Americans are generally unaware of how much more expensive US medical care is compared to the rest of the developed world while simultaneously the US has the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. The extremely inefficient US healthcare system undermines retirement security because of the excess funding healthcare requires in the workplace and in retirement. Funds that could go towards retirement funding are being siphoned off to healthcare administration costs instead. As a result, the wealthiest country in the world is struggling to fund adequate retirement for its citizens. To put the excess healthcare costs in perspective, the amount Americans pay for healthcare in excess of the rest of the OECD would pay for the US military spending twice over each year.
The real solution to retirement funding is figuring out how to get the US healthcare per capita costs to be in the same general vicinity as the rest of the developed world while hopefully matching those countries life expectancies and medical outcomes. The money that would be freed up would essentially wipe out the funding shortfalls for retirement without any new taxes.
Thank you for the post. I'm intrigued by the general tone of your retirement manifesto. Have you documented your proposals for reworked retirement financial planning metrics in more detail?
I was thinking about how "full-time" can be 37.5 hours, with paid breaks counted.... But the cynical side of me sees this as a way to not have to pay overtime for small overages.
I agree that making part time work easier and normalized would be helpful to a lot of people. I would love you read a post about what the current (regulatory) barriers to part time work are.
I really wonder, though I've never researched it, how gig economy work is factored into labor market figures and how much of that work contributed to a right labor market in other, more traditional jobs.
thank you, I have. more when I was working in industry.
Americans are generally unaware of how much more expensive US medical care is compared to the rest of the developed world while simultaneously the US has the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. The extremely inefficient US healthcare system undermines retirement security because of the excess funding healthcare requires in the workplace and in retirement. Funds that could go towards retirement funding are being siphoned off to healthcare administration costs instead. As a result, the wealthiest country in the world is struggling to fund adequate retirement for its citizens. To put the excess healthcare costs in perspective, the amount Americans pay for healthcare in excess of the rest of the OECD would pay for the US military spending twice over each year.
The real solution to retirement funding is figuring out how to get the US healthcare per capita costs to be in the same general vicinity as the rest of the developed world while hopefully matching those countries life expectancies and medical outcomes. The money that would be freed up would essentially wipe out the funding shortfalls for retirement without any new taxes.
Really well said about changing perspective on retirement savings.
Thank you for the post. I'm intrigued by the general tone of your retirement manifesto. Have you documented your proposals for reworked retirement financial planning metrics in more detail?
Thank you for another great post!
I was thinking about how "full-time" can be 37.5 hours, with paid breaks counted.... But the cynical side of me sees this as a way to not have to pay overtime for small overages.
I agree that making part time work easier and normalized would be helpful to a lot of people. I would love you read a post about what the current (regulatory) barriers to part time work are.
I really wonder, though I've never researched it, how gig economy work is factored into labor market figures and how much of that work contributed to a right labor market in other, more traditional jobs.