https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1551900690741690370?t=iGkbRllXde4FXiJZwzhrrg&s=19
This is actually a fairly insightful comment into the brain of your typical American labor aristocrat / middle class white person. I actually believe Matt here looks around what he thinks is "society" and it does seem to him that everyone is basically doing ok. We're so incredibly atomized, it's almost difficult to see the broader society beyond our immediate social circles. Because Matt is part of the comfortable class, most everyone he knows is too. So that's what he sees. And media - both news and entertainment - only replicates this view as it's part of the superstructure that reinforces capitalism. I mean, how often do you see a show on TV about a working class family that's struggling vs a family with a dad with an ambiguous job and mom that stays at home yet they have a 3,000 sq ft house and money is never a concern?
Of course none of this is an excuse. Matt could spend 5 minutes online and find out that no, a lot of folks are struggling and our "healthcare" system is a nightmare. But that may cause him to confront his own views and at the end of the day he's just a momo with a twitter account so...
Matty is a political writer and “journalist” paid 6 figures a year to research and then report what is actually happening. Complete failure of a human being. No gulag, only wall
I agree with you btw, I just fucking hate this guy
Hal leads a worker uprising at a grocery store as well. And in a later season it turns out he's been skipping every Friday at work for years. True proletarian hero
By most people he means most people he knows. If you can afford it, US healthcare is great.
:this: And the people who are capable of making the necessary reforms belong to the group that has the good healthcare
US healthcare sucks for anyone with a net worth less than like $50 million. Unless you’re so rich you can access the secret rich people adrenochrome doctors US healthcare sucks
some Native American counties have lower life expectancy than many developing countries :lmayo:
Pine Ridge Reservation's life expectancy is lower than Haiti, making it the lowest in the western hemisphere. Tons of counties in the rural black belt are nearly there as well
what happens to people without insurance, matthew? how many people die every year because they don't have insurance or can't afford to see a doctor, matthew?
Most people have insurance so the status quo is pretty good for most people. I am very smart.
At least make some point about how no other system can work in US or something surface level believable like that.
Its like going "Uh actually hot take but the US military basically never kills anyone who didnt deserve it" rather than hand wringing about chaos of war, unavoidable costs, overall good and shit like that, you just look stupid.
Only if the US compares themselves to counties with zero resources while ignoring how much the US spends on healthcare does it look "good"
For the amount of money and resources the US has gained, their healthcare is shit. They destroyed the global south, for this?
They destroyed the global south, for this?
It’s wild, Americans don’t even benefit from the empire. If global wealth was distributed equally most Americans would be wealthier than they are. The only Americans that benefit are the handful of unfathomably rich ghouls at the very top. Europe reaps the benefits of US empire more than Americans do
If global wealth was distributed equally most Americans would be wealthier than they are
I remember reading this as well and it's insane. Most EU citizens would, obviously, be poorer than they are if that happened, and rightly so.
US citizens live in the imperial core, exist in a society that rests solely on genocide and a global network of exploitation, torture, and general horror on a planetary scale, and they don't even benefit from it. And the most amazing thing is, they don't even revolt. They might be the most pathetic of all in the :lmayo: world, while simultaneously being personally and deeply convinced they're the most rugged and hard to subdue people of the world.
Capitalists used to get this. The new deal was funded by empire and was done to stave off communist revolution. But still it was done. Now they can't even understand why they would do anything but rip the copper wire out of the walls of this country
Have you considered that if global wealth was distributed equally, that would be 1984 totalitarian Communism and it's exactly what George Orwell warned us about?
The US has worse health outcomes than a few countries that don't have reliable/constant electricity in their hospitals ffs
I don't know how you'd come to this take even as someone with insurance. Every single interaction I have with a doctor in the US, I have to try and work out if they're trying to upsell me on something because some admin yelled at them they weren't meeting their quota, and every time I end up walking out of there having spent way more money out of pocket than I should have because even the "best" insurance plans are still dogshit.
For example, did you know that a root canal costs something like $3k out-of-pocket with insurance on average? One of the most common and completely medically necessary procedures one could have, and yet it's out of reach for literally 80% of Americans. I don't know how you read that and not start humming the Internationale.
And people wonder why no one is buying houses, settling down and having kids anymore. With what fucking money?
For example, did you know that a root canal costs something like $3k out-of-pocket with insurance on average?
Yeah, I found that out the hard way. TIL, my dental plan - despite being riddled with deductions and copays - still has a $2000 cap on how much they'll pay in a year. So I'm still out triple digits for a procedure that's supposed to be the cheap, light-touch alternative to getting the whole tooth yanked and replaced with an implant.
One of the most common and completely medically necessary procedures one could have
Literally an entire profession dedicated just to doing root canals. Its a fucking specialty. Only in America does a specialized field of trade make the price go UP!
Going to find Milton Friedman's grave and shit on it.
I don’t know how you’d come to this take even as someone with insurance.
either by never getting sick or by being a massive, lying sack of shit who knows that contrarian ghoulishness is both an excellent driver for reader engagement and what the ruling class wants to hear from their pinocchios
Why is the comparison "Europe" vs the US. Is the data not OECD states comparison like every other similar comparison? 🤔
Edit: it's a 13 year old paper, not super quantitative in comparisons it often falls back to phrases like "on average so and so occurs later in 'Europe' than the US" without really a discussion of how that breaks down by European state, and without quantifying the size of the difference and confidence intervals. There are cultural aspects to cancer screening, in 2009 places were still very actively running ad campaigns to encourage cancer screenings, and these sort of cultural shifts aren't necessarily uniform. I don't think 13 year old results would necessarily be the same today. I don't think a European average is a good measure of US Healthcare performance. I don't think this is a public vs private debate as much as what guidelines are optimal debate. Further a fair analysis would look at lifetime mortality controlling for socioeconomic factors, the American system might do well for stuff that affects people ages 55+, but the issue might be that people die before these ages at higher rates due to how prohibitively expensive it is.
There is another problem with this study actually, by the time you get to age groups where cancer becomes more frequent you are more likely to qualify for medicaid. So of course the American Healthcare system starts doing well, it's just a European system for people at those age groups!
He's just saying shit to drive engagement. He might not even believe this. This is just a paycheck for him more or not
Most of the people who it isn't good for die, leaving a new "most" comprised of people who it didn't kill.
Like even if he is correct that 70% of Americans are completely satisfied with their healthcare, that doesn't change the horrors for the rest. It also doesn't mean that it still can't be better for those 70%. What a braindead take.
