John, excellent discussion. Including gun violence and food and health care insecurity is absolutely what life is about. I agree about these issues adding up to weighing whether or not the US is still a livable country. Trump is doing his best to make it not be so. I just come back from the States. Ran into two women I know in the grocery store. One lives part time in France, where she inherited her sister's house, and one is moving to Portugal with her family. her oldest son is working on his PhD in Paris, and the other two are in University in the US. Being in academia with having lived abroad during sabbaticals it is easier for them to envision moving abroad and they are fortunate enough to have practice with it. I have that too, plus dual citizenship and a European husband.
Our book club group in Democrats Abroad has decided that we are going to work on discussing health care as an act of support for the US. One project is to gather stories from Americans Abroad around the world about their health care experiences, as well as to put together some sort of data base about health care in different countries, to provide data for our politicians. I hope you can be a part of this project.
I had coffee yesterday with another friend who is American and Swiss, and she teaches Health Care Administration in a local College. She and I were discussing health care, and she was critical of the German system and her particular doctor, whereas not so much of the US. She apparently had a really cheap insurance in her husbands job when her now 35 year old daughter was a child. I wonder if things are getting worse. I just was dealing with my mom's long term care insurance in the US, because she has been diagnosed with dementia. Both her insurance and my aunt who is legally blind's long term care insurance insist on them paying out of pocket for care for the first 90 days! That is a formula to bankrupt people. Who can afford $175 per day for 90 days except the oligarchs and the super wealthy. She has been paying into this for decades, and now when she needs it, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to access this care.
The Bernie Sanders video is right on the money too, but I do not think the average American grasps these things. How does one get the word out?
Thanks for commenting. I'm interesting your project and, as you know, think that Americans have been discouraged from learning about alternative systems since they've heard all their lives that such systems == socialism == higher taxes == less personal freedom; many have not been made aware of the benefits AND the potential over savings in cost to individuals, even when taxes are taken into consideration.
Stay in touch about the Desm Abroad project; I'll try to join the call from time to time.
While I disagree with your solutions / politics, you summed up very well the issues and struggle for the everyday American. I’ve been feeling more and more lately just how much the system is out to screw and exploit us for every red cent we own.
This is absolutely excellent. Remind me of your background. Journalist? Academic? It's so well researched.
My daughter, who lives in NYC, had to deal with insane multiple struggles to get actual coverage from her supposedly "full medical insurance coverage" for certain health issues that were thankfully not life-threatening, but still debilitating at the time. I may have mentioned this here.
This is not why I moved to France, but it's why I'm staying in Europe for the rest of my life -- and most likely France. Sure, here we may have to up the out-of-pocket a bit, and perhaps should, but it's nothing like the nightmarish US system. And who knows how it might even get worse?
Thanks for the kind words. Agreed with you about things possibly (probably) getting worse, especially as US private equity and vulture funds scoop up hospitals, clinics, municipal services, rental properties, etc. (They're doing it in the UK and Ireland, too.)
To your question: I had a career in academe, a CV is linked on my "About" page. Part of my responsibilities in Ireland was being head of the Irish Social Science Data Archive (a member of CESSDA ERIC, The Consortium of European Data Archives); so I'm pretty familiar with official measures of the health and well-being of a society; many useful measures are available in the private and non-profit sectors as well. I worry about the status of these statistical data under the incoming US administration ...
I took a look. Quite interesting how you moved from a PhD in music, if I read it all right, to data science. Did you actually work physically at Stanford? That's where I did my BA.
Sorry for teh delayed response ! I was never in residence at Stanford but visited frequently. I'm sure it must have been a great place to attend university. The Center I was associated with was the brainchild of Walter Hewlett, who shared my interest in the digital representation of musical information; I also had a separate digital project with the Research Libraries Group, which was also based at Stanford, and made several visits in conjunction with that. I spent a lot of time in Berkeley and San Francisco on another music project, too, and really loved it there. When I visited S.F. several years ago I hardly recognised the place.
I have such fond memories of that whole area, but never get back. Everybody says the same thing about SF. When I was at Stanford, I was lucky enough to have an aunt and uncle who lived right in the city, so I went up there often for weekends.
