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Comment by hparadiz | Hacker News Reader

Why do people on HN throw these stats out comparing poor people to poor people? We are all tech workers on HN. I'm not living in Alabama. When I compare my living situation I'm comparing my premium healthcare in Los Angeles to whatever the fuck you guys are doing.

Pretty much all those stats are irrelevant.

Seriously 62k? Try 3.5 times that and then you're in the ballpark. My healthcare expenses for the past few years have been less than 2% of my salary.

Y'all don't realize just how intensily our poor rural areas bring down the average while our HCOL areas tend to set the world wide standard you're trying to catch up to.

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Please read my comment - my London tech worker total comp is about 8 times that 62k and I am coasting mid-level. The poor folks in the UK are pulling the average down too.

Oh and healthcare costs in the UK are obviously zero percent, paid for out of general taxation (there is no dedicated "NHS tax"). So those unemployed poor people with literally nothing pulling down the averages get better-than-US health outcomes from the NHS, and the exact same level of treatment as anyone else using the NHS would get. I get additional private healthcare too through my employer and it is also zero cost to me. No co-payments or any other things like that at all - all zero cost to me.

At that point there's no material difference. You can seek out the best treatment anywhere on the planet. The point becomes moot.

Precisely - your original point is indeed moot.

To quote – I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.

California offers basically free healthcare to those with low income.

You keep on moving the goal posts, plus you don't seem to care about the other people in your country.

Some 'people on HN' might have some slight sympathy for people aren't wealthy tech workers. Maybe even the sort of people who live in Alabama.

Obviously, to the meanest intellect at least, it is because they are comparing an entire country to an entire country and not a few privileged here to a couple of elites there.

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