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Wish we didn’t live in a capitalist dystopia
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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FYI this post is mostly BS.
70 percent of people in the EU own homes. In the US it's 65 percent.
While it is lower among millennials, especially compared to Boomers at their age, the majority of them still own homes. While I don't have stats on Gen Z, the oldest among them is 25.
Almost all dental issues can be avoided with preventative measures. Virtually every single white collar job offers dental. Some blue collar jobs do. If your job does not offer dental, it's available on the ACA exchange for like $20/month.
Again, despite what reddit would have you believe about us all being paid poverty wages, the vast majority of Americans can afford dental.
Finally, I don't understand why reddit sees the fact that Boomers got married and had kids at like 21 on the late end a good thing. Basically everyone acknowledges marrying young is absolutely idiotic most of the time. Even more people acknowledge that having kids is a dumb idea. Boomers were forced into that. There's a huge reason a ton of Boomer Humor is about hating your spouse.
Also at this point someone with Boomer parents is in their thirties or forties. Someone with Boomer parents who came of age when the economy was amazing and houses were dirt cheap is 50+. If you can't afford dental at that age, you've fucked up big-time somewhere along the way.
The problem is is that insurance is a scam, you pay out the ass monthly for something you may need to use at some point in the future, and even then they're like "we may cover the cost of this later on, but first you have to pay $500 (the deductible) until it comes to the point..."
Exactly! I take fastidious care of my teeth - I've only ever had 1 cavity 10 years ago - but recently I broke the filling and the dentist said it has to be a crown. I have dental insurance that covers two cleanings per year and just like u said, I still had to pay $500 for the crown. That was a big setback.
You know I'm starting to realize why so many people in this thread have dental issues.
Go to the dentist, even if your teeth are currently fine.
Yeah, just to sit there in the waiting room for 2 hours, have them brush your teeth for you, and be like "yeah, everything looks good. come back in six months!". I can brush my own teeth, thanks.
"Everything looks good, come back in 6 months."
(6 months later)
"Looks like you need 2 root canals and a crown."
The point of insurance is supposed to be cover surprises because everyone eventually has a few. Typical dental coverage nowadays isn't really insurance at all, it's a payment plan. I literally opted out of insurance in a year where I expected I needed dental work and it saved me money.
...how old are you?
37
Especially since most of those people are older people.
Yes it is? It's a measure of how many people were able to purchase a home.
This is directly relevant to this post, which say that modern day Americans can't dental insurance, much less homes.
The above meme:
My parents in their thirties: Let's buy this house.
Me in my thirties: I can't afford teeth.
As I said, that is BS.
Have you read any of the top comment threads? People are 100 percent taking this at face value.
A majority definitely don't. The stats I'm seeing put it at around 45% for millennials, and under 35 it's just under 40%
Okay, the fact that Lemmy (which owes it's popularity to the fact that reddit killed third party apps) thinks this is ridiculous.
I can't wait for Lemmy apps to come out that let me ban keywords. I swear you people invent scenarios to rage over.
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2023/04/18/millennial-homeownership-increasing-but-not-keeping-pace-with-the-past-generations
Take it up with the US Government.
Thanks for the citation - 52% is just barely a majority, but technically correct!
So uh, the rest of the article vibes pretty strongly with the OP. Millennials are worse off than their parents
The meme said that their parents in their thirties were buying homes, and they can't even afford dental.
The majority of millennials have bought homes.
More importantly, the overwhelming people in the US can afford dental.
You guys make up scenarios to push BS narratives. Then spam the word "capitalism" ignoring the fact that the majority of the world runs under capitalism.
If OP can't afford a house or dental then the meme is accurate to them and millions like them. Dental insurance isn't guaranteed, after all. Capitalism requires winners and losers, and losers don't get houses or dental insurance.
Like, my dude, there are Americans that can't afford to take $20 off every paycheck (and that shit only covers cleanings, hope you don't get a chipped tooth!)
Seriously, it's just a big strawman argument. The idea that a certain percentage of people own homes says nothing about the affordability of said homes. The percentage of millenials that own homes are consistently using drastically higher percentages of their income than previous generations. And the Healthcare crisis in the US speaks for itself. People arguing against this just want to dance around the topic and not actually argue the real point.
Okay, first you need a civics lessons. Capitalism isn't a governmental system, it's an economic system.
This economic system is widely used across the world. This includes most of Europe. Acting like this is just an invitable part of capitalism ignores the fact that the government can pass laws to create a social safety net.
They did. People living at or slightly above the poverty line have dental coverage through Medicaid. People with income above that threshold and no not have dental offered by their job have access to subsidies through the ACA.
Are there people who can't afford dental? Sure. America is a massive country. However acting like it's in any way common is insane.
Yes. However, the vast majority of dental issues can be solved by regular dentist appointments.
In addition, I'm pretty sure people are straight up making up stuff. Spending $700 before you break even on dental insurance is straight up fiction.
I openly question how many people in their 30s (or late 20s) are in this thread. A lot of this narrative simply isn't true for most people that age.
Also OPs parents were boomers who had children in their 30s they were most likely more affluent than average boomers
My last two companies, the dental plan was $50/mo (or a total of $600/yr). Other than having only a $25 copay for cleaning, it was between 10% and 20% coinsure with a $1000 limit.
That means optimistically, I needed to spend about $2500 to break even on the most optimistic coinsure, and my benefits disappeared after I spent $5000 (and only would cost the insurance company $400 if I spent every penny).
I literally mathed it out in a year I needed 2 root canals and it would have been cheaper to NOT have the plan. And that was before I discovered the fact my office had special "uninsured assistance" that wasn't driven by income.
Many Dental plans are an absolute scam. Part of the problem on them is that most people in some areas ONLY get dental insurance if they know they're going to need it. Makes it hard to have a price that works. It's part of why I have always supported government-paid insurance for medical and dental issues.
Okay so if you're actually not lying, then opt out of your insurance plan and buy a delta dental plan via their exchange or the website. It's quite literally half the cost and comes with free preventative services.
I kinda thought I'd stop hearing the constant bad-faith accusations when I left reddit. I suppose not.
Just went to the Delta site and checked my state. The ONLY plan in my state they have that covers non-trivial work is $60/mo with a maximum coverage of $1000. The 80% (I know Delta employees... no dentist I would use is in their network) coverage after copay is nice, but you're still paying $700+ out of pocket for a potential $1000 total coverage. And unless you think I'm lying about the "Uninsured discount", it means if my dentist gives me a $300 discount on work for being uninsured (they do), I still end up ahead.
So thank you for implying I'm lying and then giving me the directions to prove my point.
Yo, it's not Reddit
How good is this $20 dental insurance? I work for a place with decent benefits and with coinsurance, co-pays and the cost we would have to have $700 worth of dental work a year just to break even. $1,000 worth of work would save us $180 vs out of pocket... and it's capped at $1k.
Dental insurance usually comes with 2 teeth cleanings a year, and one set of xrays. These are 100 percent covered.
This layout is the more or less standard delta dental PPO. It's used by the vast majority of employers across the country.
Employers also get group discounts, so it's usually something like $10. The total cost is $120 a year if you don't need dental work.
You have one of the worst dental plans possible.