4 ms·

A small percentage of today's work goes towards these things (except the Internet, which is an endless sinkhole of mostly pointless labour).

refurb 4y ago
The OECD average GDP spent on healthcare is 9.9% (US spends 17%). That mean 1 out of every 10 dollars of economic activity go to healthcare alone. So you could your 40 hour work week back to 4 hours, that would just pay for healthcare, and healthcare only.
- MomoXenosaga 4y ago
  Considering health is quite literally the most important thing in your life (can't spend it when you're dead anyway unlike the Egyptian pharaohs) I do not understand why so many complain about the cost of healthcare.
  - brimble 4y ago
    If healthcare cost 80% of GDP, would you still not understand?
    - AniseAbyss 4y ago
      If that 80% kept you alive? No. But when you are twenty I suppose one sees health differently. When you are 60 and take a bunch of pills to keep yourself from dying it suddenly all makes sense...
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        At a certain point... how many hours of your life are you willing to spend working to extend your life by an average of 1 month / 500 waking hours? If almost all of GDP was healthcare, with costs dramatically increasing with age, then that number climbs for each additional month and reaches into the thousands. I wouldn't make that trade, especially because I'd be spending so many of those hours in my early to mid life.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  Except that's the healthcare industry including large swathes of money going to parasites like student loan providers and opiate pushers as a whole, not 'modern medicine' or 'antibiotics'. Cuba's standard of healthcare is a reasonable compromise, and their total spending per capita is 2% of the USA's gdp per capita. The internet as a tool for sharing information rather than an endless red queen's race of scammers is similarly cheap. And yes please, let's get rid of the private automobile. Without it we can build dense enough that walking (or transit or bikes) will get you where you are going far faster than driving 5x as far at an average of 30km/h does now.
  - AniseAbyss 4y ago
- beaconstudios 4y ago
  Cash spent on an activity does not reflect the time that it takes, doubly so if you were able to reduce the administrative layers involved in eg health insurance.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  > So you could your 40 hour work week back to 4 hours, that would just pay for healthcare, and healthcare only. Sure! I like modern healthcare! And then 4 more hours to pay for the rest of a 1920 standard of living. And 4 more for extra disposable income. Let's say that's two days a week for 6 hours each. Sounds pretty good.
  - refurb 4y ago
    What’s stopping you?
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      It's really hard to get a job with such nonstandard hours, and also the housing market is extremely screwed up, and wages haven't risen enough with productivity gains, among other things. But my choice isn't what's important here. What's important is that you don't have to give up the vast majority of modern amenities because those are usually very cheap.

refurb 4y ago

The OECD average GDP spent on healthcare is 9.9% (US spends 17%). That mean 1 out of every 10 dollars of economic activity go to healthcare alone. So you could your 40 hour work week back to 4 hours, that would just pay for healthcare, and healthcare only.

MomoXenosaga 4y ago
Considering health is quite literally the most important thing in your life (can't spend it when you're dead anyway unlike the Egyptian pharaohs) I do not understand why so many complain about the cost of healthcare.
- brimble 4y ago
  If healthcare cost 80% of GDP, would you still not understand?
  - AniseAbyss 4y ago
    If that 80% kept you alive? No. But when you are twenty I suppose one sees health differently. When you are 60 and take a bunch of pills to keep yourself from dying it suddenly all makes sense...
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      At a certain point... how many hours of your life are you willing to spend working to extend your life by an average of 1 month / 500 waking hours? If almost all of GDP was healthcare, with costs dramatically increasing with age, then that number climbs for each additional month and reaches into the thousands. I wouldn't make that trade, especially because I'd be spending so many of those hours in my early to mid life.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
Except that's the healthcare industry including large swathes of money going to parasites like student loan providers and opiate pushers as a whole, not 'modern medicine' or 'antibiotics'. Cuba's standard of healthcare is a reasonable compromise, and their total spending per capita is 2% of the USA's gdp per capita. The internet as a tool for sharing information rather than an endless red queen's race of scammers is similarly cheap. And yes please, let's get rid of the private automobile. Without it we can build dense enough that walking (or transit or bikes) will get you where you are going far faster than driving 5x as far at an average of 30km/h does now.
- AniseAbyss 4y ago
beaconstudios 4y ago
Cash spent on an activity does not reflect the time that it takes, doubly so if you were able to reduce the administrative layers involved in eg health insurance.
Dylan16807 4y ago
> So you could your 40 hour work week back to 4 hours, that would just pay for healthcare, and healthcare only. Sure! I like modern healthcare! And then 4 more hours to pay for the rest of a 1920 standard of living. And 4 more for extra disposable income. Let's say that's two days a week for 6 hours each. Sounds pretty good.
- refurb 4y ago
  What’s stopping you?
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    It's really hard to get a job with such nonstandard hours, and also the housing market is extremely screwed up, and wages haven't risen enough with productivity gains, among other things. But my choice isn't what's important here. What's important is that you don't have to give up the vast majority of modern amenities because those are usually very cheap.