Entertainment, Telecom (Broadcasting, Media), and Pharma are overrepresented in most members of the EU, and the tech industry is underrepresented in much of the EU.
The US doesn't have similarly as draconian regulations because tech companies like Google and Netflix backed the EFF in lobbying against these kinds of regulations.
How much I hate this country, there is corruption every, schools going to pieces, air quality that is crap, people being robbed or killed if they step in the wrong corner, unemployment, youth dispersion, wealth inequality, public health going to hell, public transportation going to hell, but somehow the system manages to put their problems under the spotlight and still ask for less rights and more tax cuts
Born and raised in Italy. Your analysis is too optimistic. The country is doomed under countless other aspects. And the EU will follow. We should run away from this dystopia
The emigrant dream: run to US and make a ton of money before you get old enough to get sick, then go back and retire in a seaside cottage and get free healthcare.
I already developed some health problems, that need light treatment so far, but I guess from now on US for me is like untouchable, if I were younger, but when I was younger I was still too left-leaning to accept living in US
I think you might have some misconceptions. The difference in take home pay for devs is quite large between the US and Europe and you can still get insurance with pre-existing conditions in the US with an out of pocket maximum much smaller than the difference in pay.
I don't know, we had a guy from Canada working at our US company. He fell ill with some kind of a mental problem, spent 2 months in the hospital. Didn't pay a dime, and continued to draw salary while figuring out his mental problems. Left for Canada upon release.
The healthcare thing in the US is overblown by the number of young high school educated kids on social media.
The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance. I work in manufacturing and all the manufacturers offer health care to all their full time workers. The bar for those jobs is basically "Have a pulse, show up to work, and be able to build a 10 yr old level Lego set". Pay is usually $17-22/hr, day one no experience.
Just don't pick the $30/month healthcare option. That's how people who "work full time with insurance" end up with that "here is my $50,000 bill for falling off a ladder, thanks America".
If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
> The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance.
This is absolutely true, especially for tech workers but doesn't it concern you that you need to be a cog in the machine to get this benefit?
If you want to work for yourself ("the American dream") you either have to risk having no insurance or pay $700+ a month for baseline coverage for 1 person (price varies by state). There was even a time a few years ago where you had to pay a federal penalty if you didn't have medical insurance. I forgot the exact year, maybe it was 2016 or so but I remember the government forcing me to pay around ~$3,000 for literally not having insurance.
This depends heavily on the company and what they choose to subsidize in their healthcare plan. There are very much jobs out there that have quality plans for cheap, so long as the company leadership has decided to eat the insurance bill. Some even provided free health insurance prior to the Affordable Care Act making that a "Cadillac Plan," though the ACA did improve other things.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
Sources? My friends in the US who are from the EU and moved for some version of the American dream seem to disagree. And the point is; I don't want my 'job' to be in charge of my health insurance, ever. It is a perverse incentive (they can blackmail me with it and a lot more things; not legal, but I haven't seen many companies care about that little inconvenience). They should pay into it, but when I lose my job, my insurance should continue as if nothing happened. $250/mo is absolutely nothing though; I have friends on private plans double or more that and they still got fucked in the US because 'some reasons'/contract blah; when you are ill you don't want to bother with that shit; you just should get what you paid for for decades, not hire lawyers and have to go to court with a central line in you. That simply doesn't happen here; I will not get refused anything I need, even if I pay E0 (which I do not). Sure it might end some time, but it's gonna be a toss up depending on the coming years who has it worse.
Have you ever needed any significant healthcare in the US? Putting aside the financial extortion that attracts the most attention, the overall system has been thoroughly trashed by the "insurance" cartels. Appointments have been diced up into 10-15 minute blips, often with a different doctor every time (group practice). You get just enough time for some pleasantries, they tell you their pre-canned suggestion, and then you get one or maybe two questions before they start pushing you out the door with a broom. And that's presenting as a reasonably intelligent person with means.
Never mind having to advocate for someone in the hospital and be continually chummy with the nurses so they see your family member as a person worth their stretched attention rather than just another body to keep warm and checklisted, while also nudging them to the mitigate the systematic incompetence but not too much lest you end up on the shit list.
I can't speak to Europe's systems though. Perhaps they're even worse.
That sounds more like an urgent care than anything.
