... assuming no health/personal catastrophes for you or your family, stable employment, and good training in financial planning. Those are some big assum

I agree... assuming no health/personal catastrophes for you or your family, stable employment, and good training in financial planning. Those are some big assumptions.

djrogers 8y ago
> Those are some big assumptions. Not really, the vast majority of those living in first world nations don't have catastrophic events that ruin them financially. Also, you don't need 'good training in financial planning', you just need the same amount of common sense my grandparents had - spend less than you earn, and set something aside for a rainy day.
- supernovae 8y ago
  I was laid off in 2008, couldn't get work, had to move to a different state, cashed out my 401k and sold my house 80 grand under what i paid for it and couldn't buy a new house for several years because of law. Then my hands started hurting and I found out i had vikings disease... i type for a living. first process cost about a grand, insurance doesn't cover much of it. Now both my hands are worse off and i'm looking at another surgery which will cost more that insurance won't cover. My wife got into a car accident and we need two cars since i work and she home schools. My parents are assholes and don't give a shit about myself or my family and my wifes immediate family is all dead. We inherited nothing. Raised 2 kids by ourselves, no grandma/no grandpa, no aunts, no uncles. The world is trying hard to really fuck people over, and i've managed to stay on top of it. Now my kids need jaw surgery and another needs teeth work - dental coverage is a joke. The jaw surgery is going to cost 5 grand and the others dental is 1700. My property taxes are going up year over year. Maintenance costs are going up year over year, salaries have gone up but not as quickly and the tax relief was a joke. spend less than you earn sounds esier on paper than reality of living. we downsized our homes, we don't have cable tv, i use a company phone for cell phone, i'm always having to reduce my 401k contributions and even when i try and rollover my prior 401ks that shit is perpetually frozen and no matter where i turn or what I do it seems something is trying to stop me or block me. it's not as easy as people make life out to be
  - majewsky 8y ago
    A pretty large part of this story is titled "why the US healthcare system sucks".
    - notyourwork 8y ago
      I find it so strange that <100% of Americans are not for everyone having healthcare in a system that doesn't potentially bankrupt a person. It just seems so strange.
      - sol_remmy 8y ago
        America can't afford universal health care - doctors get paid too much. The average doctor's salary here is over 300k USD. The average doctors salary in Europe is almost one-third of that..
        notyourwork 8y ago
        Here implying I don’t live here. I really don’t think doctor salaries is the problem with outrageous health car cost. I could be wrong but seems like admin overhead and over prescribing treatment is a big problem from my small point of view. Edit: also people wanting it and the financials of it being practical are entirely coupled together. My point was I don’t see how someone can not be for the idea of health care for all.
        aggie 8y ago
        Doctor salary accounts for only 8.5% of healthcare costs in the US, lower than most other Western countries. https://jacksonhealthcare.com/media-room/news/md-salaries-as-percent-of-costs/ https://jacksonhealthcare.com/media-room/news/md-salaries-as... Germany: 15% Australia: 11.6% France 11% UK: 9.7% US: 8.5%
      - chillingeffect 8y ago
        we have a collective paranoia based on several totalitarian governments aroundnthe worls throughout history. this fear influences our attitude toward putting government in charge of many things. we also have strangely intimate relationships to our doctors. we stick with them even when were not sure theyre doing their best for us. we fear an "anonymous" doctor who doesnt know us personally. these fears are exploited with imagery like "death panels," where faceless government bureacuracies let people with uneconically feasible conditions die untreated. to reverse this requires stories of success from Europe told without smugness. many memes are tonedeaf humblebragging about euro healthcare that instantly turn off americans.
- fishtank 8y ago
  You have had good financial planning habits in your family for two generations. That is in some sense "training" that many first-world poor people don't get.

I agree... assuming no health/personal catastrophes for you or your family, stable employment, and good training in financial planning. Those are some big assumptions.

djrogers 8y ago

> Those are some big assumptions. Not really, the vast majority of those living in first world nations don't have catastrophic events that ruin them financially. Also, you don't need 'good training in financial planning', you just need the same amount of common sense my grandparents had - spend less than you earn, and set something aside for a rainy day.

supernovae 8y ago
I was laid off in 2008, couldn't get work, had to move to a different state, cashed out my 401k and sold my house 80 grand under what i paid for it and couldn't buy a new house for several years because of law. Then my hands started hurting and I found out i had vikings disease... i type for a living. first process cost about a grand, insurance doesn't cover much of it. Now both my hands are worse off and i'm looking at another surgery which will cost more that insurance won't cover. My wife got into a car accident and we need two cars since i work and she home schools. My parents are assholes and don't give a shit about myself or my family and my wifes immediate family is all dead. We inherited nothing. Raised 2 kids by ourselves, no grandma/no grandpa, no aunts, no uncles. The world is trying hard to really fuck people over, and i've managed to stay on top of it. Now my kids need jaw surgery and another needs teeth work - dental coverage is a joke. The jaw surgery is going to cost 5 grand and the others dental is 1700. My property taxes are going up year over year. Maintenance costs are going up year over year, salaries have gone up but not as quickly and the tax relief was a joke. spend less than you earn sounds esier on paper than reality of living. we downsized our homes, we don't have cable tv, i use a company phone for cell phone, i'm always having to reduce my 401k contributions and even when i try and rollover my prior 401ks that shit is perpetually frozen and no matter where i turn or what I do it seems something is trying to stop me or block me. it's not as easy as people make life out to be
- majewsky 8y ago
  A pretty large part of this story is titled "why the US healthcare system sucks".
  - notyourwork 8y ago
    I find it so strange that <100% of Americans are not for everyone having healthcare in a system that doesn't potentially bankrupt a person. It just seems so strange.
    - sol_remmy 8y ago
      America can't afford universal health care - doctors get paid too much. The average doctor's salary here is over 300k USD. The average doctors salary in Europe is almost one-third of that..
      - notyourwork 8y ago
        Here implying I don’t live here. I really don’t think doctor salaries is the problem with outrageous health car cost. I could be wrong but seems like admin overhead and over prescribing treatment is a big problem from my small point of view. Edit: also people wanting it and the financials of it being practical are entirely coupled together. My point was I don’t see how someone can not be for the idea of health care for all.
      - aggie 8y ago
        Doctor salary accounts for only 8.5% of healthcare costs in the US, lower than most other Western countries. https://jacksonhealthcare.com/media-room/news/md-salaries-as-percent-of-costs/ https://jacksonhealthcare.com/media-room/news/md-salaries-as... Germany: 15% Australia: 11.6% France 11% UK: 9.7% US: 8.5%
    - chillingeffect 8y ago
      we have a collective paranoia based on several totalitarian governments aroundnthe worls throughout history. this fear influences our attitude toward putting government in charge of many things. we also have strangely intimate relationships to our doctors. we stick with them even when were not sure theyre doing their best for us. we fear an "anonymous" doctor who doesnt know us personally. these fears are exploited with imagery like "death panels," where faceless government bureacuracies let people with uneconically feasible conditions die untreated. to reverse this requires stories of success from Europe told without smugness. many memes are tonedeaf humblebragging about euro healthcare that instantly turn off americans.
fishtank 8y ago
You have had good financial planning habits in your family for two generations. That is in some sense "training" that many first-world poor people don't get.