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The US is special due to the unique absence of a safety net, compared to all other developed countries. Not only will you have almost no income (unemployment be

The US is special due to the unique absence of a safety net, compared to all other developed countries. Not only will you have almost no income (unemployment benefits are a joke), but you can lose everything once you lose your health insurance and have an accident/illness. People work extra-hard in order to not be in that bottom 10% that is going to be cut. I cannot speak for Japan as I know very little about their workaholic culture, but it seems more performative - just toil in the office after hours to look productive.

eru 2y ago
> The US is special due to the unique absence of a safety net, compared to all other developed countries. Not only will you have almost no income (unemployment benefits are a joke), [...] My adopted home of Singapore is a lot more developed than the US, and we don't even have unemployment benefits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_welfare_spending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_we... tells me that in 2019 the US spent 18.7% of GDP on social welfare. That's behind the UK at 20.6%, and ahead of the Netherlands at 16.7% of GDP. I don't know what the US is spending those 18.7% of GDP on, but I find it strange to believe that there would be no safety net at all given the huge level of spending. (Also keep in mind that GDP per capita is higher in the US than in the UK or the Netherlands. France tops Wikipedia's list with 31.2% of GDP spent on social welfare. Given French GDP per capita of ~40k USD that adds up to ~12k USD per person per year. For the US we get ~76k USD * 18.7% = ~14k USD. That's more than the French spent.) Yet again, I suspect you think the US is more special than it actually is. (Though the US might be unique in having the highest absolute social welfare spending per capita. Not sure. I guess some of the petro states of the Middle East or perhaps Luxembourg might give God's Own Country a run for her money there?)

eru 2y ago

> The US is special due to the unique absence of a safety net, compared to all other developed countries. Not only will you have almost no income (unemployment benefits are a joke), [...] My adopted home of Singapore is a lot more developed than the US, and we don't even have unemployment benefits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_welfare_spending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_we... tells me that in 2019 the US spent 18.7% of GDP on social welfare. That's behind the UK at 20.6%, and ahead of the Netherlands at 16.7% of GDP. I don't know what the US is spending those 18.7% of GDP on, but I find it strange to believe that there would be no safety net at all given the huge level of spending. (Also keep in mind that GDP per capita is higher in the US than in the UK or the Netherlands. France tops Wikipedia's list with 31.2% of GDP spent on social welfare. Given French GDP per capita of ~40k USD that adds up to ~12k USD per person per year. For the US we get ~76k USD * 18.7% = ~14k USD. That's more than the French spent.) Yet again, I suspect you think the US is more special than it actually is. (Though the US might be unique in having the highest absolute social welfare spending per capita. Not sure. I guess some of the petro states of the Middle East or perhaps Luxembourg might give God's Own Country a run for her money there?)