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Comment by mesk | Hacker News Reader

I'm thinking a lot lately about which country would be best for my future, and somehow US is never there. Maybe for me without family yes, but otherwise I see it like there, I would be one illness away from bankrupcy, one crazy kid with a gun away from family tragedy, one <what if> away from <unsolvable problems>. Sure, being in top 10% is cool, but will my kids be also so lucky? And the middle class in the US already thinks they are struggling (hence the last vote) - as someone said numbers can't feed you. But, hey, I'm maybe too old ;)

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The thing about the US is that it's very unevenly distributed. So it depends on what you'd be doing and how much money you'd be making / already have.

If you have a professional-class job the US is often the best place in the world to be for illness. You'll have a fairly high salary (especially comparing globally) and an insurance plan with an out of pocket max that is probably 10-15k per year (or much less, for most tech employers). If REALLY concerned with illness, filter for places with good supplemental long-term disability insurance and live in a state that has some of their own like CA.

The US spends A LOT on healthcare per-capita. So your access to doctors / specialists / hospitals in major US metros is generally excellent and rarely has the sort of waits that you see in a lot of countries that spend less on healthcare.

The problem with US healthcare is that it's usually either (a) fucking great for you or (b) fucking terrible for you. Very non-uniform.

> The thing about the US is that it's very unevenly distributed. So it depends on what you'd be doing and how much money you'd be making / already have.

The Veil of Ignorance, anyone? Even invented by an American.

People here need to consider the state of a society without spending 80% of the bytes on the what-if of being a 135+ IQ individual with a passion that coincides with the work tasks of amazingly successful megacorporations based on the West Coast. At least when we’re supposed to be talking in the abstract.

>The Veil of Ignorance, anyone? Even invented by an American.

As long as we're talking about the veil of ignorance, let's also consider the "veil of birth country ignorance". What if you were born in Africa?

From that perspective, one of the most altruistic things a developed country can do, arguably, is increase its rate of immigration from developing countries.

Of course, if you do that, your average citizen gets poorer ;-)

That’s not exactly the only condition. You also have to not frick with other countries. Like e.g. France’s Neocolonialism.

There are other examples.

The tipping point is much closer to the median than that.

A lot of US cities and burbs like Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, are full of people who aren't super-genius-tech-bro-200k+ but aren't one illness away from catastrophe. Working boring-ass office jobs with decent - not spectacular, but with solid pros-and-cons even compared to Canada next door - benefits.

I live in flyover country and people like their Healthcare here just fine and you don't need 6fig salary

I only hear that from people on Medicare and Medicaid, and certain areas if they’re covered by the VA. Maybe ACA plans if they’re low income.

I definitely don’t hear that from the middle. I definitely don’t hear that from travel nurses or truck drivers. No one has ever said that about COBRA.

And this isn’t getting into average wait times for specialist appointments (though other countries deal with this too.)

This is the kind of comment written by someone who only knows a country from its headlines. The US, as a resident, skews wildly from the popular narrative in many ways much of the time -- regardless who is in charge.

> The US, as a resident, skews wildly from the popular narrative in many ways much of the time

Much of the time, thats it, you named it. To me the worst case scenario (I work in IT, so I often think in the worst case scenarios) in few relatively common situations, _seems_ to be much worse in the US.

Common, like being ill, visiting hospital, going to school, being stopped by the police.... (headlines again).

Anywhere in the world, you might be "one <what if> away from <unsolvable problems>." That's not a US-specific thing. The US is better at some things and worse at others. Obviously we all make these choices on different merits, but IMO don't live in fear.

Being in the group of people who has a choice of countries to live in _and_ being in the top 10% in the US puts you in the top 0.1 to 1% globally. Enjoy it while you can!

> And the middle class in the US already thinks they are struggling

Middle class financial issues in the US are age related. College debt, cost of raising children, buying a home combined with low entry wages put young people in a hole it takes 10-30 years to crawl out of. But when they do they quickly accumulate wealth. There are also a lot of people who choose to not save. That is a choice you don't have to make.

Not to mention that A LOT of millenials are about to inherit a ton of money from the Baby Boomers. The Boomers are just lasting longer because of advances in health care, all of whom are on Medicare which is government funded health insurance. In fact, about 40% of Americans on are federal healthcare between Medicare and Medicaid.

I think GenX will mostly be the beneficiary of the inheritance boom.

How much of that wealth is tied up in home equity? Unless people want to move into their dead parents houses you have millions of millennials trying to sell their dead parents houses to each other, but no one can afford to buy them, and the values drop.

Either that or private equity firms buying all the nursing homes siphon off the wealth transfer as the boomers wither away.

> How much of that wealth is tied up in home equity?

Home equity is often the first real wealth American families accrue.

Most of the time, by the time a parent dies, the children all have homes already.

> private equity firms buying all the nursing homes siphon off the wealth transfer as the boomers wither away

The defense for this are living wills and trusts that transfer wealth from the elder and shift the burden to public insurance (Medicare). Most of the senior care world is grifting off of government money.

"hence the last vote".

You are implying that logic fits the results. It doesn't.

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