I have probably seen 20 doctors in the last 2 years for ongoing health issues, and never once did I get two different doctors from a group practice. You would have to request that since when you make an appointment you make it for the doctor you want to see specifically.
However urgent cares are pretty much exactly as you describe, so perhaps you are confusing group practice with urgent care? Hospitals are also kind of in the same vein as urgent cares too.
If you have the means, I would highly suggest finding a good primary care doctor. Mine will sit with me for an hour if needed, no rushing, talks through everything. Search locally and you can check reviews online. Although the best ones are often not taking new patients, you have to shop around a bit.
No, I am summarizing my experience with several different primaries and around 8 specialist practices, much of it gained from advocating for several older family members.
Yes, you can request your next appointment with the same doctor (modulo having to wait even longer). But that doesn't change the overall dynamic where they've been set up to give you mere slivers of time while outsourcing their working memory to janky computer systems. And while you can develop an ongoing relationship with one doctor, they can still leave suddenly because they've hit their individual breaking point from the practice's continual screw turning.
I know there are some good doctors out there. For example our pediatrician has been great (after a bit of a bumpy start due to overall industry-wide CYA dynamics). But a few shining examples, if you can even manage to invest the effort and find them, don't really change the quality of the overall system. Especially when many situations basically require relying on the whole system.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
I beg to differ, Switzerland is top notch and at least comparable to above. Accident insurance is mandatory for all employers and you pay 0 nothing, sickness insurance is slightly above the costs you mention and paid by every resident. Due to country being tiny you are never too far from really well staffed and equipped hospitals. I'd expect nordics have also at least very decent healthcare system.
Plus when you have any sort of issue, any normal employer is not desperately looking for ways to fire you quickly. Social safety net is on completely another level compared to US. Also lower taxes. Healthier environment to live, much better food. Vastly better and free public school system. And so on. If you plan kids, US costs will quickly spiral out of control unless on FAANG salaries, and then you have corresponding costs. Or you just let have your kids have those wonderful student loans, fuck their freedom and best years right.
But yes its still probably the most capitalistic country in Europe, and they are where they are due to all this, not some alt-right fairy tales about evil bankers and nazi gold I keep hearing from those who skipped way too many history (and other) lessons at school. Germany could be at same level but 8x more if they didn't adopt continuously ridiculously bad social direction and dangerously terrible and weak leaders. Alas, Germany's economical future and conversely EU's doesn't look that great due to this.
Yeah my company fired hundreds of people in USA at the start of covid, someone asked about health insurance and the CEO said "they'll be fine. We cover them for 30 more days".
This also happens because the Italian television dumbs people down. Now we have also the social media so there is very little hope things will get any better.
From the outside (I'm not Italian) it looks like Meloni did almost nothing. Lots of promises, but after the election first von der Leyen threatened her, then Meloni did a couple of photo-ops with Biden, Macron and Scholz. Then she was part of the club.
Remember that the corruption index is just about how much corruption people "think" there is. And italians are pessimists, so you get this idea.
In sweden or germany they're just as corrupt, but also believe to belong to a superior race, so keep repeating to themselves that these things only happen to those people with dark skin, not to them!
Plenty of corruption around me in sweden goes completely unpunished. They just pin it all on the low level guy (who's often an immigrant) and never involve any higher up (who's often not an immigrant).
I would love to see the streaming providers cry should the handful relevant ISPs decide on collective action and block all sports streaming services because obviously allowing sports streaming is a giant liability. /s
Despite Berlusconi himself being dead, his family still has media interests and is funding the parties that are currently in power. This is the way of returning the favour.
Italy's hierarchy of power:
Football League SERIE A (Soccer for the US friends)
Government
This seems crazy, but it is. Literally nobody cared about piracy until it started touching soccer
I found this funny:
Interestingly, complying with Italian law could mean violating laws elsewhere
It’s the case with many laws when strictly applied to international activities.
Are there prison penalties for false claims? No? Huh. Weird.
(Sorry, I can imagine their being penalties for an ISP/site operator erroneously reporting something, but nothing for media companies)
Legitimately do not get why Europe is so big on IP. Bigger than the actual producers of IP.
Lobbying.
Entertainment, Telecom (Broadcasting, Media), and Pharma are overrepresented in most members of the EU, and the tech industry is underrepresented in much of the EU.
