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The average American is a mirage. Replace that by the median American, and it's immediately down to $7k. Then notice that this "excludes most non-cash income(e.
by lutorm 16y ago
The average American is a mirage. Replace that by the median American, and it's immediately down to $7k. Then notice that this "excludes most non-cash income(e.g., like employer contributions to social insurances, or the value of government provided health care and education)" and we can argue whether, after paying for health insurance and retirement/kids college savings, the median American really is better off.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoInternational comparisons are hard to come by, but here is one which is US vs Sweden (one of the richer "other countries"): http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/03/income-distribution-in-us-and-sweden.html http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/03/income-distributio... This attempts to include the value of assorted government benefits (health care, education, etc), ignores deadweight losses (e.g., $1 in govt costs providing only $0.90 in benefits), and ignores the value of employer provided insurance (all of which favor Sweden). Americans are still considerably richer (though the bottom of Sweden is better off than the bottom of the US). The gap gets even bigger if you restrict the comparison to Americans of Swedish descent. http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/03/super-economy-in-one-picture.html http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/03/super-economy-in-o...