Fun fact: for my family's insurance, it is $106/mo to pay for dental. I get access to two cleanings a year, plus 50% of billed expenses up to $1000. What is even the point?
The point was to take us riiiiiiiiiight up to the point where there is not point but not cross it explicitly.
Where we go from here is probably downward spiral because the corporate world maxed out profits during Covid and now somehow has to still show quarterly improvements.
The end road is the long term debt cycle breaks and our economic system is once again reshuffled. The unfortunate part of that is it happens roughly every 75-100 years and typically involves a major global conflict and multi-decade depression. Buckle up buckaroos!
the corporate world maxed out profits during Covid and now somehow has to still show quarterly improvements
Ugh. Yes. I've never quite thought about it in terms that simple, but sadly it's 100% correct.
Endless year-over-year growth is entirely unsustainable, but the corporate world will hear none of it, because they won't be the victims. They can continue to socialize losses and privatize profits to keep the system propped up for a long time. I don't think it's forever, but realistically it's going to take a revolution-level event to put an end to it. If the only other option is to wait it out, I fear we won't even see improvement in our lifetimes -- we'll just continue falling into this dystopia.
This holds true in Sweden too. If I fell off a cliff and broke all my bones, my hospital and recovery expenses would be super low. If I broke all my teeth I'd be ruined financially forever, or more realistically, I wouldn't have any teeth and one hell of a bill for setting my gums straight.
Growing up my parents could afford to buy a house but didn't have the money to fix my teeth. Now I can't buy a house or fix my teeth, and my children don't even have any because I can't afford to have any children.
This is us right now. My kid is going to a junior college out of state to play lacrosse. They have no dorms and need to rent apartments. He has 3 other people living with and each pays 929 in rent. That includes utilities and is furnished. Oh and this is only a 2 bedroom apartment.
Furnished? How hard is it to buy a bed? You can find an old couch and TVs are basically free now. This is on you for not telling them how to rent a place. You can rent a cheaper place on Manhattan than that.
I know how to rent a place and we did look at an apartment for him but it was $100 more unfurnished. Also, these are kids right out of high school, so college freshman. Not like I would help pay for my junior college kids rent.