The US doesn't have similarly as draconian regulations because tech companies like Google and Netflix backed the EFF in lobbying against these kinds of regulations.
all true, unfortunately.
How much I hate this country, there is corruption every, schools going to pieces, air quality that is crap, people being robbed or killed if they step in the wrong corner, unemployment, youth dispersion, wealth inequality, public health going to hell, public transportation going to hell, but somehow the system manages to put their problems under the spotlight and still ask for less rights and more tax cuts
Born and raised in Italy. Your analysis is too optimistic. The country is doomed under countless other aspects. And the EU will follow. We should run away from this dystopia
Born and raised in Naples, I ran away from here 13 years ago, but you run to US and end up going homeless if you get a flu? There's no hope .-.
The emigrant dream: run to US and make a ton of money before you get old enough to get sick, then go back and retire in a seaside cottage and get free healthcare.
I already developed some health problems, that need light treatment so far, but I guess from now on US for me is like untouchable, if I were younger, but when I was younger I was still too left-leaning to accept living in US
I think you might have some misconceptions. The difference in take home pay for devs is quite large between the US and Europe and you can still get insurance with pre-existing conditions in the US with an out of pocket maximum much smaller than the difference in pay.
The difference in home pay from a developer in Europe and one in Italy is already very large.
Crossing the border from Italy to Europe means 2-4x the salary. Crossing from Europe to North America means another 2x (or more, it depends)
I don't know, we had a guy from Canada working at our US company. He fell ill with some kind of a mental problem, spent 2 months in the hospital. Didn't pay a dime, and continued to draw salary while figuring out his mental problems. Left for Canada upon release.
The healthcare thing in the US is overblown by the number of young high school educated kids on social media.
The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance. I work in manufacturing and all the manufacturers offer health care to all their full time workers. The bar for those jobs is basically "Have a pulse, show up to work, and be able to build a 10 yr old level Lego set". Pay is usually $17-22/hr, day one no experience.
Just don't pick the $30/month healthcare option. That's how people who "work full time with insurance" end up with that "here is my $50,000 bill for falling off a ladder, thanks America".
If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
> The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance.
This is absolutely true, especially for tech workers but doesn't it concern you that you need to be a cog in the machine to get this benefit?
If you want to work for yourself ("the American dream") you either have to risk having no insurance or pay $700+ a month for baseline coverage for 1 person (price varies by state). There was even a time a few years ago where you had to pay a federal penalty if you didn't have medical insurance. I forgot the exact year, maybe it was 2016 or so but I remember the government forcing me to pay around ~$3,000 for literally not having insurance.
This depends heavily on the company and what they choose to subsidize in their healthcare plan. There are very much jobs out there that have quality plans for cheap, so long as the company leadership has decided to eat the insurance bill. Some even provided free health insurance prior to the Affordable Care Act making that a "Cadillac Plan," though the ACA did improve other things.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
Sources? My friends in the US who are from the EU and moved for some version of the American dream seem to disagree. And the point is; I don't want my 'job' to be in charge of my health insurance, ever. It is a perverse incentive (they can blackmail me with it and a lot more things; not legal, but I haven't seen many companies care about that little inconvenience). They should pay into it, but when I lose my job, my insurance should continue as if nothing happened. $250/mo is absolutely nothing though; I have friends on private plans double or more that and they still got fucked in the US because 'some reasons'/contract blah; when you are ill you don't want to bother with that shit; you just should get what you paid for for decades, not hire lawyers and have to go to court with a central line in you. That simply doesn't happen here; I will not get refused anything I need, even if I pay E0 (which I do not). Sure it might end some time, but it's gonna be a toss up depending on the coming years who has it worse.
And what do you suggest during a recession, where finding a job is not so easy?
Get Obamacare, or your state's equivalent. Or pay out the ass for private, or cross your fingers and tread carefully.
Have you ever needed any significant healthcare in the US? Putting aside the financial extortion that attracts the most attention, the overall system has been thoroughly trashed by the "insurance" cartels. Appointments have been diced up into 10-15 minute blips, often with a different doctor every time (group practice). You get just enough time for some pleasantries, they tell you their pre-canned suggestion, and then you get one or maybe two questions before they start pushing you out the door with a broom. And that's presenting as a reasonably intelligent person with means.
