Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in Bad Marriages

Re: Bad Marriages

R.J. Lehmann — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:21:48 -0000

But if you lose your job, you are immediately uninsured.

Well, that's not exactly true. You can continue to pay your premiums into the same group policy for up to a year under COBR coverage. And if you don't want that policy, you can always purchase another. It isn't that individual health insurance doesn't EXIST -- it's that it's granted a tax preference in the employer group setting that isn't extended to the direct individual setting.

Re: Bad Marriages

digamma — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:51:12 -0000

Health care costs money and good health care costs a lot of money....

We can either pay for care, have our company pay for care, or pay more taxes to the gov’t for care. So, one way or another, our income pays for our health care.

Houses cost money and nice houses cost a lot of money. We can either pay for a house, have our company provide us with a house, or pay more taxes to the gov't for our house. So, one way or another, our income pays for our houses.

Now, if you lose your job, are you homeless? No you are not. You can hopefully keep paying your rent or mortgage with your cash reserves. Or you can appeal to someone else to help you make those payments. Or you can sell something.

But if you lose your job, you are immediately uninsured. And that's the bad marriage.

Re: Bad Marriages

mike — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:04:16 -0000

Maybe I'm missing the point (I often do) but it seems to me that the link between health care and work is less a marriage and more a conjoined twin.
While on the surface it looks like a weird combo, I think they're as inseparable as work and vacation. Health care costs money and good health care costs a lot of money. Other than the lottery (and perhaps Anna Nicole Smith's methods) work is the only way I know of to get money.

We can either pay for care, have our company pay for care, or pay more taxes to the gov't for care. So, one way or another, our income pays for our health care.

The way I see it, all marriages are bad if there is no compromise in the relationship.

Re: Bad Marriages

Caliban — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 09:53:07 -0000

The work/healthcare link is just miserable. Like you say, it worked a lot better when people had 50 year careers at the same company. Not so good nowadays.

The location/school one also seems incredibly poor. It seems like a recipe for inequality, resentment and no incentives to improve the quality at said schools.

Re: Bad Marriages

R.J. Lehmann — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 02:23:33 -0000

The means of raising funds for the federal treasury and...

Social policy w/r/t home ownership
Social policy w/r/t provision of health care
Social policy w/r/t religious institutions
Social policy w/r/t charitable giving
Social policy w/r/t savings and investment patterns
Social policy w/r/t family size
Social policy w/r/t smoking, alcohol, and other vices
Social policy w/r/t (insert favorite tax code loophole here)

Re: Bad Marriages

Ben Eng — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 01:13:47 -0000

Place of birth and country of citizenship.

Re: Bad Marriages

BillKorner — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:19:33 -0000

Sigivald: Sure its not primarily a policy issue. And I wouldn't presume to tell people what they should want, just what might be worth considering.

I think that those norms are quite amenable to change through reflection and discussion, as well as resulting from changes in circumstances of which policy is a part. For example, policy has played and/or could have played some role in determinning the extent to which a certain standard of living is attainable on one income. The norms under discussion are effected by the labor market and costs of living, as well as by such things as the women's movement, norms regarding consumption, and the myriad factors that have led to increases in divorce.

I don't think that the distinction between what is influenced by policy and what not is simple or straightforward at all.

Re: Bad Marriages

humpty — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 20:02:09 -0000

Bad policy marriages:

how about, er, marriage and the state?

Re: Bad Marriages

Sigivald — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:58:39 -0000

Bill: Those aren't policy linkages (at least not primarily).

It's all well and good to tell people that maybe they shouldn't want to pair-bond with the same person for sexual activity and housemaking, but in practice they're still generally going to want that.

The problems there are more or less inherent, not created by policy - and to the extent they're merely social convention, they're still not amenable to change.

Re: Bad Marriages

BillKorner — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:24:06 -0000

Speaking of bad marriages, how about the linkage between:

(1) pair bond for household making, child raising, etc.
(2) pair bond for sex having

??

Not that this linkage doesn't work for some, it does. But a person in my circles would have to be blind to ignore that there are lots of successful relationships that sever this linkage. And I think everyone can think of cases where the linkage has produced manifestly bad results. Of course their are downsides of severing the linkage too, but that is also probably true of any linkage you could think to criticize.

Re: Bad Marriages

Matt — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:11:36 -0000

Amen. I've been bitching about this for a while now, and have come to believe that no matter how badly you implemented this change, and no matter how many negative externalities you introduced, you'd still have a net benefit.

The freedom to choose your neighborhood without regard to its public school and the freedom to choose your work without regard for its health care plan are the two biggest political prizes that might actually be in reach of our generation.

Re: Bad Marriages

digamma — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:19:53 -0000

Intellectual property compensation and distribution? People who invent good drugs or write good songs should get paid, but I'm not sure if artificially high prices are the best way to do that.

Somewhere in the huge mess that is the legacy airline industry there must be a policy marriage, but I can't quite put my finger on it.