Yeah honestly living there for a while, I came around a bit on doing things by paper.
It's slower, certainly. But the Japanese are scary efficient at it, and there is a lot of infrastructure to support it.
And in the case where things go wrong or are confusing, at least you can take the forms and actually go and talk to someone, rather than staring at a computer screen that offers nothing.
Yes, they have two date systems in common use. It's only the year that changes though. And there's no way to confuse the two, usually. If you write "2023" instead of "令5" it's pretty obvious. I suppose there is a potential for confusion if one just writes a two-digit year though.
You still have the problem of misaligned incentives
Not really sure what you mean by that. Socialism leads to better alignment of incentives. If everyone is benefitting from the system, contributions to the system are incentivised.
That is the opposite of capitalism, where the individual tries to gain any advantage they can, even at the expense of everyone else. And broad advances and contributions of work benefit very few people, by design. That leads to lower trust, which further entrenches the idea that the individual has to look out for themselves, and is thus incentivised to game to system.
together with the fact that the only way to mitigate it is through coercion
Except we aren't talking about two people, are we? We're talking about entire populations of people.
And when people have their needs met, they are more able to be productive. And they are more likely to believe in the good of the system that supports them, as they can see the tangible results of that system in their daily life. They can see how their contribution to the system benefits them. Making them more likely to be happy to contribute.
Will some percentage of people under-contribute because of laziness? Sure. But who cares? That percentage is small. And we have the technology to compensate many times over now.
Why the hell do we make society more miserable for everyone, forcing everyone to live under the threat of poverty if they don't work, just to force this small percentage to work against their will? Not to mention completely screw over anyone who cannot work for reasons beyond their control, because we subject them to this insane level of scrutiny because we're paranoid that they might just be lazy.
We can choose a cooperative system, or the antagonistic one we currently have, where we are all at each others' throats because of suspicion that someone might be getting something that they "don't deserve".
People don’t actually pay these costs there employer does, usually as an employment incentive.
Tying your ability to access healthcare to a private employer who can remove that access on a whim is utterly insane.
Insurance is optional in the US. So no they don’t necessarily pay it, infact it’s not uncommon to skip coverage to save some money.
People do not voluntarily go without health coverage. They go without when they cannot afford it. Which is a problem that doesn't exist in countries with universal coverage.
And those people without coverage when suffer enormous financial burdens if they fall sick or get hurt.
Healthcare isn't optional in life. It's a matter for time before everyone needs something.
There are many different types of universal healthcare, the fact that you are making such a broad statement shows that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Oh shut the hell up.
I've lived in countries with various models, some with private coverage and some without. Some free at point of use, some only subsidised.
The reason I didn't enumerate every option is because it's irrelevant to the point I'm making.
Okay, so you actually are too stupid to have this conversation. Lookup what Medicaid is, and additionally realise that needs-based programs are by definition not universal. In fact this is one of the biggest criticisms of Medicare for all and UBI, they involve giving money to a large percentage of the population that don’t need it.
I can't believe I actually have to explain this, but it's clear you need someone to walk you through this very basic concept:
The rich pay higher taxes. So giving them 1000 dollars a month in UBI or healthcare is immediately recovered by the higher taxes. This isn't difficult.
And making the rich use the same systems as the everyone else means that the rich are incentivised to improve the quality of the services that everyone uses.
In fact universal systems literally tax the poor to pay the rich, it’s the epitome of a regressive policy.
That might be the single stupidest thing I've ever read. Congratulations.
The current US system is inefficient sure, it’s not as inefficient as widely claimed and arguing that universalising it makes it cheaper for the user is simply false.
It is literally empirical fact. Facts don't care about your feelings.