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My apartment is about 800-900SF. The size is perfect for just me (and 2 cats), and even when I had a significant other here. The only ting I would change about it is the layout, and add more cabinet space.
The reason why Americans have to work longer and borrow more is simple: globalization.
This nation once used to produce things. Did we really think that we can export most of our high-paid manufacturing industries to China and have people remain just as well off working the cash registers at Barnes & Noble?
A lot of those jobs went to China. But a lot more were simply automated away. I think people forget this.
Unfortunately, Americans don't like to study math and science because they're difficult and not fun, but the jobs that pay decently requre math & science skills that Americans don't have.
Everyone wants to do something about 'health care' but no one wants to do anything about how people actually (don't) care for themselves (which is what makes health care cost so much).
BingoThe thing that used to regulate peoples' behavior was the doctor bill that you had to pay for 100% out of your own pocket. Now that cash based system is considered inhumane by many to have such a system. But all insurance (whether government or private) has done is add layers of costs and give Joe & Jane consumer much less incentive to take care of themselves. It's also given health care providers the luxury of indulging in very expensive pills and whiz bang technology that's cool, but has very limited effect in promoting well being or longer life expectancy. Most of the increase in life expectancy in the 20th Century came from public health measures, not whiz bang technologies.
IMO, the current setup has made the healthcare system more expensive and more inhumane, which is exactly the opposite of what we were told.
What is expensive are things like insisting on doing heart attack EMT and ER (or more) interventions rather than just letting more people die from conditions that set them up for continuing costs.
The worst part about it is most heart disease is completely preventable.
Unfortunately, Americans don't like to study math and science because they're difficult and not fun, but the jobs that pay decently require math & science skills that Americans don't have.
But even if everyone had those math and science skills...
there still aren't enough of those jobs nor would there be a need for them to exist in those numbers.
The issue isn't skill inadequacy or even obsolescence...
the issue is a surplus of people. Regardless of their skills.
The worst part about it is most heart disease is completely preventable.
This assumes that preventing heart disease (or any other disease ftm) in the aggregate is an absolute good in and of itself. It isn't.
Whatever "good" might be achieved by those efforts needs to be qualified some.
I saw Super 8 this weekend, the time period was 1979.
Why do people have to work so much harder in 2011 vs 1979?
1st - Peoples expectations are ridiculous now. Gotta have a giant refrigerator. Gotta have a big SUV. In '79, you had vans or station wagons, or just regular cars. You didn't have all these "extras". Plus things were better made, like appliances.
2nd - People made do with what they had, vs getting something new all the time. You might have repaired clothes that wore out. Fixed your radio, etc. Now you have to buy things new every year (plus maybe on credit).
3rd - More homegrown cheap entertainment. I.e., the skating rink. Drive in movies. Cheap, local entertainment.
4th - Homes have exploded in size. This was always left out of the housing bubble debate.
5th - A big movement away from do it yourself. To...(fill in the blank). Let the government do it. Let someone else do it. Just make sure I get it.
6th - All this supersizing and packaging. "Upselling". There are more all inclusive packages now. How much did it cost to take a family to an amusement park in 1980 vs today?
The middle classes expectations went up 5x, but they didn't have the education or income to afford it. Plus all the political correctness, thats been a hidden tax over the last 30 years. Self esteem in school, no one fails, etc. Everyone is a winner. Illegal alien political correctness.
BingoThe thing that used to regulate peoples' behavior was the doctor bill that you had to pay for 100% out of your own pocket. Now that cash based system is considered inhumane by many to have such a system. But all insurance (whether government or private) has done is add layers of costs and give Joe & Jane consumer much less incentive to take care of themselves.
Your views on this are still way off base...despite repeating it ad nauseam.
There are few medical conditions that you will immediately get if you do X, instead doing X over time will increase your probability of getting the condition. People do not respond to this sort of thing since there is no immediate ramification...that is just how people work. Hence, having to pay out-of-pocket never "regulated" anything....
Healthy eating, etc isn't going to control health care costs, indeed, it could increase aggregate health care costs because everyone would live longer.
I can't recall who said it, or the exact wording, but there is a quote about people need to look at the murder of animals the same way they do the murder of humans. I totally agree that we need to stop supporting the industries that are killing us with fast food, unhealthy diets and additives..
I am not a total vegetarian but I'm leaning in that direction. Not eating animals is good for human health as well as for the environment and for reducing health care costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heidi60
The health care thing is being driven in part by the drug companies that have too much influence over the medical providers today. That combined with insurance provider greed and Americans are getting squeezed which contributes to why we have to worker harder and longer for less and less. It is the economic divide created by corporations for their own greed. We are not as bad off as places like rural India but look at their social divide and tell me we aren't fast tracking to their system! Most of us don't have the huge health/retirement packages provided by federal, state and local governements which the taxpayers are also forced to pay for so we just keeping paying everyone else..
I don't necesarily disagree. But Americans are their own worst enemies. We are not powerles to change things. My point is there IS something that the average person can do to fight back against this...and people would have already done it if they paid directly for their health care costs out of pocket. Health insurance was originally for catastrophes only and that's what it needs to go back to. I don't think people understand that we have a private market health care system but not a free market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heidi60
Speak up with your vote every chance you get and express yourself often to your well paid elected officials.
I don't have much faith in politicians fixing this. It starts at home with what you eat. Neither political party has done anything to really push for reduced costs. Reps do nothing and Dems throw more money at a broken system. 2 different forms of insanity IMO. The best reforms rarely come from the political system. They come from large numbers of people voluntarily changing their behavior and not waiting around for someone besides themselves to fix a problem.
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The thing that used to regulate peoples' behavior was the doctor bill that you had to pay for 100% out of your own pocket. Now that cash based system is considered inhumane by many to have such a system. But all insurance (whether government or private) has done is add layers of costs and give Joe & Jane consumer much less incentive to take care of themselves. It's also given health care providers the luxury of indulging in very expensive pills and whiz bang technology that's cool, but has very limited effect in promoting well being or longer life expectancy. Most of the increase in life expectancy in the 20th Century came from public health measures, not whiz bang technologies. 
