Rough Waters: Gentrification and Cataclysmic Money | Hacker News Reader

Rough Waters: Gentrification and Cataclysmic Money

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39 pointsmisnamed9 comments

It's difficult to reduce segregation by wealth and income because that is what people want, they want to be near people like them or more successful.

Only solution to that is reducing income and wealth inequality. But technological efficiency gains exacerbate it by rewarding the capital owners disproportionately.

It's tough to see a way out of this without some type of redistribution of resources. In my opinion, quality free education and healthcare would be a start.

> free education and healthcare

Sure, these would require a lot of redistribution. So much that, AFAICT, no developed nation ever afforded it (except maybe USSR, but their healthcare wasn't great, and the level of redistribution, colossal.)

Education is "free", i.e. paid for by taxes, in Germany.

I don't know what the point of mentioning that "nothing the government does is free" is about. We all know that nothing is free, it's a concise way of saying the government (our taxes) pays for it. Is there a more accurate and concise way of getting across this kind of policy?

Of the 201 countries listed on Wikipedia, 159 have free healthcare[1]. There are only 42 that don't, which includes the US obviously.

Every country offers free education up to at least primary school, with most offering free education up to 16 years old. There are currently 24 countries that offer free education up to degree level for their citizens.

I have no idea what makes you think healthcare and education isn't free around the world. They are free in far more places than not.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_univers... [2] https://www.edvisors.com/plan-for-college/money-saving-tips/...

There are also a few cities (e.g. San Francisco) and states (e.g. New York) which offer free college or university level education.

Except Germany, Austria, and AFAIK most EU countries, Switzerland...for education at least. Healthcare in some of them

Oh, I didn’t realise my country was not developed (New Zealand).

We have both, lower total taxes than the US and are more free market than you.

This, Schellings Segregation explains this.

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