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Local purchasing power in Denmark is clearly lower than US, not higher. And it's the same for practically all of Europe. Purchasing power is more evenly distri

Local purchasing power in Denmark is clearly lower than US, not higher. And it's the same for practically all of Europe. Purchasing power is more evenly distributed, though, i.e. the poorest have better purchasing power. By OECD purchasing power comparison, Denmark is 26 % more expensive than U.S. And workers have, on average, 15 % lower wages in Denmark. http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CPL http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CPL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_w...

dogma1138 10y ago
>Purchasing power is more evenly distributed, though, i.e. the poorest have better purchasing power. This is a common misconception, the poor in the US are as rich or richer than the middle class in the EU. https://mises.org/blog/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-europe https://mises.org/blog/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-...
- olau 10y ago
  I followed your link, but it does not support your summary. It is arguing about one specific point (the 60% point) with no discussion on where people actually are. For instance, the 1/3 "poor" in the US could earn 1$/year and it would not invalidate the discussion, but it would clearly invalidate your summary (and the title of the blog post).
olau 10y ago
I don't think you quoted the wages correctly? The Wikipedia OECD stats are in PPP, not gross. Also, while you sort of mention it, I think using averages when the distribution is clearly skewed is a really bad practice. It doesn't help us develop intuition on how things are for most people.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  Yes, averages skew things, but then the wage figures are before taxation, which skews things even more... but as I mentioned, when you take transfers into account, the lowest income people are better off in Denmark, also when buying food.

dogma1138 10y ago

>Purchasing power is more evenly distributed, though, i.e. the poorest have better purchasing power. This is a common misconception, the poor in the US are as rich or richer than the middle class in the EU. https://mises.org/blog/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-europe https://mises.org/blog/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-...

olau 10y ago
I followed your link, but it does not support your summary. It is arguing about one specific point (the 60% point) with no discussion on where people actually are. For instance, the 1/3 "poor" in the US could earn 1$/year and it would not invalidate the discussion, but it would clearly invalidate your summary (and the title of the blog post).

olau 10y ago

I don't think you quoted the wages correctly? The Wikipedia OECD stats are in PPP, not gross. Also, while you sort of mention it, I think using averages when the distribution is clearly skewed is a really bad practice. It doesn't help us develop intuition on how things are for most people.

ptaipale 10y ago
Yes, averages skew things, but then the wage figures are before taxation, which skews things even more... but as I mentioned, when you take transfers into account, the lowest income people are better off in Denmark, also when buying food.