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If you pay much more and get worse results that's objectively not OK. It means the system is inefficient and could be easily improved saving lives and money. >

by ajuc 2mo ago

If you pay much more and get worse results that's objectively not OK. It means the system is inefficient and could be easily improved saving lives and money. > Bad life expectancy is concentrated in the poorest Americans. Which is not a good thing to say about this country, but it does mean that most Americans live longer. I've seen this defence many times, in different contexts, and it always strikes me as very strange. Why do you assume most Americans are rich? And why do you assume they are the ones that matter? Very weird. But let's take it at face value. Looking at the graph of life expectancy vs percentile of income - US seems to be below 80 years for 50th percentile: https://preview.redd.it/at-every-income-level-us-americans-live-shorter-lives-than-v0-o0bgbvq6t3ra1.jpg?auto=webp&s=382645f76c5013a9f78e4e528947321722cd564a https://preview.redd.it/at-every-income-level-us-americans-l... Which would make your point false regardless of the weirdness of it. Another interesting graph: https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8yG0N6HnOy8g/37516ca3-0ff6-4e48-25d7-e8e8b5be2f00/w=1350 https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8... I would not call it "OK". > What do we call a place like Hungary which is quite a bit below the US here? I could do the trick you did, sayign that Hungary has the same life expectancy as Illinois, and richer parts of EU has better life expectancy, therefore Hungary doesn't matter. That would be disingenious tho. It does matter, and healthcare in Hungary obviously isn't doing OK. It is more cost-effective than US tho.

wat10000 2mo ago
> Why do you assume most Americans are rich? And why do you assume they are the ones that matter? Very weird. But let's take it at face value. Seriously? The quote you're responding to divides Americans up into "the poorest" and everyone else. By definition, most Americans are not "the poorest." I'm not assuming anything. This comment tree is very frustrating. People don't seem to understand the idea of metrics, or "objectively," toss out sophomoric "America bad" nonsense like, "you don't get paid vacation" (almost everyone does), "you go bankrupt if you get cancer" (almost nobody does), "you work more than other rich countries" (we don't), and act like any correction is a equivalent to saying we're the best. There are real criticisms to be made about the US. There are ways in which the US is behind other wealthy nations and we shouldn't be. But it is very much not "basically a third-world country masquerading as a first-world one...."

by ajuc 2mo ago

wat10000 2mo ago

> Why do you assume most Americans are rich? And why do you assume they are the ones that matter? Very weird. But let's take it at face value. Seriously? The quote you're responding to divides Americans up into "the poorest" and everyone else. By definition, most Americans are not "the poorest." I'm not assuming anything. This comment tree is very frustrating. People don't seem to understand the idea of metrics, or "objectively," toss out sophomoric "America bad" nonsense like, "you don't get paid vacation" (almost everyone does), "you go bankrupt if you get cancer" (almost nobody does), "you work more than other rich countries" (we don't), and act like any correction is a equivalent to saying we're the best. There are real criticisms to be made about the US. There are ways in which the US is behind other wealthy nations and we shouldn't be. But it is very much not "basically a third-world country masquerading as a first-world one...."