When there are more people looking for work than there are jobs, it is about luck. Full stop. In our environment of secular stagnation, the ones who get ahead are simply the ones lucky enough to not be squeezed out by the systemic contraction.

Everyone pays their share in taxes, which is a much more equitable burden since a 1% can far more easily afford to lose a million dollars than a bottom 10% can afford to lose $50.

People who paid thousands of dollars to get into college can't get jobs. You expect a dude who has a high school degree working for 8$ to be able to get out of poverty while all the while praying he doesn't get into an accident because there's no nationalized health care and he has to pay it all out of his pocket.

Most developed European countries have much better social welfare than the United States. So no, I'd rather be poor in many other nations.

Unfortunately, many adults are clueless (not to pass judgement as even the people who passed the ACA had no idea what was in that monterous bill) about the ACA and what it means for the future of the healthcare system and how it will affect their medical care going forward.

But that is exactly what the folks who drafted the law counted on. The low-information voters and people who pay very little attention to the big picture so to speak when it comes to what they feel is out of their control.

Ok this is from when I did my taxes just a month ago or so.... The penalty for not having insurance this year, is $250, or 1% of your gross pay, whichever is higher.... Next year, the penalty goes up to around $1,000, the year after, around $2,300... That's as far as they go, for now... This is in California, don't know if it changes at all from state to state. Luckily, I have insurance through my work, for now. Someone asked how the gov is supposed to make money from this... If anyone remembers a politician bragging about how the gov would bring in over $30 billion dollars just from fines, that's how. Soon enough, insurance is going to be so fucking expensive, that even a $5,000 fine is going to look like a deal. Millions of people this year are clearly forgoing insurance and paying the small fine instead... Even if they only get the "low" fine of $250, if 10 million people decide that's the more affordable option, then this year alone, from a very conservative figure of ten million people, gives our lovely government a small sum of: $2,500,000,000.... Yes, only $2.5 billion. $2.5 billion collected from people who are not participating in, but essentially funding obamacare... It's a fucked up, giant money making sceam, made by a corrupt government, under the guise of "it's for the people".... And if any of you think I'm wrong..... Well, come back to this post in a year or two.... Or three.... But, it will ultimately be the downfall of this economy of ours... I'm sorry for the post on the back of your message... It's not directed at you, except for the part of how much the penalty is...

I agree. Read my post above... I think you'll agree.

They're going up simply because you must buy. The insurance industry has suddenly been given a consumer base that has no choice. They know you, by law, must purchase their service, what in the world would make you think they'll suddenly give it away cheaper? With the huge deductibles, they will have a bunch of insured customers, who can't afford to use it....

Because the coverage they are required to provide has gotten more comprehensiv and so the pricing teirs have disappeared and they now have to provide coverage to ANYONE including those who have never paid a health care premium in their lives until the day they finally get sick then they decide to get health insurance. Not to mention, and I have seen this in my practice (I'm a Registered Nurse), people are already treating the system as an endless resource. And because customer satisfaction is becoming more and more tied to reimbursement Doctors and mid-level providers especially (Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners) are obliging them out of fear of not getting paid.

While that last part sounds good to the uninitiated, think about the patient, and we see them all the time, who gets the flu or some other viral infection and demands we give them antibiotics. We will usually tell them no and try to educate them on why we don't give antibiotics for viral infections (antibiotics work for bacterial infections) they sometimes get upset to the point where they complain or even try to sue etc.

Couple all that with what is now an even less competetive market than it was befoe and you get major price increases.

It was all built into and designed to do specifically this. It is the attempt to kill off private insurance to bring about single payer top down government run health care.

I find it funny when people think raising the minimum wage is the answer... What do you think happens when minimum wage goes up? The price of everything goes up too... So they'll make a little more, and spend a little more, but wind up in the same place: broke. I have a friend who manages a local Walgreens store... As soon as it was known that minimum wage was going up, prices went up on many products... One week later, he showed me a list of items, hundreds of them, that were already raised, or will soon be going up... Just by the news of minimum wage going up.... Getting a better job, not raising minimum wage, is the answer to making more money....

Woah woah woah! We American's will spend as much money as possible on blowing stuff up, but never ask us to spend money on health or education!