Comment by stefs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by stefs | Hacker News Reader

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for me, a higher quality of life and higher income aren't necessarily the exact same. as a european, i've got a lot of paid vacation, peace of mind when it comes to medical costs (i.e. an accident wont necessarily mean financial ruin), we've got a lot of paternity protection and parental leave, workplace safety, affordable education, things like that.

most likely i earn a bit less than what i'd earn if i had an identical doppelganger twin in the u.s. - i mean, i earn a lot less right here than i could if money was the ultimate objective. i just value other things more, mostly time with my family and hobbies, peace of mind when it comes to external factors where the expensive social safety net comes in.

also, as a middle class earner i much prefer my lower class neighbors having a good social safety net and other guarantees because i really don't want my neighbors kids go hungry. not only because that's bad in itself, but the wealth and security disparity would also create a worse local environment (crime, drugs).

I think a lot of Europeans vastly underestimate the social programs available in the United States. In fact most Americans don't apply for them and pretend they don't exist.

Case in point, earlier this year's my company laid off thirty percent of us.

Now to Europeans, they are worried about what we're going to do for healthcare, etc. Some of my colleagues paid out of pocket, thousands of dollars. This would seem crazy to Europeans..

It's also crazy to Americans. Because for me, at my mom's behest, I did not pay. Instead I applied for government aid. Now, despite making over 300k usd a year, I got free Medicaid for my family. Free.. no cost. Way better than Canadian or European health care because it's basically a private ppo plan the state pays for. If you can afford it, the American health care system is the best. And while I was unemployed it was free (just like it was while working, when I factor in company contributions, etc). I also got substantial unemployment.

Now we're going to have a baby and... There's paid leave.

In America, there's whole swaths of people who don't believe these programs exist and don't bother applying. It's really weird. I told my colleagues about Medicaid and they thought it wouldn't apply to them (it does) of wouldn't cover something (it covers everything. No cost).

> Way better than Canadian or European health care because it's basically a private ppo plan the state pays for.

That's a strange method to consider something better or not. It seems to lead to overpaying for stuff. And it seems to suggest that private is better without explaining why. Plus assuming that paying more is better without explaining why.

// also, as a middle class earner i much prefer my lower class neighbors having a good social safety net and other guarantees because i really don't want my neighbors kids go hungry.

In the US kids don't go hungry. The truly poor have food stamps and other aid so I don't get this comparison.

The USDA classifies nine million American kids as “food insecure”, some of them quite desperately so.

https://apnews.com/article/free-school-lunch-child-hunger-7d...

It may not be any better for European kids, but it’s inaccurate to say that US kids don’t go hungry.

US death rate from malnutrition is 0.9/100K compared to France's 2.1/100. Other European countries are <1.0 while subsaharan Africa or Centra/South America is generally >3. Ref: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-malnutrit...

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