[ExI] Why is “cost of living” such a big problem?

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 02/11/2026 23:39, spike wrote:
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> From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
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> >…But why are we the only country that has that problem? Why is our medical qualification system so enormously more expensive than every other rich country on the planet when our cumbersome system does NOT produce better doctors? In fact, judging from the results Doctors in Japan, Germany, the UK and many other nations are BETTER than US doctors.  And if the law allowed AI to diagnose patients and prescribed drugs they could do a better job than even foreign doctors, and do it for less than 1% of the cost. 
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> John K Clark
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> I can offer recent firsthand experience.  The doctors here do use AI.  Advice: if you have any exotic condition, do not go to any research hospital.  You will be seen by parades of medical school professors teaching their students and interns to spot your condition, even if they might only see it a dozen times in a typical career.
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> The doctors use the heck out of AI now, and a patient dang well can use that too (I do) but the medics also have access to enormous piles of capital in the form of instrumentation.  All that must be paid for, so do not go to any research hospital where such capital intensive devices as an MRI machine is available.  Otherwise they will stuff you in there at the slightest provocation, appearing to look for excuses to poke you head first into their expensive machine.  It is a most unpleasant experience if one must have MRI done on one’s head.  
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> If one has minimal insurance, then no problem, they won’t let one near that machine, even if one has actual visible tumors falling from one’s ear.  The machine is used only by those who have good insurance (which is expensive as hell (because those good insurance policies are paying for everything.))
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> One of the benefits we were told would result from the “Affordable” “Care” Act was that the poor could get health insurance.  The problem is that most of them don’t.  They never apply for the health insurance, even if they can get it free.  When they show up at the hospital, the medics can’t do much for them, for even glancing at the uninsured patient is done at a loss to the hospital.  The doctors seeing uninsured patients have nothing to bill to.
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> With regard to Europe, I will offer this as an astonishing observation from my marvelous vacation there last year: Europe has waaaaay fewer flabmeisters than we have.  Any time one goes into the local Walmart or Costco, one sees flabberdemalions rolling about on those electric butt-haulers.  I don’t recall seeing any of those in Europe.  I understand there is a pill now which takes care of that.  We can’t blame the health system for that, but it is likely to have a big impact on longevity.


I don't understand this.

You're all chasing mosquitos round the room while a tiger is stalking you.

There is one clear cause for the ridiculously high expense of healthcare in the US: Already-rich people making making even more money from the suffering of poor people.

Healthcare being a profit-centre is not only morally wrong, it's bad for the economy. Keeping large numbers of people in poor health can't be a good economic strategy.

I don't know why none of you are acknowledging this. Just because it's a very difficult problem to solve doesn't mean you should be ignoring it.

Or is anyone going to seriously claim that I'm wrong?
-- 
Ben
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Pablo Casals, via Albert Einstein