post ww2 socialist russia people had more disposable income and more vacation days than americans.
Man I miss that show. I really should finish it.
As someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in Sweden and the US, I would pick the US every single day of the week.
Sweden has an extremely shitty healthcare, insanely high taxes, low salaries, shitty weather, horrendous immigration policy and culture, rude people, big racism problem, annoying cultural customs like having to pay for bathrooms, shitty markets with even shittier products, crappy housing, and the list goes on and on.
The only true positives about that country is that the healthcare is free (not good, but free), it is safe (becoming less and less true, but still safer than the US), guaranteed vacation time, guaranteed maternity/paternity leave, better worker protections, better walkability, and better public transport overall… Everything else the US does much, much better.
Keep in mind, Sweden is considered as one of the better countries in Europe. If that’s the best Europe has to offer than I’m not impressed. Sweden is an EXTREMELY overrated and overhyped country, and I only formed this opinion after having to see the place. The people shitting on the US or treating European countries like they’re some utopias are virtually guaranteed to never have been to other side of the Atlantic.
As an american, who gives a shit about all that stuff when your family savings can be wiped out, home foreclosed upon, and bankrupted just because you get sick or suffer an injury!? Even if you plan and do everything right, it could still happen to you, through no fault of your own.
So, IMO until we have universal healthcare like every other modern nation, they all beat us…
I’m not saying it’s not a problem, but people losing everything for medical expenses is a meme.
About a third of Americans have medical debt, around 12% have debt higher than $10k. The amount of people who declare bankruptcy is around 380k people annually, about 2/3 have medical expenses as a direct cause. That’s about 250k people a year. That’s a lot of people, and the amount of people who lost a lot but haven’t declared bankruptcy is even higher. It’s definitely a problem that needs to be fixed, but it’s not as common or extreme as people like you make it out to be. The reality is that hyperbole you’re describing affects a small number of people and it is not representative of the issues with the American healthcare system.
people losing everything for medical expenses is a meme
about 2/3 have medical expenses as a direct cause. That’s about 250k people a year.
The reality is that hyperbole you’re describing affects a small number of people
🤔
How many people go bankrupt to medical debt a year in Canada? It’s less than 250k a year
Do an even better comparison: school vacaancies with work vacancies. That’s real life. GPT/BARD might help speed it up
Are we gonna include school shooting deaths in those vacancies? Because for some absolutely unknown reason American schools suffer from mysterious shooting deaths multiple times a year. It’s so strange and mysterious and there is absolutely no way to stop it. Like, there is literally nothing to do about all the school shootings every single year for the last few decades.
