That median seems very low from our SoCal viewpoint. However, it would go very far in much of rural America. You can still buy a manufactured house on 10 acres in rural Oklahoma for under 100k.
I think the huge pay given to CEOs of sinking companies is absurd. It is embezzlement, in my opinion. Pay should be tied to performance (but then there would probably be even more book cooking…). I don’t have any problem with huge salaries, if it can be justified.
I do hear a lot socialist sounding posts from a couple of posters. Socialists think that the pie slices are unfairly portioned and it should be evened out. Take from the rich and give to the poor in the form of socialized healthcare, housing assistance and extensive government programs. Sure, you can change the portions so that everybody gets an even amount, but the pie will be much smaller, causing the pie pieces to then be much smaller for everyone. I wonder how many of these posters have actually been to former or current socialist countries. I have been to the Czech Republic and the pall that still hangs over much of the country is disturbing.
Further, socialized healthcare is not better than what we have here. It may be easier to get your cold checked out but if you really need advanced medicine, you could find yourself dealing with a doctor or set of doctors who are not as highly trained as those we have here. Socialized medicine takes away much of the incentive for highly intelligent, highly skilled people to enter the profession. Many people with money who live with socialized medicine go elsewhere for advanced care.
As for a higher infant mortality rate, there could be many reasons for this to be the case here. It is very possible that our healthcare is so good that that a much greater number of pregnancies actually reach birth. Many pregnancies that would have terminated naturally because of a problem with the fetus are continuing to birth because of excellent care. This is a theory that I haven’t verified, but is seems a reasonable explanation.
