4 ms·

Yes, hence the quip about "rich people in it". A more serious way of putting it might be that the US is in raw dollar terms one of the richest countries in the

Yes, hence the quip about "rich people in it". A more serious way of putting it might be that the US is in raw dollar terms one of the richest countries in the world (certainly by far the richest large one), yet in many ways (infrastructure, quality of administration, political culture, etc.) it feels more similar to a middle-income one.

samatman 6y ago
Yes but that quip doesn't work when we're comparing the median. The US does have an absolutely nosebleed wealthy 0.1%, yes, but if you split the population exactly in half, and pick the bloke in the middle, he has really rather a lot of assets, relative to most anywhere else. "The richest poor country in the world" might be closer to it. As the rest of the threads under this post will reveal, we mostly agree that something is wrong with this country — but putting our finger on what that is can be challenging.
- vkou 6y ago
  It doesn't work when you're comparing incomes, but it does work when you compare incomes minus costs. Having a higher median income is all well and good, until you find it all eaten by education, healthcare, and transportation costs... In addition to less financially denominated costs. [1] But eh, if you didn't need to take care of your kids, or yourself, you could theoretically afford more iPhones. [1] Having lived in Canada, and the US, I can't put an exact dollar value on the stress of, for example, having to deal with the American healthcare system, but its non-zero.
- thatfrenchguy 6y ago
  But at middle income in the US you don’t get the healthcare or vacations that a lower 25% gets in any Western European country. It’s hard enough when you’re top 10%.
  - samatman 6y ago
    Vacations, absolutely. But healthcare? 50th percentile US healthcare is pretty good. It's 25th and under who get shafted.

4 ms·

Yes, hence the quip about "rich people in it". A more serious way of putting it might be that the US is in raw dollar terms one of the richest countries in the

by umanwizard 6y ago

samatman 6y ago
Yes but that quip doesn't work when we're comparing the median. The US does have an absolutely nosebleed wealthy 0.1%, yes, but if you split the population exactly in half, and pick the bloke in the middle, he has really rather a lot of assets, relative to most anywhere else. "The richest poor country in the world" might be closer to it. As the rest of the threads under this post will reveal, we mostly agree that something is wrong with this country — but putting our finger on what that is can be challenging.
- vkou 6y ago
  It doesn't work when you're comparing incomes, but it does work when you compare incomes minus costs. Having a higher median income is all well and good, until you find it all eaten by education, healthcare, and transportation costs... In addition to less financially denominated costs. [1] But eh, if you didn't need to take care of your kids, or yourself, you could theoretically afford more iPhones. [1] Having lived in Canada, and the US, I can't put an exact dollar value on the stress of, for example, having to deal with the American healthcare system, but its non-zero.
- thatfrenchguy 6y ago
  But at middle income in the US you don’t get the healthcare or vacations that a lower 25% gets in any Western European country. It’s hard enough when you’re top 10%.
  - samatman 6y ago
    Vacations, absolutely. But healthcare? 50th percentile US healthcare is pretty good. It's 25th and under who get shafted.