4 ms·

> I doubt any amount of benefits and socialism can solve this problem. Most EU countries are higher up the list. Most provide better social benefits and many h

> I doubt any amount of benefits and socialism can solve this problem. Most EU countries are higher up the list. Most provide better social benefits and many have socialist roots. Not sure how you form your conclusions.

aborsy 4y ago
Which list (there are many of them, made by different groups with different political positions)? How do you measure “sustainability development goal,” or living standards of a person? Who defines these terms, provides data, publishes these lists, why is it relevant amid countless other indices, Etc. You can always define an index that would put a given country or region at any position, or to advance a point. You do better, living and experiencing life in different countries, or ask people who have done so. Not dismissing data, but there are a lot of stuff not captured by a number (not to mention the issue with data and the method used). For example, there are other articles that claim poor people in US are richer than the middle class in much of the Europe (like a lower class or poor family in US might only have one car, rather than several, comparable to the middle or upper class in EU): https://mises.org/wire/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-europe https://mises.org/wire/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-... Regardless, the point in my comment remains.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bborud 4y ago
  > How do you measure “sustainability development goal,” or living > standards of a person? [...ad nauseam] Here's a wild idea: perhaps you should figure out the answers to these questions first?
- beardyw 4y ago
  > Which list The one referred to in the article. It also mentions "American exceptionalism, a belief in American superiority over the rest of the world". I'm beginning to get the idea.
csdvrx 4y ago
> > I doubt any amount of benefits and socialism can solve this problem. This > Most EU countries are higher up the list How do you know you can trust that list? When you look at both the average and the median income, even adjusting for PPP, IIRC the poorest US state is richer than the richest EU country, which says a whole lot about "the degree of poverty in EU". Of course, Europeans don't like that so they try to tweak the rankings by doing various adjustments for happiness, or insisting on healthcare stuff (etc.) and how they have many transfer payments. The europoors doth protest too much, methinks :)
- WealthVsSurvive 4y ago
  Forest, meet trees: my numbers are higher, so all the things humans find important that are the very foundation of the number being important don't matter.
- fxtentacle 4y ago
  Actually, the median income per person is higher in most of the EU than it is in the US. No tweaking needed.
  - csdvrx 4y ago
    > Actually, the median income per person is higher in most of the EU That's factually wrong, cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income But I also learned today that my simple assumption was now wrong. So congratulations to Luxembourg, for being part of the EU yet not as poor as the rest!
  - oyashirochama 4y ago
    With higher cost of living, taxes and less job opportunity and an economy that isn't recovering. The US with all its flaws really depends on where and how you look at it from, especially with the rise of work at home allowing more fluid movement to much lower cost areas compared to the cheapest areas of EU zone.
  - mrep 4y ago
    US is #2, only behind Luxembourg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

aborsy 4y ago

Which list (there are many of them, made by different groups with different political positions)? How do you measure “sustainability development goal,” or living standards of a person? Who defines these terms, provides data, publishes these lists, why is it relevant amid countless other indices, Etc. You can always define an index that would put a given country or region at any position, or to advance a point. You do better, living and experiencing life in different countries, or ask people who have done so. Not dismissing data, but there are a lot of stuff not captured by a number (not to mention the issue with data and the method used). For example, there are other articles that claim poor people in US are richer than the middle class in much of the Europe (like a lower class or poor family in US might only have one car, rather than several, comparable to the middle or upper class in EU): https://mises.org/wire/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-europe https://mises.org/wire/poor-us-are-richer-middle-class-much-... Regardless, the point in my comment remains.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bborud 4y ago
> How do you measure “sustainability development goal,” or living > standards of a person? [...ad nauseam] Here's a wild idea: perhaps you should figure out the answers to these questions first?
beardyw 4y ago
> Which list The one referred to in the article. It also mentions "American exceptionalism, a belief in American superiority over the rest of the world". I'm beginning to get the idea.

csdvrx 4y ago

> > I doubt any amount of benefits and socialism can solve this problem. This > Most EU countries are higher up the list How do you know you can trust that list? When you look at both the average and the median income, even adjusting for PPP, IIRC the poorest US state is richer than the richest EU country, which says a whole lot about "the degree of poverty in EU". Of course, Europeans don't like that so they try to tweak the rankings by doing various adjustments for happiness, or insisting on healthcare stuff (etc.) and how they have many transfer payments. The europoors doth protest too much, methinks :)

WealthVsSurvive 4y ago
Forest, meet trees: my numbers are higher, so all the things humans find important that are the very foundation of the number being important don't matter.
fxtentacle 4y ago
Actually, the median income per person is higher in most of the EU than it is in the US. No tweaking needed.
- csdvrx 4y ago
  > Actually, the median income per person is higher in most of the EU That's factually wrong, cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income But I also learned today that my simple assumption was now wrong. So congratulations to Luxembourg, for being part of the EU yet not as poor as the rest!
- oyashirochama 4y ago
  With higher cost of living, taxes and less job opportunity and an economy that isn't recovering. The US with all its flaws really depends on where and how you look at it from, especially with the rise of work at home allowing more fluid movement to much lower cost areas compared to the cheapest areas of EU zone.
- mrep 4y ago
  US is #2, only behind Luxembourg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income