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Car culture. housing, and healthcare. Healthcare costs an absolute fortune. If you're not paying it all out-of-pocket, it's being paid by insurance with big p

Car culture. housing, and healthcare. Healthcare costs an absolute fortune. If you're not paying it all out-of-pocket, it's being paid by insurance with big premiums from your paycheck. If you can't afford the full cost because you're too poor, middle-class people are subsidizing it for you from their paychecks. The middlemen (mostly insurance companies) are profiting hugely on the whole population here. Housing costs a fortune thanks to America's NIMBYism, zoning laws, and lack of construction. Finally, everyone needs an expensive car and all the costs associated (insurance, fuel, repairs), and I'm guessing America has the most lane-miles per capita of roads to maintain of any country (maybe Canada competes here). All these costs add up, and mean that American workers need a ton of money just to have a basic lifestyle. Personally, I think this is going to end up making American labor extremely uncompetitive on the global market. It already has in many industries, but it's just going to get worse, and other countries are catching up in development or have passed the US.

DeathArrow 3y ago
>Personally, I think this is going to end up making American labor extremely uncompetitive on the global market. As long as most countries depend on the US and most international transactions and lending is done in USD, that does not matter. US can buy in dollars and then print some to cover their debts. The only threat to this model is OPEC selling oil in other currencies and BRICS countries establishing a parallel financial system. But then, that's why US has the army and the three letter agencies, to assure against that.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  That doesn't make American labor competitive at all, on the global market. It just props up labor prices domestically, so servers can get paid a fortune (in global terms) so they can afford a shitty overpriced apartment and a personal car, whereas servers in other countries just walk or bicycle to work and get inexpensive healthcare and don't need as much money to live. But no one is going to pay American labor rates for manufactured goods, unless it's for F35s. So in the end, most Americans are just working at bullshit jobs, and the whole economy is propped up by its currency being the reserve currency. That's not what I'd consider a good long-term strategy for your society.

DeathArrow 3y ago

>Personally, I think this is going to end up making American labor extremely uncompetitive on the global market. As long as most countries depend on the US and most international transactions and lending is done in USD, that does not matter. US can buy in dollars and then print some to cover their debts. The only threat to this model is OPEC selling oil in other currencies and BRICS countries establishing a parallel financial system. But then, that's why US has the army and the three letter agencies, to assure against that.

shiroiuma 3y ago
That doesn't make American labor competitive at all, on the global market. It just props up labor prices domestically, so servers can get paid a fortune (in global terms) so they can afford a shitty overpriced apartment and a personal car, whereas servers in other countries just walk or bicycle to work and get inexpensive healthcare and don't need as much money to live. But no one is going to pay American labor rates for manufactured goods, unless it's for F35s. So in the end, most Americans are just working at bullshit jobs, and the whole economy is propped up by its currency being the reserve currency. That's not what I'd consider a good long-term strategy for your society.