Too bad Walmart greeter isn't making "per capita GDP".
replyThe Walmart greeter also isn't paying for the bulk of their healthcare expenses because Walmart provides subsidized health insurance to all employees who work at least 30 hours per week. All US employers with at least 50 employees are required to do so under the ACA. If the greeter worked fewer than 30 hr/wk, they wouldn't get insurance through Walmart, but they would likely qualify for an ACA subsidy that covered close to the entire cost of a health insurance plan on the marketplace.
replyThe statement, "The US spends ~$14,570 per person on healthcare. Japan spends ~$5,790" is about the average amount that the country as a whole is spending per person on healthcare, not what any given individual is paying. Per-capita GDP (i.e. the average economic output per person) is the most relevant comparison.
Some quick googling suggested cashiers at Seiyu in Japan earn $7-9/hour USD while Walmart is about double that.
replyIf the Japanese cashier makes half the amount, but spends only 1/3 on healthcare that still seems to favor Japan
replyWell sure, then you're kinda cherry picking data that could easily be considered within a margin of error to make a rather unconvincing point
replyIt is not cherry picking to respond to presented data
replyIt's cherry picking to describe the typical worker experience? You do realize that vast majority of Americans don't make more than $100k right?
replyWhats your point, US healthcare is ridiculously expensive to detriment of all US citizens sans those working for health insurance conglomerates. Any objective data you pick will show this, no need for strawmen.
replyIt’s really good for clinicians and their paychecks, too.
replyThey make more than they would in Japan. But people can make $0 in any country. Regardless, part-time Walmart greeters are fortunately not paying full price for health insurance in the US.
replyput another way, they're so poor that the US gov has to subsidize their healthcare since they couldn't get insurance or care otherwise.
replyI'm curious what you're implying. Is there a country where the poorest person is so rich they can get all the insurance and care they require without government subsidy?
replyThe median salary in the US is around $61k a year and in Japan is around $42k a year. Salary-wise the difference is not as big as GDP per capita
replyThis is called "purchasing power parity". There's an official index for it, as well as ad hoc measures like the Economist Big Mac Index.
replyTo some extent it's circular: the US has a higher number of GDP because it spends more on healthcare. The broken leg version of the broken window fallacy.
This is an excellent point. Another comment pointed out that the gap in median salary is not as great as the gap in per capita GDP. Depending on the causes this and lower prices may mean Japanese are better off then Americans - e.g. if there is greater self-supply within households that would not be captured by GDP.
replyThe difference that using percentage of GDP instead that Japan moves close to the European countries. The US remains a very expensive outlier.
replyhttps://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?locat...
The important question is: which fraction of people can afford it in either country?
reply“someone” in this case is in the 73rd percentile in the USA and ~40th in JP.
replySo the USA is still significantly more expensive as a portion of actual income. “GDP per capita” is a relatively useless figure
This feels like a misleading ratio, it's just saying the cost is the same in per capita terms but says nothing about the absolute cost or more importantly cost as a percentage of income, which matters for the majority of people in the denominator of the GDP per capita calculation.
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