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The middle classes in Europe definitely don’t have more. Salaries are 30-40% higher in America (even accounting for healthcare and pensions) and the cost of liv

The middle classes in Europe definitely don’t have more. Salaries are 30-40% higher in America (even accounting for healthcare and pensions) and the cost of living is quite a lot higher.

dijit 7y ago
Salary in America vs Europe is apples to oranges. Much like your prices that do not contain sales tax. For instance, my salary in a small Swedish city is 45,000Kr/mo. Of which I pay 6,000Kr in rent and about 3,000 for all my other bills combined (including gigabit internet). However there’s an unseen amount that my employer pays; my 45k salary is more like 90k in company costs. Since the city is small, I would think of this as comparative to somewhere like boulder, CO. So you begin to get an idea of what purchasing power really is here and what things are paid for automatically (like insurances). There’s also a large differentiation in regards to social norms (25 days vacation by law, income support in the event of unexpected job loss, generous maternity/paternity leave) muddying it even more.
- weberc2 7y ago
  I agree there are things you need to control for, but I don’t think its as hopeless a comparison as you seem to imply. As previously mentioned, I’m already controlling for healthcare and pension, for instance. What other insurances do European governments pay for? As for vacation days and maternity leave, I believe US professionals have pretty generous allowances as well, but I don’t have any data on hand—certainly an interesting question. EDIT: This spurred me to do some research and I came across this analysis by Pew research: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-american-lens-western-europes-middle-classes-appear-smaller/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-... TL;DR: no matter how you measure, the standard of living is better in the US than in Europe.

The middle classes in Europe definitely don’t have more. Salaries are 30-40% higher in America (even accounting for healthcare and pensions) and the cost of living is quite a lot higher.

dijit 7y ago

Salary in America vs Europe is apples to oranges. Much like your prices that do not contain sales tax. For instance, my salary in a small Swedish city is 45,000Kr/mo. Of which I pay 6,000Kr in rent and about 3,000 for all my other bills combined (including gigabit internet). However there’s an unseen amount that my employer pays; my 45k salary is more like 90k in company costs. Since the city is small, I would think of this as comparative to somewhere like boulder, CO. So you begin to get an idea of what purchasing power really is here and what things are paid for automatically (like insurances). There’s also a large differentiation in regards to social norms (25 days vacation by law, income support in the event of unexpected job loss, generous maternity/paternity leave) muddying it even more.

weberc2 7y ago
I agree there are things you need to control for, but I don’t think its as hopeless a comparison as you seem to imply. As previously mentioned, I’m already controlling for healthcare and pension, for instance. What other insurances do European governments pay for? As for vacation days and maternity leave, I believe US professionals have pretty generous allowances as well, but I don’t have any data on hand—certainly an interesting question. EDIT: This spurred me to do some research and I came across this analysis by Pew research: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-american-lens-western-europes-middle-classes-appear-smaller/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-... TL;DR: no matter how you measure, the standard of living is better in the US than in Europe.