[victorhn]

- Why is wealth inequality a problem? If average people is relatively wealthy (which i think is the case for USA), why does it matter that some people are very wealthy? This is different than some 3rd world countries where average people is poor and some very small percentage have wealth (and mostly due to corruption / crime / political influence)

- Rate of incarceration may also mean that USA does a good job of imparting justice / catch criminals.

- Healthcare costs looks like an issue, but socialized systems also have their problems (bad quality, wrong economic incentives for doctors to improve their practice, etc.)

[luffapi]

Wealth inequality is bad in part because the wealthy then control policy and have wide ranging impact in the day to day lives of those who are not wealthy. It’s a centralization of control.

The rate of incarceration is largely due to the war on drugs. There’s nothing just about it.

I’d take NHS (despite its flaws) over my >2k /month health insurance any day of the week.

[throwaway894345]

> I’d take NHS (despite its flaws) over my >2k /month health insurance any day of the week.

Would you also take the 40% reduction in post-tax, post-healthcare, post-retirement pay?

I actually favor a stronger social safety net and I agree that we need to reign in inequality (because an egalitarian society of very wealthy people and very poor people strikes me as completely infeasible in the same way that a prosperous socialist or communist country is completely infeasible), but that will almost certainly mean the professional class is worse-off. Reasoning soberly about tradeoffs is imperative IMO.

[luffapi]

> Would you also take the 40% reduction in post-tax, post-healthcare, post-retirement pay?

Yes, and I have! What I missed most when not living in the US:

* variety of everything

* large appliances

What I missed least:

* driving/car culture

* overwork

So sadly I found I was actually a typical “consumer” who wants things that are pretty crappy for the environment (except for the car thing). I was fine with getting paid less than I would in the US because as a senior technologist, I was making way more than most of the locals and the economy was tuned to their pay.