"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. An

"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.