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Yes, having government involved always creates inflation. It's no coincidence that the two areas with most government involvement, education and health care, ar

Yes, having government involved always creates inflation. It's no coincidence that the two areas with most government involvement, education and health care, are the things that have outpaced every other measure of inflation significantly.

bonzini 5y ago
Of course in both cases this is only true in the US.
- tonfreed 5y ago
  My 4 year bachelor's degree in Australia still cost me $60000. I'm still not convinced it was worth it
  - GoOnThenDoTell 5y ago
    I was surprised to hear this, I had thought it was about 30k Found a per-year table, appears to depend on what degree topic https://student.unsw.edu.au/fees-student-contribution-rates https://student.unsw.edu.au/fees-student-contribution-rates A 4year engineering degree (likely what the HN crowd is interested in) is about A$32k / US$24k Whereas law/commerce/medicine is A$60k
  - devenson 5y ago
    plus lost wages for four years.
chiefalchemist 5y ago
And let's not forget housing. (Our government) making large loans more available and cheaper drives up demand for the intended goods/services. That, naturally, drives up price. It's difficult to understand why so many people advocate for even more government "intervention" (i.e., do more to increase the availability and cost of loans).
LatteLazy 5y ago
I think your point is respectfully very American. Here in the UK we have some the cheapest healthcare in the western world with a nationalised system. I actually agree that the US government often causes inflation. But that's because everyone in the states seems to love government subsidies and no one in the states likes regulation, price control, etc. Whether you're a government or not, subsidising X without regulating consumption or controlling the prices of X will lead to inflation... An example of what I'm talking about is American high school. State schools have much lower prices per kid than private. Because the state starts with a fixed budget and works from there. Imagine if instead government required "education insurance" like health insurance. And insurers were required to pay for anything the teacher decided was required...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Yes, having government involved always creates inflation. No it doesn't. > It's no coincidence that the two areas with most government involvement, education and health care, are the things that have outpaced every other measure of inflation significantly. The government is less (EDIT: more) involved (proportionate to total expenditures in the domain) in healthcare lots of places outside the US without equal, much less greater, healthcare inflation. It is the manner, not the mere fact of government involvement that produces inflation.
- ghufran_syed 5y ago
  It sounds like you’re saying that places with less government involvement have less healthcare inflation - isn’t what the comment you are replying to is arguing?
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > It sounds like you’re saying that places with less government involvement have less healthcare inflation Yeah, it did; that was an error.
jmull 5y ago
The success of the more socialized approaches to healthcare relative to the partially-private US approach suggest we need more government involvement in healthcare. Much cheaper, better outcomes, more people covered.
Aunche 5y ago
The problem is that "government involvement" in the US is synonymous with "throw money at the problem." It's a easy way to get results in the short term, so which gets you political approval, but in the long term, it just creates a money black hole.

bonzini 5y ago

Of course in both cases this is only true in the US.

tonfreed 5y ago
My 4 year bachelor's degree in Australia still cost me $60000. I'm still not convinced it was worth it
- GoOnThenDoTell 5y ago
  I was surprised to hear this, I had thought it was about 30k Found a per-year table, appears to depend on what degree topic https://student.unsw.edu.au/fees-student-contribution-rates https://student.unsw.edu.au/fees-student-contribution-rates A 4year engineering degree (likely what the HN crowd is interested in) is about A$32k / US$24k Whereas law/commerce/medicine is A$60k
- devenson 5y ago
  plus lost wages for four years.

chiefalchemist 5y ago

And let's not forget housing. (Our government) making large loans more available and cheaper drives up demand for the intended goods/services. That, naturally, drives up price. It's difficult to understand why so many people advocate for even more government "intervention" (i.e., do more to increase the availability and cost of loans).

LatteLazy 5y ago

I think your point is respectfully very American. Here in the UK we have some the cheapest healthcare in the western world with a nationalised system. I actually agree that the US government often causes inflation. But that's because everyone in the states seems to love government subsidies and no one in the states likes regulation, price control, etc. Whether you're a government or not, subsidising X without regulating consumption or controlling the prices of X will lead to inflation... An example of what I'm talking about is American high school. State schools have much lower prices per kid than private. Because the state starts with a fixed budget and works from there. Imagine if instead government required "education insurance" like health insurance. And insurers were required to pay for anything the teacher decided was required...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dragonwriter 5y ago

> Yes, having government involved always creates inflation. No it doesn't. > It's no coincidence that the two areas with most government involvement, education and health care, are the things that have outpaced every other measure of inflation significantly. The government is less (EDIT: more) involved (proportionate to total expenditures in the domain) in healthcare lots of places outside the US without equal, much less greater, healthcare inflation. It is the manner, not the mere fact of government involvement that produces inflation.

ghufran_syed 5y ago
It sounds like you’re saying that places with less government involvement have less healthcare inflation - isn’t what the comment you are replying to is arguing?
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > It sounds like you’re saying that places with less government involvement have less healthcare inflation Yeah, it did; that was an error.

jmull 5y ago

The success of the more socialized approaches to healthcare relative to the partially-private US approach suggest we need more government involvement in healthcare. Much cheaper, better outcomes, more people covered.

Aunche 5y ago

The problem is that "government involvement" in the US is synonymous with "throw money at the problem." It's a easy way to get results in the short term, so which gets you political approval, but in the long term, it just creates a money black hole.