[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Wed Mar 29 19:17:23 UTC 2017


On 29 March 2017 at 17:37, spike  wrote:
<snip>
> I have heard the stagnation of wages theory and perhaps it is right.  But in the 1960s we were still in a post-war prosperity.  Of course US wages will eventually reach parity with the other countries, and probably fall behind.  On the other hand, I am constantly reminded of what a terrific time it is to be poor.  So much cool stuff is free now.  Khan Academy and many of the other online education resources allow anyone with a 50 dollar internet-capable device to access all that excellent material absolutely free, study up as much as we want, learn anything we want, all that free nekkidness (that used to cost so much (if one could get it at all (and so much better than National Geographic))) all the sports, science, technology and entertainment a prole can devour, all the new science instruments dumping all that cool data on us, all of it just sitting out there available to all.  A lot of cities have a competent enough food bank, and the local Salvation Army will put clothing on a body, oh such a time to be alive, such a time.
>
> So ja, I have heard the stagnant wages theory, but it seems less than compelling to me.
> We have long heard the best things in life are free.  Only recently has it become literally true.


The big increase in suicide rates is for a quite specific group.
Full pdf report here:
<https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/6_casedeaton.pdf>

"In 1999, the mortality rate of white non-Hispanics aged 50-54 with
only a high school degree was 30 percent lower than the mortality rate
of blacks in the same age group," Case and Deaton wrote." In 2015, it
was 30 percent higher."

All white non-Hispanic age groups (male and female) with high school
or less education increased suicides to some extent, but the bigger
increases were over age 50, when they appear to give up on life.

The problem is to think of reasons that apply to that specific USA group only.
Not blacks, college educated people or people in other countries.

>From the report:
We have seen that it is difficult to link the increasing distress in
midlife to the obvious contemporaneous
aggregate factors such as income or unemployment.
.
What our data show is that the patterns of mortality and morbidity for
white non-Hispanics without a college degree move together over
lifetimes and birth cohorts, and that they move in tandem with other
social dysfunctions, including the decline of marriage, social
isolation, and detachment from the labor force.
------------

Sounds like a breakdown in that level of society. No prospects, loads
of problems, nobody cares, pointless existence, etc.
Of course the ones that don't suicide are angry.  A problem for the
future to deal with.

BillK




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