One of the items this article doesn't cover is healthcare spending, which has increased between 2 and 8 times since 1980 (depending on whether you're looking at individual spending or share of GDP). Here's a decent collection of charts: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spe...
It has been shocking to me to see how cheap and effective healthcare can be in other countries, from an emergency visit to the hospital (in the US: I got a $50k bill for one emergency surgery) to an eye test and new pair of glasses (US costs running $500-$1000, although startups have chipped away at this). In the US, healthcare is effectively a collection of cartels -- an enormous parasite that will be nearly impossible to rip off our soft underbelly.
It has been shocking to me to see how cheap and effective healthcare can be in other countries, from an emergency visit to the hospital (in the US: I got a $50k bill for one emergency surgery) to an eye test and new pair of glasses (US costs running $500-$1000, although startups have chipped away at this). In the US, healthcare is effectively a collection of cartels -- an enormous parasite that will be nearly impossible to rip off our soft underbelly.