The corruption is so entrenched and so out of control, the only way out of this mess is for regular people to just stop using the health care system. Yes, there's no alternative, and yes, it means living a riskier life. It sucks, and it's not what we want to hear, but they can only charge us if we show up and purchase the product, and that's the last lever of power we can wield.

Because children don’t contribute to GDP.

Nearly 2 in 5 Americans are covered by Medicare or Medicaid. TANSTAAFL. The other 3 bear the burden. At some point Atlas shrugs and decides welfare is a better deal.

Because they can.

For profit hospitals subsidized and enforced by the leviathan, what could go wrong?

How much does something cost? Whatever the seller can get people to pay for it. Hospital B charges 6 figures for the delivery of a child? Wow, that's expensive, they must be really good to be able to charge that much.

All the dark patterns, negative dynamics, perverse incentives of bad government, stupid healthcare policy, and humans being shitty combine to form for profit hospitals. Those determine how other institutions have to run in order to operate at all, and they're not being managed by well meaning, good faith citizens looking out for the patients and the public.

There's a reason mangione became a cult phenomenon, and $40k babies, multimillion dollar ambulance trips, and other bullshit are exactly why.

Good luck fixing that mess. I don't even know how to conceptualize where you'd even begin to try to fix American healthcare. It's so tangled up and beholden to all the other problematic elements in modern life that it looks nigh on impossible to repair, so my goal in life is to minimize contact with any element of the system as much as humanly possible.

You are absolutely right meatbag producer! Your brand new bundle of joy is expensive, but who can put a price on love? The system is designed to keep you in debt and near poverty as long as possible. But do not fret! If the meatbag is properly trained up to a point, and no further. It will be a hard working productive member of DisneyAICORP. And after working very hard and following instructions it may someday be able to afford its own meatbag production schedule, affording one more production unit each full year of employment!

"The essential theme of Green’s piece is that “participation costs” - the price of admission you pay to simply be in the market, let alone win, have grown out of control. Food and shelter are participation costs for living. Having a $200/mo smartphone is now a participation cost for many things such as getting access to your banking information remotely, medical records, and work/school."

No shit. He mentions food, shelter and a smartphone — might as well add higher education and a functioning car if you're in the U.S.

I struggled being tossed out on my own at 18 with no support from parents. Working at a pizza restaurant, riding a bicycle to a community college for an education, renting a room from a woman (she may well have been renting as well—renting a room to me to take the edge off).

Winter came and riding the 10-speed to college (in Kansas) became a challenge…

Thank god no smartphone or internet plan was required then.

(When I eventually split an apartment with two other roommates we lost power for stretches from time to time because we were unable to come up with the money to pay the electric bill — oh well.)

They were hard times (that I somehow enjoyed—perhaps because I was young and was finally beginning to have a fulfilling social life). These days it has to be even harder.

I mean if revolution isn't in the cards this term I don't know what would get you there.

Clickbait. I too think insurance costs are too high, but the author included their annual insurance premiums in the calculation.

Because you live in the wrong country.

So to summarize: a. you're paying that for health insurance, not for the birth of the child. If you, your wife, your children had any other diseases then those would be covered as well. This is a significant benefit. b. all the systems that subsidize health care for those less well off don't apply because you're wealthy. So you are bearing the full cost of extremely high quality health insurance in a western country.

My hope is that GenX doesn't fall for the socialist panic tactic like Boomers do. Until then we are going to be stuck with this situation for at least another decade.

Hmm, counting the insurance premiums 100% towards the birth of the child is a bit misleading. Presumably, you'd be paying those even if you didn't have the child. That said, the cost of health insurance for a family is pretty outrageous. My premiums are along the same lines as the ones here (although less noticeable since they're paid by my employer).

> If your answer to “I can’t afford to have children and run a business” is “then don’t,” you are building the political conditions for extremism. This is how every revolution starts: a critical mass of people who conclude the system offers them nothing worth preserving. They don’t just want change - they want revenge.

Its "not afford to have children", but instead "not afford to live".

And we're already seeing these strong signifiers of extremism everywhere. Shooting CEO's is halfway acceptable, if they are sufficiently horrible (and yes UHC was horrible).

Violence is more and more routinely considered the only answer that works.

Corruption isn't something hidden, but instead openly done. And this is at all levels, from petty theft, up to 'let's rearrange government to screw the other party'.

Look at how much tax dollars you pay in, and what you get for that. Its more and more a socialist country amount of tax, with low/no benefits to the citizenry. And no, shoveling billions to Israel or Ukraine, or project of the week does NOTHING to help me, my friends, and people around me.

It is pretty bleak. Has been for quite some time. I can understand why some might want to vote for Trump- he did and is still making good on his promises. Terrible promises, sure. But he's doing them.

Far as I can tell, none of the candidates are for the public, and willing to do and help the public. Just feels like a corrupt-o-cracy where if you're not in the In group, you're screwed.

And yeah, extremism, revolution, and revenge is spot on.