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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Henrik Ohrstrom <henrik.ohrstrom@gmail.com> <br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, 8 November, 2026 12:33 PM<br><b>To:</b> Gregory Jones <spike@rainier66.com><br><b>Cc:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Why is "cost of living" such a big problem?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Now we are cooking with gas!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thank you. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Well I do have a number of suggestions. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Many of those would rightfully trigger a socialist averse response and so despite being objectively right (duh) not useful since what's objectively right is highly subjective. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I would like to start with true capitalism since much of the problems are (my opinion but I think you will have problems showing something else) a flawed market who calls itself free but is anything but that.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>That is an over regulated market for healthcare, insurance, medicines, medtech and medical research. This flawed market priorities 3party income over the customer/patient.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The patient can not be a free actor in this market since everything the patient interact with have a massive legislative disadvantage for the patient/customer and gives an unfair advantage to the other side.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Remove all the artificial blocks for a free market and you will eventually come to the same level as everyone else with a free market. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If you also make it possible to form a co-op for most customers to join forces and economy to become an equal actor, equal with the different healthcare industries and pharmas then you will have reasonable healthcare to an reasonable price.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>That is perfectly possible to achieve in a fully capitalistic setting as long as the insurance companies are economicaly loyal to their customers and not external "investors" aka economical predators.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The proof is in the care pudding, plenty places in the world have perfectly tolerable healthcare despite beeing highly capitalistic. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Just keep out the artificial protection of predators and let the customers freely chose who will represent them in the market.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Some socialist leanings makes this easier for the common customer but is despite my opinions not all that necessary. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>/Henrik <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Henrik I cannot claim to understand your answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>I will suggest one however. In the USA, one is legally required to have health insurance. If one cannot afford it, one can apply for subsidized health insurance. Problem: the US government cannot balance its budget and will be unable to pay for that much longer. Answer: move all government subsidies of health insurance to the state level. The US federal government is out of other people’s money but the states are not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><o:p> </o:p></p></blockquote></div></blockquote></div></body></html>