>Japan bombs Pearl Harbor which brings America into World War II
>The draft for WWII creates a labor shortage in the US
>Because of the labor shortage, companies start significantly raising wages.
>FDR is worried that if wages go up too fast it could create runaway inflation, so he signs an executive order creating the National War Labor Board, which standardized salaries during the war in order to stabilize prices.
>Companies wanted a way to compete for talent in a limited labor pool despite not being able to offer higher salaries, so they started offering benefits packages to attract workers, the cornerstone of which was health insurance
>After the war, companies didn’t want to give up their role in providing health insurance because it served them well in terms of both recruiting and retention (i.e. you’re less likely to quit your job if it means losing your health insurance)
>This model becomes increasingly common across the US to the point where private health insurance companies are paying for the majority of healthcare expenses in the US
>Because the majority of healthcare costs were being paid by insurance companies rather than the people receiving care, hospitals began massively inflating the sticker price of their services with the expectation that the insurance company would negotiate those numbers down (as private insurance companies are want to do)
>Insurance companies take advantage of the increase in sticker prices by increasing premiums and passing off more of their costs to the consumer while continuing to negotiate down the actual price paid to hospitals
>This cycle repeats until the average hospital bill is completely divorced from any of the actual costs of the service
>In 2024 the average cost of giving birth in America is over $18,000
there’s an episode of malcolm in the middle where he just shuts up and stops complaining for awhile and it immediately starts to significantly improve his life but also it causes him an ulcer and by the end of the episode he is literally spitting up blood and i have always deeply and unshakably believed that is exactly how the situation would play out for me too
when i was reading the book entangled life which is about fungi and the author merlin sheldrake said that once he got his first author copies he was going to dampen the pages and use them to grow oyster mushrooms and yeast and then use the yeast to brew beer and then drink the beer with the mushrooms to complete the cycle of fungal knowledge. i was like really and truly this guy gets it
he ate his own words.
But really and truly. The cycle is not complete until he dies.
I’m not sure how or why, but this is goth as FUCK.
his brother cosmo is a musician and made a theme song for it and god I wish it was longer because it slaps
their parents named them Merlin and Cosmo, and they were rewarded with some very unique and creative individuals
