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Can someone explain this to us on the other side of the Atlantic? I mean, seen from Norway it looks totally insane. How can such a large proportion of people

Can someone explain this to us on the other side of the Atlantic? I mean, seen from Norway it looks totally insane. How can such a large proportion of people be so financially insecure that a couple of weeks unemployment means that they are going hungry in the wealthiest country in the world?

fit2rule 7y ago
It happens when the wealthiest country in the world spends more money on war fighting than the other top 10 military spenders in the world - instead of investing in its own infrastructure and social services, it is spending it on demolishing - and then reconstructing - the infrastructure of sovereign states its politically-powerful religious class have deemed enemies of their ideology. It happens, because America has not been about the American people for decades. America is mostly focused on the destruction of sovereign states it finds guilty of being un-American in style. Did everyone just suddenly forget that this is the country that has spent more on destroying sovereign states around the world, in the last 50 years, than any other country in the history of the world?
- akvadrako 7y ago
  USA spends 3.1% of GDP on military - which is close to the 2% mandated by NATO. That isn't the reason people can't get food.
  - fit2rule 7y ago
    GDP: Irrelevant, if you are digging your beloved out from the rubble. Good luck with that.
  - voisin 7y ago
    Wouldn’t the more appropriate metric be military spending as a percentage of government expenditures? The point being made above is that other governments spend on things useful to the populace and not war. I think by pointing at % of GDP another key point is lost: lower taxes than other countries. The US gov’t takes in less as a % if GDP and what it does take in it disproportionately spends on things that do not benefit the average Joe.
    - akvadrako 7y ago
      Well no, gov spending is not more appropriate than gdp for exactly the reason you mention. If taxes are lower and hence less money is spent on social support, that has nothing to do with the military. Still I don’t think that applies much to the USA - I think the total tax burden is comparable in many states. Medica* and SS are also huge parts of the budget.
lidHanteyk 7y ago
Fascism and Christianity. Fascism makes it okay to alienate and harm large swaths of the population, creating self-blame amongst the poor; Christianity makes it acceptable to give handouts and second-rate care to people and call it the charity of God. And yeah, it's fucking insane. But it's also how people want to live, it would seem. It's hard not to look at the voting patterns in the USA and conclude that certain areas do this intentionally.
sendbitcoins 7y ago
Rents are high, wages are low. Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, but we sure could make housing cheaper.
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  Figures I found for 2017 say US median household rent is about 1 kUSD and median income about 3.6 kUSD. That doesn't sound too bad to me (seen from Norway where 1 kUSD gets you a one bedroom flat or less) so I presume that there must be important details not revealed in the averages. I got the figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_... and https://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/us/ https://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/us/ Is it that the median figures hide a lot of people earning less and paying more rent? That is, inequality is the problem rather than the averages. > Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, Surely a lot of the low paid workers are in service industries; how are they subject to global pressure? It's not as if a restaurant can employ cheap Vietnamese labour.
  - yeezul 7y ago
    Lot's of what we (most other first world countries) take for granted is not present in the US. Health care insurance for example can eat a good chunk of that 3.6kUSD: the average cost of individual health insurance premiums is $440 for an individual and &1,168 for a family, in 2018 according to eHealth [1] 1: https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-family/how-much-does-individual-health-insurance-cost https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-fa...
    - kwhitefoot 7y ago
      > and &1,168 for a family Ouch! That makes health insurance behave like a very regressive tax. In contrast in Germany where they have compulsory insurance it is only 7.6% to 15% of your salary, so something between USD 273 and USD 540 for a family. See https://www.sympat.me/germany-healthcare-insurance/ https://www.sympat.me/germany-healthcare-insurance/.
rabboRubble 7y ago
40% of Americans did not have enough savings to weather a $400 emergency, even before this crisis. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/20/heres-why-so-many-americans-cant-handle-a-400-unexpected-expense.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/20/heres-why-so-many-americans-... Covid-19 is going to strip bare all the niceties that allowed the other 60% of Americans to be oblivious to the financial frailty of the 40%. The next years will be very, very difficult for the country.

