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> You'l need less if you live in a country that have public health care, good public schools, you can quickly travel by train to some of the greatest cities in

> You'l need less if you live in a country that have public health care, good public schools, you can quickly travel by train to some of the greatest cities in the world, a vibrant cultural life, and one month vacations. This is objectively not true, because the median American worker has a higher disposable income than the median worker in most of Europe, including Germany. This means that, even after paying for health insurance and out of pocket expenses, etc., Americans have higher purchasing power. The gap is even larger when you look at tech workers, because they're paid particularly well in the US compared to the general public.

robertAngst 8y ago
This is a very good point that people often overlook. The US has insane disposable income from top down. Even our low income have luxuries. The problem with healthcare stems from corruption within out government.
AlexandrB 8y ago
> This is objectively not true, because the median American worker has a higher disposable income than the median worker in most of Europe, including Germany. The gap disappears completely if you consider hours worked. Based on [1] and [2], the median German makes $19.52/hr in disposable income, while the median American makes $19.29/hr[3]. Given that Germany does better than the US on many health and education outcomes as well it must be doing something right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income#Median_equivalent_adult_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income#Median_equivalen... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [3] Yes, I know the math is a little wonky, but I couldn't find median hours worked and had to settle for average. However, the distribution of hours worked is not as skewed as income given there's only a finite number of hours in a year.
gowld 8y ago
"Disposable income" doesn't mean what your sentence is using it to mean, so it makes your summary claim suspect. Did you mean discretionary income? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disposableincome.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disposableincome.asp
zaarn 8y ago
Why do I need the most disposable income possible?

robertAngst 8y ago

This is a very good point that people often overlook. The US has insane disposable income from top down. Even our low income have luxuries. The problem with healthcare stems from corruption within out government.

AlexandrB 8y ago

> This is objectively not true, because the median American worker has a higher disposable income than the median worker in most of Europe, including Germany. The gap disappears completely if you consider hours worked. Based on [1] and [2], the median German makes $19.52/hr in disposable income, while the median American makes $19.29/hr[3]. Given that Germany does better than the US on many health and education outcomes as well it must be doing something right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income#Median_equivalent_adult_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income#Median_equivalen... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_hours_actually_worked_per_worker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Average_annual_ho... [3] Yes, I know the math is a little wonky, but I couldn't find median hours worked and had to settle for average. However, the distribution of hours worked is not as skewed as income given there's only a finite number of hours in a year.

gowld 8y ago

"Disposable income" doesn't mean what your sentence is using it to mean, so it makes your summary claim suspect. Did you mean discretionary income? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disposableincome.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disposableincome.asp

zaarn 8y ago

Why do I need the most disposable income possible?