Nathaniel Lewis

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@Joebro98564508 @PplPolicyProj Hey, sure. I just followed you so you should be able to DM me (I think that's how it works?)

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@MattMBartlett @michaelwehunt @GreenHandBooks @Bad_Hand_Books I drove down today (from Belfast, ME) and picked up a signed copy from each of you. Looking forward to reading them!

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@Joebro98564508 That's a nonsense argument because 1) those figures *include* public welfare transfers and 2) like I said, wealthier countries tend to spend more of a % their wealth on social welfare, and the U.S. is far below trend. Again, see the piece I linked.

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@Joebro98564508 See here: https://t.co/dh05yePU21

Specifically the section titled "The U.S.'s terrible social welfare record."

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@Joebro98564508 The data looks accurate at a glance, but I'm not sure how this is an argument against more U.S. social spending. In fact, wealthier countries tend to spend *proportionately* more on public social welfare, for various reasons. 1/2

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@NickMoorefox Holy cow! Yes!

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@leslieleeiii Check out the "soap opera effect" (motion blur reduction) if you don't already know about it. It's a setting on the TV itself that you can turn on or off, and it can make movies look like this. Might not be what the problem is, but worth a mention.

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@authornickmoore I've run into this problem before. Gotta go into their house while they're asleep and extract a tooth from them. Then show them the tooth and say, "You can have this back when you fix *my* tooth." It doesn't always work -- hasn't worked for me yet -- but it's bound to sometime.

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@leslieleeiii This is a fantastic discussion of some great stories. Thanks so much!

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@ZaidJilani His speech isn't about the UBI checks, but rather about the increase in unemployment benefits that Dems added, right?

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf I'll bow out here because I haven't looked at this stuff much, but I agree that, if accurately done, it's more meaningful than SNA

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf Roughly speaking: if I get sick, how much I should expect to go into debt if I stay here in America vs. if I lived somewhere else

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf Anyway, thanks for breaking down SNA vs SHA for me. It makes perfect sense why AIC correlates more with SHA than SNA, though, again, people probably have more of an SNA definition (where the US is a bigger outlier) in mind when thinking about this. (2/2)

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf But I think most people are more interested in the "cost" of hc *in* America relative to other countries, rather than what Americans actually spend, and that's probably how they (wrongly) read your work. (1/2)

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf Ah yes, I've heard of that country. Hundreds of millions go there for medical treatment, and yet it has $0 health expenditures. Care there must be free.

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf How's that? You disagree that SNA gets more at within country costs and SHA gets at what households are spending regardless of in which country? Or that the former is much more relevant to the discussion than the latter?

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf From this, it sounds like SNA tries to get at what healthcare costs in Country X (really, what we want to know) while SHA tries to get at what households actually spend on healthcare, including abroad (interesting, but not really the main discussion.)

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf Your justification for mixing and matching datsets: 1. It's robust when you do it that particular way. 2. You go by what feels right. 3. I can't explain why the SNA and SHA differ in accounts of health spending on tropical islands and wealthy countries, in different directions.

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf Again, my argument isn't for SNA over SHA, but for data compatibility. And, again, if you don't trust SNA to produce an accurate health figure, why trust that system to produce an accurate AIC etc. figure?

[Nathaniel Lewis @HubertBiscuit]

@RCAFDM @djon3s @Noodoggy @MattBruenig @Asher_Wolf The arguement is both principled and simple. If you are going to take figures from a dataset, say the World Bank's AIC figures, and that same dataset includes health figures, then you should use those. Don't ignore those and then use figures from a different dataset altogether.