Everyone has a super computer in their pocket, the vast majority of human knowledge is available in your hand for free all the time, you can video chat anyone you want anywhere in the world in HD for free, world-leading educators post hundreds of hours of video lectures online for free. You can get O(every song ever recorded) instantly anywhere you are for $10-$15/month.
In my opinion, what we're seeing is that things split into two categories: generally free or almost free, and expensive enough to be out of reach of most people. The thing that is really exciting is that things are moving from the latter to the former very quickly. The problem specifically with education is that expectations (everyone must have a degree!) Hasn't kept up with reality (degrees are no longer the only/best marker of skill!).
Consider, 15 minutes of a doctor’s time making 300k total compensation directly costs ~40$. Meaning your copay is often the actual cost of the services rendered and you need insurance to cover overhead.
Citation needed.
> 15 minutes of a doctor’s time making 300k total compensation directly costs ~40$.
So the nurses, administrators, technicians, lawyers, accountants, janitors etc that are needed to allow that doctor to see you don't factor into that cost? I'm not saying the pricing of healthcare in the States makes sense, but neither does the argument you present.
Are you saying inequality is required for that list of innovations? If so, on what grounds?
We came up with contraceptive pills, eradication of polio, visited the moon, transformation of aviation and personal transportation, domestic appliances - including TVs, washing machines, dish washers went from unaffordable luxury to in every home. Doesn't seem like the pace of innovation has increased, just moved to a different field compared with the period of lowest US inequality. If anything it's slowed markedly.
So why didn't these innovations need inequality?
Nit: antibiotics were commonly available 60 years ago, they just weren't yet abused by stupid uses in agriculture.
Additionally, yes, the US society in the 50s-80s was pretty egalitarian and full of opportunities — as long as you were white, male and heterosexual.
On a poker table, one that has more chips, has advantage over one that has less. Doesn't make it unfair.
Those are technological innovations, not really relevant.
We could have had smartphones and anti-retrovirals AND affordable education/housing/healthcare/job prospects.
Like how people in the 50s and 60s could enjoy all kinds of technological and social innovations compared to 100 years before (electricity, TV, improved medicine, vaccines, etc) AND have cheap college tuition, affordable housing, etc.
Spare some catastrophe technology is monotonically increase -- it advances with new inventions.
So not really relevant as to whether we are more or worse off than the 50s and 60s in economic aspects.
> We could have had smartphones and anti-retrovirals AND affordable education/housing/healthcare/job prospects.
How can you possibly know that's true? Where are these example economies that have US-level innovation but also has the wealth distribution you crave.
Those are extremely relevant, especially the source for those invocations.
E.g. I could believe the USSR achieved greater income equality, but I'm skeptical it would have produced those innovations.
