3 ms·

Do you have data for this? Everywhere I look puts the US among the very best. For example, here [1] is UK by quintile: In 2017/18, the average UK household inc

Do you have data for this? Everywhere I look puts the US among the very best. For example, here [1] is UK by quintile: In 2017/18, the average UK household income before housing costs was: top quintile: £52,000 second highest quintile: £34,700 middle quintile: £26,400 second lowest quintile: £20,000 bottom quintile: £13,100 The average UK household income after housing costs was: top quintile: £47,700 second highest quintile: £30,900 middle quintile: £22,800 second lowest quintile: £16,100 bottom quintile: £9,200 Here [2] is the US, 2018 quntiles: 13,775; 37,293; 63,572 ; 101,570; 233,895 PPP Adjusted means adjusted to cost of living [3]. Adjusting the incomes above gives for the bottom 20% of US $13.7K income, for UK $13.1K. From all the data I can see over many countries, the US poor and lower middle class are doing much better than almost any place in the world. [1] https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/pay-and-income/income-distribution/latest https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-... [2] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-households.html https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p... [3] https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-ppp.htm https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p...

pnutjam 7y ago
The US is huge, numbers in one area can be very high or very low and skew things significantly. It doesn't help most American's if salaries are pulled up (in the average) by a high cost of living area, and housing is pulled down (in the average) by a different area 300 miles away. You see this alot in school data. The top 90% of schools would, if averaged, put the US in top standing. However, those bottom 10% pull us down (alot). The big fight in America right now is whether we cut those bottom 10% and say EOBAD's (GOP), or work to help them catch up (Democrats).
thatcat 7y ago
US is number 1 in manipulating GDP and job metrics.
mertd 7y ago
You are overlooking healthcare costs. Most Americans are one fractured leg away from bankruptcy.
thatfrenchguy 7y ago
You're not looking at cost of education (the UK is a European outlier on that one) or healthcare (a disaster in the US), or price of vaguely healthy food (just compare a middle-class Safeway or Walmart to a middle-class Carrefour in France for example), or the cost of cars, going on vacation (super expensive in the US), the number of holidays, etc. Direct money comparaisons doesn't explain everything unfortunately, and if you just look at that the US is clearly ahead..

pnutjam 7y ago

The US is huge, numbers in one area can be very high or very low and skew things significantly. It doesn't help most American's if salaries are pulled up (in the average) by a high cost of living area, and housing is pulled down (in the average) by a different area 300 miles away. You see this alot in school data. The top 90% of schools would, if averaged, put the US in top standing. However, those bottom 10% pull us down (alot). The big fight in America right now is whether we cut those bottom 10% and say EOBAD's (GOP), or work to help them catch up (Democrats).

thatcat 7y ago

US is number 1 in manipulating GDP and job metrics.

mertd 7y ago

You are overlooking healthcare costs. Most Americans are one fractured leg away from bankruptcy.

thatfrenchguy 7y ago

You're not looking at cost of education (the UK is a European outlier on that one) or healthcare (a disaster in the US), or price of vaguely healthy food (just compare a middle-class Safeway or Walmart to a middle-class Carrefour in France for example), or the cost of cars, going on vacation (super expensive in the US), the number of holidays, etc. Direct money comparaisons doesn't explain everything unfortunately, and if you just look at that the US is clearly ahead..