[ClearCase_guy]

I was just talking about this sort of thing with my wife. A lot of kids go off to college and live in fabulous dorms, and eat in sumptuous cafeterias with vast quantities of delicious food. And a lot of sick people spend time in very tastefully decorated luxury apartments which come complete with nurses and doctors.

Somehow, our society has decided that luxury is a base-level requirement. If it's not luxurious, then it isn't good enough for me.

And then we also complain that everything is so expensive.

I'd much rather live in a society that was less materialistic and less stressed, and more free. But I think we pissed all that away, didn't we?

[Hildy]

Yes, we did. And we only have ourselves to blame.

[Kirkwood]

You should work for obama since you seem to want to decide what people are allowed to have.

[Nepeta]

Somehow, our society has decided that luxury is a base-level requirement. If it's not luxurious, then it isn't good enough for me.

I have watched the spread of "luxury items","affordable luxury" and such for some time, amazed at the expectations of people. Not so long ago, a good, well-made pair of shoes cost a lot of money, but they lasted and looked good for a long time. Now, "fashionable" shoes can cost hundreds of dollars, and people pay that!

"Designer clothes" are another source of amazement to me. WHY would anyone pay for a product with someone else's advertising on it? 40 years ago, companies gave away cheap tee-shirts with their logos for boxtops or proofs of purchase--now people pay good money for them!

Then there is ostentatious home architecture, houses with windows on faux third floors that do not exist. (Whatever happened to attics, anyway?) And what is the purpose of a shower big enough to use as a wash stall for a horse? And those bathtubs raised up several steps off the floor, so if you don't trip going into the water, you will surely slip getting out and disembowel yourself on the fancy faucets in the front of the tub, entertaining the neighborhood since the tub is set into a bow window!

[9YearLurker]

Both those examples—higher ed and health care—are cases of third-party payers run amok. With neither colleges nor hospitals competing on price, they can load up the amenities to win customers—then stick the third-party payers and, ultimately, the taxpayers, with the bill.