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The median isn't a good indicator for inequality. The Gini index is higher in the US than in most European countries (although the difference is admittedly not

The median isn't a good indicator for inequality. The Gini index is higher in the US than in most European countries (although the difference is admittedly not huge). I think Europe in general just manages to take care of the most vulnerable better. You can't bankrupt yourself because you have cancer - the plot of Breaking Bad doesn't make sense in Europe.

alephnerd 3y ago
I'd largely agree - the bottom 10% in Europe will have a better life than the bottom 10% in the US. That said, even factoring post-tax Gini, American QoL isn't all that different from the UK or Japan. The only large (>50mil pop) European countries with a better HDI than the US is Germany and the UK (though the UK is barely higher than the US). In 2023, France, Spain, and Italy all have developmental indicators the US reached in the early 2000s. So why is Europe so behind the US that much less developed countries like China and India, and formerly developing countries like Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan can outcompete European countries in various sectors of innovation?
- Tainnor 3y ago
  I don't think there's a single reason why European countries in general aren't always as competitive and/or developed as they could be. In the case of Italy, there's an absolutely massive north-south divide, the total breakdown of the political system in the 90s followed by a succession of mostly awful (and short-lived) governments, a general skepticism towards the common good and, in the South, the Mafia. In the case of Spain, it used to be a dictatorship until the 70s and there's still tension between the various language communities. I don't know enough about France, but it probably has its fair share of issues as well. Common to the EU as a whole is a lack of a common language (an app in English or Chinese can just naturally target a much wider audience), the Euro crisis (and austerity politics), the current energy crisis, the migration crisis, etc. Also, almost all European countries and especially their democracies are really young compared to the US. And yes, I do think that there's also a fair share of Europeans that are just complacent and think that the good days will last forever, but I'm not sure that's the biggest factor.
philwelch 3y ago
> the plot of Breaking Bad doesn't make sense in Europe. It’s not that Walter was going to be bankrupted by the cost of cancer treatment; it’s that the health insurance he has as a public schoolteacher does not pay for the level of cancer treatment he would like to get. Public health care does not always pay for top-of-the-line cancer treatment even in European countries and wealthy Europeans will sometimes travel to the United States and pay out of pocket for medical treatment. During roughly the same period of time Breaking Bad originally aired, the manager of FC Barcelona, Tito Vilanova, took multiple trips to New York for his own cancer treatment. So at least in this respect, the plot of Breaking Bad would have made just as much sense in Spain as it did in New Mexico.
- Novosell 3y ago
  Doesn't he just do chemo? Is chemo considered a fancy treatment?
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    The show‘s plot does not make sense after the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 which eliminated benefit maximums and implemented out of pocket maximums. After 2010, Walter’s treatment would have been fully paid for.

alephnerd 3y ago

I'd largely agree - the bottom 10% in Europe will have a better life than the bottom 10% in the US. That said, even factoring post-tax Gini, American QoL isn't all that different from the UK or Japan. The only large (>50mil pop) European countries with a better HDI than the US is Germany and the UK (though the UK is barely higher than the US). In 2023, France, Spain, and Italy all have developmental indicators the US reached in the early 2000s. So why is Europe so behind the US that much less developed countries like China and India, and formerly developing countries like Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan can outcompete European countries in various sectors of innovation?

Tainnor 3y ago
I don't think there's a single reason why European countries in general aren't always as competitive and/or developed as they could be. In the case of Italy, there's an absolutely massive north-south divide, the total breakdown of the political system in the 90s followed by a succession of mostly awful (and short-lived) governments, a general skepticism towards the common good and, in the South, the Mafia. In the case of Spain, it used to be a dictatorship until the 70s and there's still tension between the various language communities. I don't know enough about France, but it probably has its fair share of issues as well. Common to the EU as a whole is a lack of a common language (an app in English or Chinese can just naturally target a much wider audience), the Euro crisis (and austerity politics), the current energy crisis, the migration crisis, etc. Also, almost all European countries and especially their democracies are really young compared to the US. And yes, I do think that there's also a fair share of Europeans that are just complacent and think that the good days will last forever, but I'm not sure that's the biggest factor.

philwelch 3y ago

> the plot of Breaking Bad doesn't make sense in Europe. It’s not that Walter was going to be bankrupted by the cost of cancer treatment; it’s that the health insurance he has as a public schoolteacher does not pay for the level of cancer treatment he would like to get. Public health care does not always pay for top-of-the-line cancer treatment even in European countries and wealthy Europeans will sometimes travel to the United States and pay out of pocket for medical treatment. During roughly the same period of time Breaking Bad originally aired, the manager of FC Barcelona, Tito Vilanova, took multiple trips to New York for his own cancer treatment. So at least in this respect, the plot of Breaking Bad would have made just as much sense in Spain as it did in New Mexico.

Novosell 3y ago
Doesn't he just do chemo? Is chemo considered a fancy treatment?
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  The show‘s plot does not make sense after the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 which eliminated benefit maximums and implemented out of pocket maximums. After 2010, Walter’s treatment would have been fully paid for.