How much debt does the average American family have?
Average household debt by debt type
Debt Type 2021 Average Consumer
Debt Balance
Auto loan debt and lease $20,987
Average credit card debt $5,221
Personal loans $17,064
Total average balance $96,371
Now consider this. According to Motley Fool: “There are 5.3 million millionaires and 770 billionaires living in the United States. Millionaires make up about 2% of the U.S. adult population.” Would you say we have an existential wealth inequality in the United States. Then consider this report.
Credit: Longevity Investors Conference
“Who wants to live forever?” The immortal words of Freddie Mercury blast from the speakers as blue lights swivel around the room and a smoky mist floats up from the stage in front of me. If the audience is anything to go by, the answer to his question is: the mega rich.
I’d come to Gstaad, a swanky ski-resort town in the Swiss Alps, to attend the first in-person Longevity Investors Conference. Over the two-day event, scientists and biotech founders made the case for various approaches to prolonging the number of years we might spend in good health. And the majority of them were trying to win over deep-pocketed investors.
There were 150 people at this meeting, and its organizers told me that 120 of them were investors with millions or even billions of dollars at their disposal—and at least a million dollars ready to pump into a longevity project. Plenty of would-be attendees were denied a $4,500 ticket because they didn’t meet this criterion, an event co-organizer tells me.
Alex Grayson , University of Cincinnati College of Medicine - MedPage Today
Stephan:
Here from the medical literature is a view of the horrible state of healthcare for pregnant women in the United States.
For direct information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention see: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0919-pregnancy-related-deaths.html. Four in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable
Credit: MedPage Today
Preventable deaths are a major issue in the U.S. healthcare system, and maternal mortality is one very concerning contributor. For instance, four out of five pregnancy-related deaths are avoidable. Just recently, a medical examiner’s report showed that Olympic medalist Tori Bowie tragically died from childbirth complications. Despite being one of the richest nations in the world, the U.S. has double the number of maternal deaths compared to other developed countries. This is the dangerous reality of being a pregnant person in the U.S.
When you parse the data by race, Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native people are disproportionately impacted in this crisis. As a second-year medical student considering a specialty in obstetrics and gynecology, I feel distraught by what is in store for my future patients. As healthcare professionals, we have a duty to advocate for policies that protect our patients. We can and must take action now. One policy that has the potential to turn this around is making the 12-month […]
I think it is time to recognize that about a third of Americans are White supremacy, male dominant, anti-democracy christofascists. These are the people who elect incompetent morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, George Santos, and, well you know the list. This is not getting enough attention in the media. Nor is what this community is trying to do to destroy public education in the United States. What they are not capable of understanding is that fascist education is not education it is indoctrination, and that is going to have long term implications they also don’t understand. Authoritarianism does not promote leadership either technologically or politically nor does it foster wellbeing. Do you know anyone with a Russian refrigerator? How about a Russian computer? Or a Russian television? No, of course, you don’t, because fascism is about power for the few not prosperity and wellbeing for the many. But I don’t think the third of MAGAts in this country realize this.
A view of the exterior of a building at Hillsdale College as it welcomes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to speak on April 6, 2023 in Hillsdale, Michigan. Credit: Chris Dumond / Getty
Charges that public schools are subjecting children to leftwing indoctrination are proving to be mostly over-hyped or not at all based in fact. Yet, there’s evidence, according to a new report, that a fast-growing sector of the charter school industry is engaged in indoctrination, only, in this case, the schools are instructing children in white, conservative ideology.
The report, “A Sharp Turn Right: A New Breed of Charter Schools Delivers the Conservative Agenda” by the Network for Public Education (NPE), finds that charter schools that market to families a “classical” or “traditional” approach to schooling are essentially catering to parents and politicians that follow “right-wing ideology.”
Using keyword searches, news stories from local and national media, and examinations of charter school websites and other resources, the authors claim to have “identified a representative sample” — 273 currently open charter schools — that resemble their definition […]
A small group of fascist oligarchs are slowly restructuring our democracy at the state level to turn America into an anocracy controlled by these oligarchs, and rigged in such a way that the vast majority in the country is rendered powerless and unable to rectify what the oligarchs have done. All of this is the result of Citizens United. We need to eliminate the Electoral College, put term limits on judgeship at every level, as well as uniform ethics standards, and create publicly funded elections in which every person from 18 on gets an equal vote.
Residents wait in line to vote at an early voting site on October 2, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty
When Ohio voters go to the polls in August for a special election to decide on the threshold needed to pass a constitutional referendum, they will be voting on whether to weaken direct democracy in their own state—but the push to do so is coming in large part from a Florida-based right-wing group whose biggest donor is Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein.
As The Guardian reported Thursday, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) originally focused its efforts on influencing state policy but in recent months has testified, issued legal memos, and posted on social media about proposals in a number of states to raise the threshold needed to amend state constitutions by referendum.
Uihlein, a key promoter and funder of lies about the 2020 presidential election, has donated $17.6 million to FGA since 2014, contributing to its efforts regarding ballot initiatives as well as its attempts to block ranked-choice […]
The American illness profit system is so ethically compromised it could be considered evil. This article describes the tragic shortage of cancer drugs in this country. You have cancer, you are one of thousands with similar illnesses, and your life is at risk because you can’t get the drugs your treatment requires.This in the richest country in the world. And why is there a shortage? Because the drugs are so cheap they don’t make enough profit for the pharmaceutical corporations to focus on meeting the need. And is the Congress doing anything to help? No the Republicans who control the House are fetishizing over Hunter Biden’s laptop and Hillary Clinton’s emails, and censuring Adam Schiff
Toni Dezomits has had to change her ovarian cancer treatment plan due to a shortage of chemotherapy drugs
Toni Dezomits, a 55-year-old retired law enforcement officer, is fighting a recurrence of her stage 4 ovarian cancer. She had already undergone several rounds of chemotherapy when her doctor told her she had some more bad news.
Just a day before her third round of treatment last month, Ms Dezomits was told there was a nationwide shortage of the generic chemotherapy drug, carboplatin – one of three medications she was meant to receive.
Forced to choose between going without the medication or swapping it for another with stronger side effects, the North Carolina native is finishing her final three chemotherapy sessions with only two of the recommended drugs.
“You have these two sub-optimal choices,” she said. “I’m worried, because I know the drug I’m not getting is the one my cancer responded to very well [the first time].”
Experts say the US is currently suffering one of the most severe shortages of chemotherapy drugs it’s seen for three decades.