Some literary wag said many years ago that nobody dies a nature death in America. I believe you have more than demonstrated that he was quite right. There is much talk about how the risk society has come into being by market risks being shifted to individuals rather than corporate entities. Thanks for the cogent analysis
John, excellent discussion. Including gun violence and food and health care insecurity is absolutely what life is about. I agree about these issues adding up to weighing whether or not the US is still a livable country. Trump is doing his best to make it not be so. I just come back from the States. Ran into two women I know in the grocery store. One lives part time in France, where she inherited her sister's house, and one is moving to Portugal with her family. her oldest son is working on his PhD in Paris, and the other two are in University in the US. Being in academia with having lived abroad during sabbaticals it is easier for them to envision moving abroad and they are fortunate enough to have practice with it. I have that too, plus dual citizenship and a European husband.
Our book club group in Democrats Abroad has decided that we are going to work on discussing health care as an act of support for the US. One project is to gather stories from Americans Abroad around the world about their health care experiences, as well as to put together some sort of data base about health care in different countries, to provide data for our politicians. I hope you can be a part of this project.
I had coffee yesterday with another friend who is American and Swiss, and she teaches Health Care Administration in a local College. She and I were discussing health care, and she was critical of the German system and her particular doctor, whereas not so much of the US. She apparently had a really cheap insurance in her husbands job when her now 35 year old daughter was a child. I wonder if things are getting worse. I just was dealing with my mom's long term care insurance in the US, because she has been diagnosed with dementia. Both her insurance and my aunt who is legally blind's long term care insurance insist on them paying out of pocket for care for the first 90 days! That is a formula to bankrupt people. Who can afford $175 per day for 90 days except the oligarchs and the super wealthy. She has been paying into this for decades, and now when she needs it, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to access this care.
The Bernie Sanders video is right on the money too, but I do not think the average American grasps these things. How does one get the word out?
Hi Linda,
Thanks for commenting. I'm interesting your project and, as you know, think that Americans have been discouraged from learning about alternative systems since they've heard all their lives that such systems == socialism == higher taxes == less personal freedom; many have not been made aware of the benefits AND the potential over savings in cost to individuals, even when taxes are taken into consideration.
Stay in touch about the Desm Abroad project; I'll try to join the call from time to time.
John, I feel your piece is so timely. I am sharing it in other Substacks when I post, as it is relevant.
Thank you, Linda
While I disagree with your solutions / politics, you summed up very well the issues and struggle for the everyday American. I’ve been feeling more and more lately just how much the system is out to screw and exploit us for every red cent we own.
This is absolutely excellent. Remind me of your background. Journalist? Academic? It's so well researched.
My daughter, who lives in NYC, had to deal with insane multiple struggles to get actual coverage from her supposedly "full medical insurance coverage" for certain health issues that were thankfully not life-threatening, but still debilitating at the time. I may have mentioned this here.
This is not why I moved to France, but it's why I'm staying in Europe for the rest of my life -- and most likely France. Sure, here we may have to up the out-of-pocket a bit, and perhaps should, but it's nothing like the nightmarish US system. And who knows how it might even get worse?
Thanks for the kind words. Agreed with you about things possibly (probably) getting worse, especially as US private equity and vulture funds scoop up hospitals, clinics, municipal services, rental properties, etc. (They're doing it in the UK and Ireland, too.)
To your question: I had a career in academe, a CV is linked on my "About" page. Part of my responsibilities in Ireland was being head of the Irish Social Science Data Archive (a member of CESSDA ERIC, The Consortium of European Data Archives); so I'm pretty familiar with official measures of the health and well-being of a society; many useful measures are available in the private and non-profit sectors as well. I worry about the status of these statistical data under the incoming US administration ...
I took a look. Quite interesting how you moved from a PhD in music, if I read it all right, to data science. Did you actually work physically at Stanford? That's where I did my BA.
Sorry for teh delayed response ! I was never in residence at Stanford but visited frequently. I'm sure it must have been a great place to attend university. The Center I was associated with was the brainchild of Walter Hewlett, who shared my interest in the digital representation of musical information; I also had a separate digital project with the Research Libraries Group, which was also based at Stanford, and made several visits in conjunction with that. I spent a lot of time in Berkeley and San Francisco on another music project, too, and really loved it there. When I visited S.F. several years ago I hardly recognised the place.
I have such fond memories of that whole area, but never get back. Everybody says the same thing about SF. When I was at Stanford, I was lucky enough to have an aunt and uncle who lived right in the city, so I went up there often for weekends.
Dear Sir,
Some literary wag said many years ago that nobody dies a nature death in America. I believe you have more than demonstrated that he was quite right. There is much talk about how the risk society has come into being by market risks being shifted to individuals rather than corporate entities. Thanks for the cogent analysis
I might add to my previous that we are the lucky ones.