The cost of producing goods in the US is higher in one way because of the cost of healthcare.
Other nations are far more competitive in this regard.
You can say yes they wont offer any care at all through a company plan, but I am not talking countries coming out of the third world. I am talking Germany and Japan along with Canada and others who hold advantages for workers we do not.
Just making sure a few people have money is not an national economic plan. It is crony capitalism.
Higher healthcare benefits result in lower wages. Most of the productivity gains from 1980 to 2014 were captured by higher healthcare costs, and wages were mostly flat.
— links —
Median wages were
flat from 1980 to 1997,
rose 1997 to 1999,
flat 1999 to 2014,
rose 2014 to now.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
National Health Expenditures 2020 Highlights
“In 2020, the federal government and households accounted for the largest shares of national health spending (36 percent and 26 percent, respectively), followed by private businesses (17 percent), state and local governments (14 percent), and other private revenues (7 percent).”
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/highlights.pdf
The cost of producing goods in the US is higher in one way because of the cost of healthcare.
Some years ago, Toyota announced it would build a new assembly plant in Canada, rather than in the southern US, where it has several other factories.
Toyota cited the cost savings of the Canadian health care system, and also the fact that Canadians can actually read, which had been a problem in their southern US plants.
Toyota, Moving Northward
Explaining why it passed up financial incentives to choose a U.S. location, the company cited the quality of Ontario’s work force…Japanese auto companies opening plants in the Southern U.S. have been unfavorably surprised by the work force’s poor level of training.
Canada’s other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/toyota-moving-nor…
But here in Shinyland, low taxes are more important that effective schools, or a cost effective health care system.
Steve