fit2rule 7y ago

It happens when the wealthiest country in the world spends more money on war fighting than the other top 10 military spenders in the world - instead of investing in its own infrastructure and social services, it is spending it on demolishing - and then reconstructing - the infrastructure of sovereign states its politically-powerful religious class have deemed enemies of their ideology. It happens, because America has not been about the American people for decades. America is mostly focused on the destruction of sovereign states it finds guilty of being un-American in style. Did everyone just suddenly forget that this is the country that has spent more on destroying sovereign states around the world, in the last 50 years, than any other country in the history of the world?

akvadrako 7y ago
USA spends 3.1% of GDP on military - which is close to the 2% mandated by NATO. That isn't the reason people can't get food.
- fit2rule 7y ago
  GDP: Irrelevant, if you are digging your beloved out from the rubble. Good luck with that.
- voisin 7y ago
  Wouldn’t the more appropriate metric be military spending as a percentage of government expenditures? The point being made above is that other governments spend on things useful to the populace and not war. I think by pointing at % of GDP another key point is lost: lower taxes than other countries. The US gov’t takes in less as a % if GDP and what it does take in it disproportionately spends on things that do not benefit the average Joe.
  - akvadrako 7y ago
    Well no, gov spending is not more appropriate than gdp for exactly the reason you mention. If taxes are lower and hence less money is spent on social support, that has nothing to do with the military. Still I don’t think that applies much to the USA - I think the total tax burden is comparable in many states. Medica* and SS are also huge parts of the budget.

lidHanteyk 7y ago

Fascism and Christianity. Fascism makes it okay to alienate and harm large swaths of the population, creating self-blame amongst the poor; Christianity makes it acceptable to give handouts and second-rate care to people and call it the charity of God. And yeah, it's fucking insane. But it's also how people want to live, it would seem. It's hard not to look at the voting patterns in the USA and conclude that certain areas do this intentionally.

sendbitcoins 7y ago

Rents are high, wages are low. Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, but we sure could make housing cheaper.

kwhitefoot 7y ago
Figures I found for 2017 say US median household rent is about 1 kUSD and median income about 3.6 kUSD. That doesn't sound too bad to me (seen from Norway where 1 kUSD gets you a one bedroom flat or less) so I presume that there must be important details not revealed in the averages. I got the figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_... and https://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/us/ https://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/us/ Is it that the median figures hide a lot of people earning less and paying more rent? That is, inequality is the problem rather than the averages. > Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, Surely a lot of the low paid workers are in service industries; how are they subject to global pressure? It's not as if a restaurant can employ cheap Vietnamese labour.
- yeezul 7y ago
  Lot's of what we (most other first world countries) take for granted is not present in the US. Health care insurance for example can eat a good chunk of that 3.6kUSD: the average cost of individual health insurance premiums is $440 for an individual and &1,168 for a family, in 2018 according to eHealth [1] 1: https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-family/how-much-does-individual-health-insurance-cost https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-fa...
  - kwhitefoot 7y ago
    > and &1,168 for a family Ouch! That makes health insurance behave like a very regressive tax. In contrast in Germany where they have compulsory insurance it is only 7.6% to 15% of your salary, so something between USD 273 and USD 540 for a family. See https://www.sympat.me/germany-healthcare-insurance/ https://www.sympat.me/germany-healthcare-insurance/.

rabboRubble 7y ago

40% of Americans did not have enough savings to weather a $400 emergency, even before this crisis. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/20/heres-why-so-many-americans-cant-handle-a-400-unexpected-expense.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/20/heres-why-so-many-americans-... Covid-19 is going to strip bare all the niceties that allowed the other 60% of Americans to be oblivious to the financial frailty of the 40%. The next years will be very, very difficult for the country.