• UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
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    9 days ago

    Don’t worry. The insurance companies and doctors will get the rest anyways. We have a whole system of parasites to make sure that no generational wealth gets passed along.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      Necropost at this point but yup, the only ‘stable’ sector of the US economy is … healthcare.

      (I would say ‘and the military industrial complex’, but uh suprusingly no to that, most of those major players are mired in scandals and major fuckups that seriously threaten their solvency and credibility)

      After the AI bubble pops, the American economy will essentially be primarily a gigantic, extractive, hospice care economy.

      You know, Death Panels, run by AI/LLMs, the exact nightmare scenario that all the Boomers were told would result from any attempt to meaningfully reform the healthcare system.

      And most of those healthcare workers will be braindead Gen Alphas that literally can’t read, but managed to get some kind of nursing certificate at a degree mill.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      9 days ago

      Yeah, my parents told me once that when my grandparents pass away there was a nice chunk of money that would be coming. I never planned around it or anything. Some time after they passed I was a little curious about it and asked what happened, that was pretty much what they said, that it probably had all been used up by hospital and nursing home bills. End of life care is the last chance to suck up that dough, I guess.

      • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 days ago

        My mom got money from her grandparents, almost half a mil. She told her own mother to just spend it all now (&on her) because they could file title 9 anyway, so mine as well enjoy it.

        I too never planned on getting anything anyway. They hate all us children its bizarre.

        • fishy@lemmy.today
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          9 days ago

          We in the USA have a pretty good standard of living, but holy fuck the government is unwilling to pass any consumer protections. Just let the corps fuck us because they’re the ones making political donations.

          • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            The US government used to pass consumer protections, worker protections, environmental protections, etc. to the point of being a leader in many ways for other parts of the world.

            And then Reagan happened.

            • fishy@lemmy.today
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              9 days ago

              Yup, but Reagan just opened the gates. Several other presidents have followed his lead.

          • Pyr@lemmy.ca
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            9 days ago

            I would thunk a good portion of you have a good standard of living but quite possibly a majority basically live in 3rd world poverty conditions and constant debt, stress, and exposure to violence.

            There’s just enough Americans living in decent to good conditions to make it look like the American dream is alive, since the cameras don’t focus on the less fortunate.

            • fishy@lemmy.today
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              8 days ago

              I’ve traveled all over and have seen the poverty of South America and Africa first hand. I would much rather be poor in America than there.

          • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            I live in Canada and we have pretty good standards of living here. Up to and including not going financially bankrupt if we get sick or injured.

            My partner broke their leg last year. Between the 6-8 hospital visits, xrays, two casts, and an air boot, we paid a grand total of around $120. Less than $20 for paid parking (I’m lazy and it was like $2 a day) and $100 for the boot of which I got $85 from my work insurance. Everything else was completely covered by our provincial care.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          9 days ago

          Ugh, lucky. My friend is even getting Canadian citizenship now thanks to a recent law change there and his grandmother being a Canadian citizen.

    • pelya@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It’s hospitals not doctors. Doctors get all that money only when they run their own private practice, and life support rooms are all in big hospitals, so the money is distributed between insurance and hospital management, and doctors get paid like all other skilled workers, and probably less than scuba diving welders.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      My observation is that doctors are getting squeezed, other staff moreso. They’re getting pushed harder and harder for more and more productivity out of them.

      A doctor in my family quit and retired early because (basically) their group got more corporate and burned him out. I heard of a dentist who quit over ethics issues once their group was acquired by private equity.

      Not that they aren’t well off, but I’d be careful blaming working professionals like doctors, engineers and such so much.

      • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        The doctors aren’t the direct problem, just complicit in the evil money scam that is American healthcare.

        Sure they aren’t directly to blame, but so long as they “just do their jobs” they are knowingly and willfully complicit and need to be held accountable as such.

        A dentist that does non-necessary procedures, like filing cabinets or pre-emptive fillings, causes harm.

        A doctor that delays or prevents life-saving procedures because insurance tells them to causes death.

        An engineer who doesn’t question “why does this licence plate reader need to have facial recognition?” causes fascism.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          What you describe is exactly why the dentist got fired once a VC bought out the region, and partly why the doctor burned out.

          They are questioning.

          • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            And why they are no longer professionals and how you know the ones that are still working are not questioning.

        • geomela@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          A dentist that does non-necessary procedures, like filing cabinets or pre-emptive fillings, causes harm.

          I agree. I’ll do my own filing cabinets and he can stick to dentistry.