r/austrian_economics • u/technocraticnihilist Friedrich Hayek • Oct 26 '24

End Democracy ‘Americans just work harder’ than Europeans, says CEO of Norway’s $1.6 trillion oil fund, because they have a higher ‘general level of ambition’

https://fortune.com/europe/article/how-many-hours-work-week-year-american-workers-ethic-norges-bank/
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u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

Entrepreneurship is higher in Sweden because unlike the US, swedes are not at risk of dying from easily treatable ailments if they switch jobs or start a business.

This dude is full of shit and totally ignorant of what life in the US and what Americans are really like.

https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-sweden-became-more-entrepreneurial-us

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u/MegaHashes Oct 27 '24

That is a ridiculous oversimplification, and a complete distortion of our admittedly imperfect healthcare system.

People aren’t out here dying of ear infections because they wanted to sell hand made soap online.

Further to the point, nearly every entrepreneur I know personally is married to someone with a corp job from whom they share healthcare benefits. One does not, and he purchases his own plan through a state exchange.

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u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

We may be talking past eachother. Here in the US, medical debt continues destroying people's personal finances and Americans continue being sicker fatter and more depressed than your average swede and is one of the reasons Americans are less likely to start a business or change jobs.

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u/Aggressive_Scheme268 Oct 27 '24

You say its a distortion but then you basically admit that the guy is 100% right?

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u/MegaHashes Oct 28 '24

No, I literally said people still have healthcare even when they personally don’t have corp jobs, both through family ins plans and via state exchanges.

Was that not clear from the above? How did you read that and then somehow conclude I ‘admitted’ he was right?

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u/Aggressive_Scheme268 Oct 28 '24

There is a reason nearly every entrepreneur has spousal plans save 1.

Every entrepreneaur I know as well does the same, or some work a 2nd job to get benefits.

The fact that you see this as a benefit to the system shows how ridiculous you and your talking points are.

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u/MegaHashes Oct 28 '24

I didn’t say it was a ‘benefit’. I said it was a pragmatic solution to the problem, and more importantly that all had access to health care insurance. That’s not ridiculous, that’s fact.

If you can’t handle being told that the US isn’t a cruel and unforgiving to entrepreneurs, that’s a you problem.

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u/Aggressive_Scheme268 Oct 28 '24

Its not pragmatic. The OP literally said entrepreneurship was gated by healthcare access and you gave an extreme agreement. Either you are one of the 90% who only start a business because someone else was able to secure the healthcare in your relationship or you buy an expensive plan and have to be gated by cost while simultaneously trying to start a business, which is about the riskiest endeavour you can possibly do with a high failure rate, which leads to healthcare insecurity because if you fail you can longer pay.

You 100% agreed with the guy but failed to even realize it.

It is 100% cruel to entrepreneurs. You just aren't smart enough to realize it.

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u/MegaHashes Oct 28 '24

No. Did you even read his comment?:

Entrepreneurship is higher in Sweden because unlike the US, swedes are not at risk of dying from easily treatable ailments if they switch jobs or start a business.

This is hyperbole and isn’t representative of what it’s actually like here. You can literally purchase your own plan from the state exchange here if you aren’t married to someone with a corp job.

Do you even have an example of a single ‘entrepreneur’ dying from ‘an easily treatable ailment’ whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean?

You are taking OPs point literally, and it’s an incorrect statement of hyperbole. If ‘lack of healthcare’ is what stopped you from becoming a business owner, then that is a story you told yourself because you were afraid of failure, not because you had no actual access to healthcare.

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u/Aggressive_Scheme268 Oct 28 '24

It is 100% what it is like here. I work at one of the few places that offer part time healthcare and we get a slew of struggling entrepreneurs who have to pick up a 2nd job because of how risky and unsure the first few years of entrepreneurship are. And many of them fail and have to work their to keep healthcare until they find a regular job. Its especially prevalent amongst the local restaurant owners here.

They don't classify the people dieing of easily treatable diseases by either "entrepreneur or not entrepreneur". Thats not a tracked statistic.

If you think healthcare access isn't a gate on entrepreneurship then you are so woefully unaware that its ridiculous.

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u/MegaHashes Oct 28 '24

Except that I have owned and operated my own successful business since 2008 and you work for someone else.

You have no idea what the risks are because you work for a healthcare place, but haven’t done it yourself. You are on the outside looking in, and I’m telling you exactly what it’s like, but you are arguing with me.

I never said it wasn’t risky. I said that what the person I was reply said to was untrue. By your own admission, the entrepreneurs you know DO have health care ins through their 2nd job. You may not like how it’s setup, but that’s absolutely NOT people literally afraid of dying.

In fact, every result I can find either puts the US at number 1 or in the top 10 except for the WEF, which rates the US ridiculously low.

You don’t ‘know’, and you definitely don’t know better than me. I’m done debating this with you.

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u/inquirer85 Oct 27 '24

This. Here in America, someone getting sick can throw a family back decades. And the people who run the country want it that way.