Comments for Affording Health Care and Education on the Minimum Wage at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.cepr.net Sat, 25 May 2013 20:31:18 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/blog-post-health-and-education-on-the-minimum-wage#comment-15620 In the case of health care, at least, the United States spends far more than the rest of the rich countries in the world, all of whom provide universal coverage through systems with much bigger roles for the government in providing, financing, and regulating health care or health insurance. See, for example, the charts in this recent Kaiser Family Foundation report: http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/oecd042111.cfm Even within the United States, health-care costs for the publicly funded and administered Medicare program have been growing much more slowly than the costs of private health care. CEPR, particularly Dean Baker, has written extensively on health-care cost issues. I encourage you to take a look. The point in this post is just to say that the minimum wage buys a lot less health care (important for a middle-class standard of living) and education (important for upward mobility) than it used to. If we are going to live in a system that provides health care and education primarily through markets, then we ought to be concerned that people who work at or near the minimum wage can actually afford to participate meaningfully in those markets. - John Schmitt Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:49:18 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/blog-post-health-and-education-on-the-minimum-wage#comment-15553 So, the things that government most highly regulates and subsidizes (health care and education) have become unaffordable, and the things government lease regulates and subsidizes (electronics) have become more affordable. I'd like to see you do more work along these lines. - Jack Funchion Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:43:04 +0100