I feel as though the low standard of living of the average Chinese national is a more decisive factor. The resources that could be spent on public welfare programs are spent on research and subsidies instead.
I mean, resources aren’t being spent on public welfare programs in the US either. We only have a higher standard of living because of the legacy of (roughly) the New Deal era, when we were investing in it as well as unions winning a lot of labor reforms. Those preexisting advantages have only been slowly eroding for the last 40-odd years.
Let’s say I get into a car accident or have cancer. Treatment involves expensive chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and multiple rounds of major surgery.
If I’m in the poorest 10%-30% of the population, the care is provided free of charge. If I’m poor-but not that poor- I have the option to receive the expensive treatment and just not pay. It will just negatively impact my credit score, but I can also get away with “paying what I can afford.”
…this is just one example. Everything from our food to our electronics are subsidized by the government. Most of the resources are more or less taken from poorer nations. If they don’t play ball, we withhold aid, bribe officials, loan their enemies weapons, or finance a coup.
Saying ‘It will just negatively impact your credit score’ like it’s nothing in a capitalist nation where nearly all financial trust is based on how effectively you pay back your creditors is a pretty wild take.
Especially when a car and home are the bare minimum for most people to be able to function in the US (public transport is laughable anywhere outside a metropolis) and the average person isn’t getting either without a loan.
I wouldn’t be so quick to ignore medical debt. The average retired couple spends $350000 on medical expenses in the US. The system is a lot more dysfunctional than you make it out to be.
Running up medical debt, declaring bankruptcy, and expecting the inflated costs being charged by the insurance system to just sort of absorb it is entirely different from the government having public welfare programs!
It’s more like poor China with their average $5000 per year income.
They also have a 0% homeowner rate. All property is owned by the state. As for the houses they do “own”, the typical city apartment or rural homestead is…deficient by Western standards.
Also because China is not experiencing a religious movement that rejects science.
The evangelicals made a deal with a grifter.
I feel as though the low standard of living of the average Chinese national is a more decisive factor. The resources that could be spent on public welfare programs are spent on research and subsidies instead.
I mean, resources aren’t being spent on public welfare programs in the US either. We only have a higher standard of living because of the legacy of (roughly) the New Deal era, when we were investing in it as well as unions winning a lot of labor reforms. Those preexisting advantages have only been slowly eroding for the last 40-odd years.
They absolutely are.
Let’s say I get into a car accident or have cancer. Treatment involves expensive chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and multiple rounds of major surgery.
If I’m in the poorest 10%-30% of the population, the care is provided free of charge. If I’m poor-but not that poor- I have the option to receive the expensive treatment and just not pay. It will just negatively impact my credit score, but I can also get away with “paying what I can afford.”
…this is just one example. Everything from our food to our electronics are subsidized by the government. Most of the resources are more or less taken from poorer nations. If they don’t play ball, we withhold aid, bribe officials, loan their enemies weapons, or finance a coup.
Saying ‘It will just negatively impact your credit score’ like it’s nothing in a capitalist nation where nearly all financial trust is based on how effectively you pay back your creditors is a pretty wild take.
Especially when a car and home are the bare minimum for most people to be able to function in the US (public transport is laughable anywhere outside a metropolis) and the average person isn’t getting either without a loan.
I wouldn’t be so quick to ignore medical debt. The average retired couple spends $350000 on medical expenses in the US. The system is a lot more dysfunctional than you make it out to be.
Running up medical debt, declaring bankruptcy, and expecting the inflated costs being charged by the insurance system to just sort of absorb it is entirely different from the government having public welfare programs!
You do see how it’s different, right?!
Poor Chinese with their 96% home owner rate, great social benefits and no debt.
It’s more like poor China with their average $5000 per year income.
They also have a 0% homeowner rate. All property is owned by the state. As for the houses they do “own”, the typical city apartment or rural homestead is…deficient by Western standards.