I think S-Trader was considering the case (not as it is today, but what I proposed) of having everyone pull their own weight / save for own retirement. I agree with you. The current healthcare situation is not sustainable. There's no way lower the cost of cancer, Alzheimer's, etc without curing it completely or preventing it. Even if we could simply raise taxes enough to pay for it all, then that would suck away money for other things that need funding and simply be an unproductive drain on society. I don't think we can simply force or coerce people into having more kids to hopefully be hosts to the growing parasitic drain of healthcare costs. We just need to eliminate / prevent the diseases which cost so much money. Won't be easy, but easier than simply letting grandparents die. Haven't really considered that since it will never happen without a dramatic cultural change. However, some ideas: 1. I have heard that in Japan, people have to pass physical fitness tests to qualify for corporate-provided healthcare. (Update: After a 2 minute Google search, I can't find any sources to substantiate this idea. So maybe it's not true or no longer done. However, still might be a good idea for setting insurance rates.) 2. Pretty hard to hide obesity. For those who love taxes, how about a BMI tax? 3. Cigarettes, if not banned, how about $40 / pack? $5 is for the cost of the product, $35 goes towards lung cancer research. I know cigarettes are taxed anyway, but currently the money does not go towards health research. 4. Smokers already pay a higher premium for health insurance. How does the health care company determine if someone is actually a non-smoker or simply lies about not smoking to get the lower rate?
I think majority of health care costs in this country are a function of rent-seeking by the health care industry. Many other countries spend significantly less per capita and seem to have similar quality medical care if you judge by survival/death rates for all major health issues. Taxing negative externalities is a rather smart idea (soda, tobacco etc.). However, you never going to get enough to support a proper government.
Manhattan condos are probably the highest in terms of fixed costs. For instance, my place has an effective scrape of 3.5%. And yet there is no shortage of eager buyers and the prices go up every year. In the end, housing does not exist in a vacuum - the desire of people to live somewhere is correlated (mainly) to the availability of employment. If you can be making 300k in the NYC area while paying 25k/a on a 1.5m house, you are not going to move to Cleveland, OH to be making 100k but reducing your property tax burden by 60%. In short, I think the hypothesis presented in the report is crap. I might have to read the original to convince myself either way.
You might be right. I'm not very familiar with healthcare cost breakdowns. Part of it might be drug prices, but how much of it is due to malpractice insurance and other liabilities imposed on the healthcare system? Doctors aren't cheap and any non-trivial procedure usually involves an entire crew of them. It's also very difficult to become a doctor so there needs to be an incentive to attract the best talent (granted, there are people who will still become doctors because they want to help people, but if wages are lowered, at some point it won't make financial sense given the amount of time, debt, and risk required to become a doctor). Basically, I don't know where fat can be cut, but I suspect liability and malpractice coverage could be a bigger factor here in the US than other countries. Would be curious about why our healthcare costs so much relative to other countries.
US housing starts tumble 6.8% in March April 18, 2017 http://www.news.com.au/finance/busi...h/news-story/dc7be303486bc442b16d15df6e598260
Partly true, SIG,10 cents TN ammo tax turn into million$ for TN; even more so for TX. But that is a user fee, chosen by many millions in private sector Anyone that thinks the key to good health is ''poor luck'' or good luck,+socialised medicine; is on a gov TrainWreck========================================================================================. Since emergency rooms are required to take anyone; that town hall question is as BIG a scam as socialized med. Thanks