Never mind having to advocate for someone in the hospital and be continually chummy with the nurses so they see your family member as a person worth their stretched attention rather than just another body to keep warm and checklisted, while also nudging them to the mitigate the systematic incompetence but not too much lest you end up on the shit list.
I can't speak to Europe's systems though. Perhaps they're even worse.
That sounds more like an urgent care than anything.
I have probably seen 20 doctors in the last 2 years for ongoing health issues, and never once did I get two different doctors from a group practice. You would have to request that since when you make an appointment you make it for the doctor you want to see specifically.
However urgent cares are pretty much exactly as you describe, so perhaps you are confusing group practice with urgent care? Hospitals are also kind of in the same vein as urgent cares too.
If you have the means, I would highly suggest finding a good primary care doctor. Mine will sit with me for an hour if needed, no rushing, talks through everything. Search locally and you can check reviews online. Although the best ones are often not taking new patients, you have to shop around a bit.
No, I am summarizing my experience with several different primaries and around 8 specialist practices, much of it gained from advocating for several older family members.
Yes, you can request your next appointment with the same doctor (modulo having to wait even longer). But that doesn't change the overall dynamic where they've been set up to give you mere slivers of time while outsourcing their working memory to janky computer systems. And while you can develop an ongoing relationship with one doctor, they can still leave suddenly because they've hit their individual breaking point from the practice's continual screw turning.
I know there are some good doctors out there. For example our pediatrician has been great (after a bit of a bumpy start due to overall industry-wide CYA dynamics). But a few shining examples, if you can even manage to invest the effort and find them, don't really change the quality of the overall system. Especially when many situations basically require relying on the whole system.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
I beg to differ, Switzerland is top notch and at least comparable to above. Accident insurance is mandatory for all employers and you pay 0 nothing, sickness insurance is slightly above the costs you mention and paid by every resident. Due to country being tiny you are never too far from really well staffed and equipped hospitals. I'd expect nordics have also at least very decent healthcare system.
Plus when you have any sort of issue, any normal employer is not desperately looking for ways to fire you quickly. Social safety net is on completely another level compared to US. Also lower taxes. Healthier environment to live, much better food. Vastly better and free public school system. And so on. If you plan kids, US costs will quickly spiral out of control unless on FAANG salaries, and then you have corresponding costs. Or you just let have your kids have those wonderful student loans, fuck their freedom and best years right.
But yes its still probably the most capitalistic country in Europe, and they are where they are due to all this, not some alt-right fairy tales about evil bankers and nazi gold I keep hearing from those who skipped way too many history (and other) lessons at school. Germany could be at same level but 8x more if they didn't adopt continuously ridiculously bad social direction and dangerously terrible and weak leaders. Alas, Germany's economical future and conversely EU's doesn't look that great due to this.
Yeah my company fired hundreds of people in USA at the start of covid, someone asked about health insurance and the CEO said "they'll be fine. We cover them for 30 more days".
A dream, really :D
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
This also happens because the Italian television dumbs people down. Now we have also the social media so there is very little hope things will get any better.
From the outside (I'm not Italian) it looks like Meloni did almost nothing. Lots of promises, but after the election first von der Leyen threatened her, then Meloni did a couple of photo-ops with Biden, Macron and Scholz. Then she was part of the club.
It always goes the same way.
After years of promising italy first, she did USA first.
Guess they meant little Italy in new york
Yeah, the Meloni's cabinet is really a cabinet in the italian sense of the word
Remember that the corruption index is just about how much corruption people "think" there is. And italians are pessimists, so you get this idea.
In sweden or germany they're just as corrupt, but also believe to belong to a superior race, so keep repeating to themselves that these things only happen to those people with dark skin, not to them!
Plenty of corruption around me in sweden goes completely unpunished. They just pin it all on the low level guy (who's often an immigrant) and never involve any higher up (who's often not an immigrant).
I would love to see the streaming providers cry should the handful relevant ISPs decide on collective action and block all sports streaming services because obviously allowing sports streaming is a giant liability. /s
Despite Berlusconi himself being dead, his family still has media interests and is funding the parties that are currently in power. This is the way of returning the favour.
This is not really related to Mediaset, but rather to illegal streaming of football matches.
And mediaset has never ever transmitted a football match, right?
-_-'
The current government has done other laws in that sense. Which incidentally allow blocking any website.