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There is an attempt to popularize the idea that in the US it’s the top breaking away from everyone else, and that doesn’t happen in Europe. The idea that the t

There is an attempt to popularize the idea that in the US it’s the top breaking away from everyone else, and that doesn’t happen in Europe. The idea that the top is breaking away is being popularized because it is irrefutably true, as the income growth of the top percentiles is accelerating at the expense of the lower percentiles (from data available from a wide range of sources, but probably best expressed in this chart: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/opinion/leonhardt-income-inequality.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/opinion/leonh...). But I agree that Europe is not immune. However, unlike the US, Europe provides essential services like transportation and healthcare to its citizens, so that even someone with no income enjoys better healthcare and transportation than many middle-class Americans.

rayiner 7y ago
We're not in disagreement. The premise of the article that 80% of Americans live in squalor that isn't present in Europe is designed to convince middle class Americans that they're worse off than middle class people in Europe. Which I don't think is true, or at least, it's not obviously true. It's hard to contest, however, that the lower 10-20% of people are better off in Europe.
- vannevar 7y ago
  "Squalor" is a bit of a stretch; the article seemed more focused on the existence of two economies in the US, which in my experience is not far off the mark. And the use of after tax income in the article you cite is disingenuous: of course Europeans pay higher taxes, they also get much better services across the board. Your article reluctantly admits this in a single sentence, buried near the end: "But to the extent that governments in Western Europe are more likely to provide services to households that may not be captured in household income, such as the National Health Service in the UK, it is possible that differences in the quality of life between the U.S. and Western Europe are narrower." When you figure in the massive student loan debt and catastrophic impact of medical bills on many middle class families, this can only be regarded as a gross understatement.

rayiner 7y ago

We're not in disagreement. The premise of the article that 80% of Americans live in squalor that isn't present in Europe is designed to convince middle class Americans that they're worse off than middle class people in Europe. Which I don't think is true, or at least, it's not obviously true. It's hard to contest, however, that the lower 10-20% of people are better off in Europe.

vannevar 7y ago
"Squalor" is a bit of a stretch; the article seemed more focused on the existence of two economies in the US, which in my experience is not far off the mark. And the use of after tax income in the article you cite is disingenuous: of course Europeans pay higher taxes, they also get much better services across the board. Your article reluctantly admits this in a single sentence, buried near the end: "But to the extent that governments in Western Europe are more likely to provide services to households that may not be captured in household income, such as the National Health Service in the UK, it is possible that differences in the quality of life between the U.S. and Western Europe are narrower." When you figure in the massive student loan debt and catastrophic impact of medical bills on many middle class families, this can only be regarded as a gross understatement.