the irony is that we wouldn’t need to sacrifice much (if at all) for those benefits – in other words, you could be completely selfish and still have a better life

• US is sitting at 28 vacant homes per homeless person (city of Helsinki saved the country of Finland €15000 per person per year just by buying them a house)
• healthcare for all (and better quality) would cost us about 2/3 what we’re paying now
• we produce (and have) plenty of food for everyone but companies would rather throw it away if they can’t make a profit (John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath)
• better public transit means more convenience for everyone with the added benefits of better air quality, nicer neighborhoods, less wear-and-tear on infrastructure, cheaper commuting – !fuck_cars@lemmy.ml

This means you're a good person but these trade-offs are false dichotomies. None of it is necessary to provide these services to all. We already have incredibly long wait times for healthcare in our ruthlessly for-profit system. The only thing that keeps those services from everyone is the greed of the extremely wealthy and the stupidity of those who fall for their lies.

I’d wait in longer lines for healthcare, if it meant healthcare for all

I don't blame you for it, but this is such a bullshit talking point, at least when it comes to U.S. for-profit healthcare. I had to wait over 6 months to see a neurologist after my old one moved to another city. I had to wait two months to get my gallbladder removed just to find out if it would solve a medical problem it didn't solve. I have to go to the Mayo clinic now. I made an appointment in December. I can get in at the end of March.

On top of that, some evaluations that would have helped my daughter a lot earlier took a year and a half from when we scheduled them and we had to drive to another city an hour and a half away by car.

That's pretty much on par with what I hear from people who live in Canada, if not worse.

Woah woah woah. That's coMmuNiSM

I wouldn’t do those things, but we shouldn’t have to. We don’t have to give up quality medical care for everyone to have it. Or give up houses for everyone to have a place to live. The resources for these things are held by the ultra wealthy, not by the middle class.

The lines are still long with private insurance, you're not getting in for specialty procedures very quickly no matter what payment method you use. I say this as someone who does specialty neurodiagnostic procedures in the US. We don't care if you can pay or you have this insurance or that, there's a line everywhere and unless you're coming in through the ED, you have to wait in it.

The problem is the ones that need to care the most are the ones that care the least. The richest people in the world are in pissing contests about big ass clocks and space ships.

Do I think these are intellectually cool? Yes. Do I think it's more important than feeding every kid and giving them shelter and education? No.

The only thing I won't settle for is wage slavery. No one should be held hostage to a job that has stolen their sense of wonder.

It's not that Bezes doesn't deserve a yacht. It's that he doesn't deserve 176.9 million of them. If all money in the US was distributed equally then everyone in the US could have a small yacht. But of course we can't be ignoring the rest of the world.

The real cost of a boat is like 90% maintenance costs. It's just a money pit, honestly.

The better use of obscene riches is to charter a yacht that has a full crew when you want to go out. Otherwise, you're just burning cash.