It's difficult to reduce segregation by wealth and income because that is what people want, they want to be near people like them or more successful.
Only solution to that is reducing income and wealth inequality. But technological efficiency gains exacerbate it by rewarding the capital owners disproportionately.
It's tough to see a way out of this without some type of redistribution of resources. In my opinion, quality free education and healthcare would be a start.
Sure, these would require a lot of redistribution. So much that, AFAICT, no developed nation ever afforded it (except maybe USSR, but their healthcare wasn't great, and the level of redistribution, colossal.)
Everything is paid by some cash, coming from someone. No teacher nor doctor works for free, running building cost millions on its own, equipment, especially in healthcare can be super expensive etc.
Either you pay it on your own (unaffordable to most people), there is some share/capping system, or all is somehow covered, with unavoidable restrictions, due to.. cash.
Education is investment in the future of the nation and raising its prosperity. Healthcare is investment in the current state (greatly simplified of course). US has the worst possible combination from developed world for most of its citizens for example.
You can compare the systems easily, all data are out there. Just try not to fall into the usual easy trap of 'I am young and healthy, I don't need doctors now, don't want to contribute to the system' - we all are one mistake, quite often not ours, or some DNA mishap, away from ending up completely reliant on these systems, maybe for rest of our lives.
We form society, so stronger and better-off cover for/take care of momentarily weaker members. If we fail at that, we go below what many animals achieved and on big enough scale we all as humanity lose. (there needs to be enough reward those of us that work their ass off to be successful of course, and striking balance between those 2 is the source all the left/right discussion over last 150 years. but complete lack of solidarity is a net loss for us all).
I don't know what the point of mentioning that "nothing the government does is free" is about. We all know that nothing is free, it's a concise way of saying the government (our taxes) pays for it. Is there a more accurate and concise way of getting across this kind of policy?
Of the 201 countries listed on Wikipedia, 159 have free healthcare[1]. There are only 42 that don't, which includes the US obviously.
Every country offers free education up to at least primary school, with most offering free education up to 16 years old. There are currently 24 countries that offer free education up to degree level for their citizens.
I have no idea what makes you think healthcare and education isn't free around the world. They are free in far more places than not.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 32.2 ms ] threadOnly solution to that is reducing income and wealth inequality. But technological efficiency gains exacerbate it by rewarding the capital owners disproportionately.
It's tough to see a way out of this without some type of redistribution of resources. In my opinion, quality free education and healthcare would be a start.
Sure, these would require a lot of redistribution. So much that, AFAICT, no developed nation ever afforded it (except maybe USSR, but their healthcare wasn't great, and the level of redistribution, colossal.)
Either you pay it on your own (unaffordable to most people), there is some share/capping system, or all is somehow covered, with unavoidable restrictions, due to.. cash.
Education is investment in the future of the nation and raising its prosperity. Healthcare is investment in the current state (greatly simplified of course). US has the worst possible combination from developed world for most of its citizens for example.
You can compare the systems easily, all data are out there. Just try not to fall into the usual easy trap of 'I am young and healthy, I don't need doctors now, don't want to contribute to the system' - we all are one mistake, quite often not ours, or some DNA mishap, away from ending up completely reliant on these systems, maybe for rest of our lives.
We form society, so stronger and better-off cover for/take care of momentarily weaker members. If we fail at that, we go below what many animals achieved and on big enough scale we all as humanity lose. (there needs to be enough reward those of us that work their ass off to be successful of course, and striking balance between those 2 is the source all the left/right discussion over last 150 years. but complete lack of solidarity is a net loss for us all).
Every country offers free education up to at least primary school, with most offering free education up to 16 years old. There are currently 24 countries that offer free education up to degree level for their citizens.
I have no idea what makes you think healthcare and education isn't free around the world. They are free in far more places than not.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_univers... [2] https://www.edvisors.com/plan-for-college/money-saving-tips/...
We have both, lower total taxes than the US and are more free market than you.