It's the 21st century – why are we working so much?

Re:It's the 21st century – why are we working so much? by claudius on Sunday August 04, 2013 @09:11PM (#6157857)

The UK and every other developed country also has to somehow finance their healthcare system. Regardless of whether people pay privately or via taxes (or insurance or…), the cost still has to be covered somehow – of course, these costs can be distributed more evenly among the high earners and those earning less if they are re-routed through the tax system, but the value still has to be created somewhere.

Note that this holds even though (or in addition) the cost of healthcare per person in the US seems to be slightly higher than on average in the western world.

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Re:It's the 21st century – why are we working so much? by jeremysmyth on Monday August 05, 2013 @05:28AM (#6159154)

the cost of healthcare per person in the US seems to be slightly higher than on average in the western world.

Try "considerably higher than on average in the rest of the world": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_heal...

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Re:It's the 21st century – why are we working so much? by claudius on Monday August 05, 2013 @06:47AM (#6159383)

It’s about twice as high as in the rest of western Europe (that Americans spend more on healthcare than, say, Senegalese, is not really a surprise), which I, in my orders-of-magnitude mindset, would classify as ‘slightly’. Especially if you look at the % of GDP spent on healthcare, the picture becomes much more varied – curiously with some other pacific countries (nearly) besting the US.

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