4 ms·

My wife and I are fortunate. We're not wealthy by our standards, but I do recognize that we certainly would be considered wealthy by a lot of Americans. Our hou

My wife and I are fortunate. We're not wealthy by our standards, but I do recognize that we certainly would be considered wealthy by a lot of Americans. Our household income is about 4-5x the national average, and we have no children. My understanding of the stats informs me that our household income puts us in the top 2.5%. Certainly a very blessed situation to be in, and one that we both work very hard to achieve. But here's the striking truth about wealth distribution in our country... The power-law-ish distribution of our wealth means that quantitatively, as a percentile, I'm much closer to the "1%" than I am to the "50%". But qualitatively, the struggles I face -- saving for retirement, knowing that if I had a serious illness our cash flow would dry up, etc -- my life is nothing like the "1%". Another way to put it... I'm near the very top of the small pile of wealth shared by normal Americans. I'm having a hard time properly articulating this but I think you get the point. It's almost as if, by percentile, you'd think "wow, I really have earned a big slice of this pie" only to find out that more than half the pie was taken by 0.5% of Americans before it was ever put on the shelf to cool. That until you're invited to take a sliver from that first half, you'll never get more than crumbs of the share that's split 298.5 Million ways.

muhfuhkuh 14y ago
"knowing that if I had a serious illness our cash flow would dry up" I will never in my life understand how Americans (myself included) can think this is, in any way possible, okay. Or, how, if we just moved it more toward private companies having more control over our healthcare than they already do, that it'll get better. It's asinine.
- encoderer 14y ago
  I didn't mean that as a commentary on our healthcare system. I mean that my income would be reduced to whatever level our long-term disability insurance provides. Since you mentioned it, though: for people that are well-off in this country, the healthcare system works fine (more or less). That's probably a large source of the complacency. For both my wife and I, our health insurance plans are very good. They are paid 100% for us. They include a 10% co-insurance but a relatively low out of pocket cap.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    I agree on the last point, but I'd say it's more like it works "acceptably", as in you do more or less get healthcare in some fashion. If you're a salaried professional and have good health, it's more or less ok, with some weirdness around changing jobs (which is getting more common). It does become a huge problem still if you end up unlucky enough to have a major health problem earlyish in life, e.g. a congenital heart problem or cancer in remission. Then you in effect have to work for large companies to get into their group plans, be very careful about coverage gaps, and don't even think about doing freelance or a startup. It also produces weird moral dilemmas; for example, if you have a major preexisting condition and join a small company that offers health insurance, you may inadvertently be punching a big hole in their budget by massively worsening their employee risk pool from the perspective of the insurer (and the business isn't allowed to ask you about things like that before hiring). The other big anger-relieving valve is Medicare, which removes a large proportion of major illnesses (anything with onset age 65+) from the problem space that private-sector health insurance has to address. If the elderly had to buy health insurance on the private market, or alternatively have their insurance covered via employer pension plans, I don't think the system would work at all, and there would be a lot more angry people (who vote at high rates).
- arjunnarayan 14y ago
  I intend to migrate to Canada soon. Maybe one day this problem will be solved by the "free market" between nations --- through people voting with their feet at this unacceptable situation. I'm not holding my breath...

muhfuhkuh 14y ago

"knowing that if I had a serious illness our cash flow would dry up" I will never in my life understand how Americans (myself included) can think this is, in any way possible, okay. Or, how, if we just moved it more toward private companies having more control over our healthcare than they already do, that it'll get better. It's asinine.

encoderer 14y ago
I didn't mean that as a commentary on our healthcare system. I mean that my income would be reduced to whatever level our long-term disability insurance provides. Since you mentioned it, though: for people that are well-off in this country, the healthcare system works fine (more or less). That's probably a large source of the complacency. For both my wife and I, our health insurance plans are very good. They are paid 100% for us. They include a 10% co-insurance but a relatively low out of pocket cap.
- _delirium 14y ago
  I agree on the last point, but I'd say it's more like it works "acceptably", as in you do more or less get healthcare in some fashion. If you're a salaried professional and have good health, it's more or less ok, with some weirdness around changing jobs (which is getting more common). It does become a huge problem still if you end up unlucky enough to have a major health problem earlyish in life, e.g. a congenital heart problem or cancer in remission. Then you in effect have to work for large companies to get into their group plans, be very careful about coverage gaps, and don't even think about doing freelance or a startup. It also produces weird moral dilemmas; for example, if you have a major preexisting condition and join a small company that offers health insurance, you may inadvertently be punching a big hole in their budget by massively worsening their employee risk pool from the perspective of the insurer (and the business isn't allowed to ask you about things like that before hiring). The other big anger-relieving valve is Medicare, which removes a large proportion of major illnesses (anything with onset age 65+) from the problem space that private-sector health insurance has to address. If the elderly had to buy health insurance on the private market, or alternatively have their insurance covered via employer pension plans, I don't think the system would work at all, and there would be a lot more angry people (who vote at high rates).
arjunnarayan 14y ago
I intend to migrate to Canada soon. Maybe one day this problem will be solved by the "free market" between nations --- through people voting with their feet at this unacceptable situation. I'm not holding my breath...