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Is that right? Sweden -- along with virtually all European countries other than Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg -- have much poorer middle classes than most

Is that right? Sweden -- along with virtually all European countries other than Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg -- have much poorer middle classes than most US states. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/if-sweden-left-the-eu-and-joined-the-us-it-would-be-the-poorest-u-s-state-below-even-mississippi/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/if-sweden-left-the-eu-and-joi... https://mises.org/wire/if-sweden-and-germany-became-us-states-they-would-be-among-poorest-states https://mises.org/wire/if-sweden-and-germany-became-us-state...

D_Alex 6y ago
Not sure what you mean by much poorer... in any case here is a list of European countries which have a higher median wealth per adult than the US, roughly in order of wealth per adult: Switzerland, Iceland, Luxmbourg, Belgium, Ireland, France, UK, Spain, Austria, Italy, Malta, Norway. If you go by mean wealth on the other hand, only Switzerland is higher than the US. But that is not a measure of middle class wealth. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...
- jandrewrogers 6y ago
  A relevant factor is that the US has both a much higher income and a vastly lower savings rate than in Europe. Also, much of the wealth in Europe comes from hereditary property, which is not really a thing in the US. As a baseline, median Americans have much higher discretionary income than in Europe, so it is only savings habits that prevent many of them from accumulating wealth. Americans with savings rates that are comparable to Europeans end up accumulating tremendous wealth over their careers, even in the middle class. This is offset by the majority that spend every penny. That Americans don’t save their prodigious income is an unfortunate artifact of having multiple generations of nearly unbroken prosperity.

D_Alex 6y ago

Not sure what you mean by much poorer... in any case here is a list of European countries which have a higher median wealth per adult than the US, roughly in order of wealth per adult: Switzerland, Iceland, Luxmbourg, Belgium, Ireland, France, UK, Spain, Austria, Italy, Malta, Norway. If you go by mean wealth on the other hand, only Switzerland is higher than the US. But that is not a measure of middle class wealth. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

jandrewrogers 6y ago
A relevant factor is that the US has both a much higher income and a vastly lower savings rate than in Europe. Also, much of the wealth in Europe comes from hereditary property, which is not really a thing in the US. As a baseline, median Americans have much higher discretionary income than in Europe, so it is only savings habits that prevent many of them from accumulating wealth. Americans with savings rates that are comparable to Europeans end up accumulating tremendous wealth over their careers, even in the middle class. This is offset by the majority that spend every penny. That Americans don’t save their prodigious income is an unfortunate artifact of having multiple generations of nearly unbroken prosperity.