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Most Americans have some form of health insurance [1].

I'd argue that my country is worth defending, despite its many flaws.

1. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...


About 50,000 Americans die a year due to lack of health insurance. Estimates are about 25k in 2006 years to 60-80k now.

Americans are more likely than any other nationality to see other Americans as bad, immoral: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/03/05/in-25-countr...

At least Americans have mostly come to realize the problem is other Americans.

It’s a little wild to run into someone willing to defend the place.


You're moving the goalposts. There's tons we can do to improve US healthcare outcomes (we overspend compared to what we get [1]) by emulating what has succeeded in other countries. But that conversation and solution is different than "nobody has healthcare".

As to defense, I live here, as do the majority of the people I love and like. It's in my interest to have my country continue to exist as a sovereign nation with the ability to defend itself from foreign adversaries.

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health...


Oh, so some people have healthcare, but it costs multiple times more than it does other places, and we "only" lose a Vietnam War's worth of Americans a year due to medical insurance. My bad, that's okay then. /s

Every time I'm like "My fellow Americans are ghouls" somebody reminds me it's OK to lose 50,000 of them a year as long as we have a big military and can provide Israel with enough weapons for their genocide.


No one is stopping you, and maybe it's worth trying out!


It seems to be, given how many people voted for "mass deportations".

It also makes it easier for employers to get away with poor working conditions for those workers.


Moving electrons around isn't inherently immoral like slavery is. It's odd to compare the two!


Housing is expensive because homeowners have weaponized zoning laws to make it illegal to build housing the city needs.


Sadly, in San Francisco, renters have been even more NIMBY than homeowners.

https://www.mhankinson.com/documents/renters_preprint.pdf


My understanding is that picked fruits and veg are still alive [1], and often respirating [2]. This is a big component in figuring out how to refrigerate them at the optimal temperatures and atmospheric makeup.

1. https://healthland.time.com/2013/06/21/theyre-alive-harveste... 2. https://agriculture.institute/food-chemistry-and-physiology/...


Big agree. Times Square would be a great place to start.



A small section of it is.

> “Bowtie” bounded by Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets.


Agree. Also I don't think any adults were forcibly vaccinated again their will, they just lost out on certain societal privileges.


Seems 48.6% of US employees had employer-provided health care in 2023. Lower than I would have thought.

https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator...


> because healthcare demand is unlimited.

How's that? Beyond some level of care I suspect demand drops of a cliff. No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.


I'm sure they're talking about necessary healthcare - e.g., cancer drugs, insulin, dialysis, heart surgery, etc.

When giving the option of parting ways with some more money or dying, virtually no one is going to choose the latter.

Unfortunately, the US healthcare system is set up to extract maximum capital from people who interact with it. Worse: it's not alone. For example, the reason food in the US has so much sugar, salt, and fat in it is that the food industry has carefully engineered processed foods to be more addictive so people will buy more of it.

We live in one of the most exploitative societies in the world, and it's only getting worse over time.


> No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.

"Fun" isn't the right word, but ~hypochondriacs will get unnecessary care if they perceive it to be free. This adds cost to the system without improving outcomes.


Yes, and there is also an enormous amount of low-value or unnecessary care delivered which also doesn't improve outcomes (or even makes them worse). Depending on which estimate you believe this might be a quarter of all healthcare spending.


Better answer (and child comment too):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46115687


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