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Everything you've listed is apparent in other countries and even more so. Even today, anybody ambitious would kill for the kind of opportunities Americans have.

rqtwteye 2y ago
"anybody ambitious would kill for the kind of opportunities Americans have" That's probably true for the very ambitious. I think the US doesn't work as well for people who just want to have a decent life.
- hamster77 2y ago
  It’s a better place to achieve something in than to live in… but how nice is Western Europe going to be to live in if it continues to be outgrown by the US and have to compete with Asia?
BizarroLand 2y ago
You're talking about the lottery winners, comparing the wealth and opportunities of the top 50,000 Americans to the average joes of the world and overlooking the reality of the other 369,950,000 Americans who have roughly the same quality of life that the people in your country do. I'm from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the poorest location in America. I have memories of my uncles sleeping in the snow, 14 people stuffed into a 2 bedroom home, dirty streets and boredom being the norm, no jobs and what little money was to be had spent across state lines in White Clay for cheap liquor. There are far more of people like us than there are the people living the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Don't stab your brother in the back in hopes of being one of them.
- ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
  This comment is as out of touch with middle class Americans as those "top 50k" are with the middle class. There is a huge gulf between the poorest 10% and the top 50%.
  - BizarroLand 2y ago
    Half of the American population are contained in the bottom 10% of wealth in America. Every other American is in the bottom 10%, and 1 in ~7,500 are in the top 10%. If I were a gambling man I wouldn't take those odds.
    - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
      1 in 10 Americans are in the top 10%. 1 in 10 Americans are in the bottom 10%.
      - atmavatar 2y ago
        I'm pretty sure GP was talking more about which groups own which percentage of wealth in America i.e., the bottom 50% of Americans population-wise own 10% of the overall wealth, while the top 7,500 people (0.002% population-wise) own 10% of the overall wealth. That said, those numbers are actually overly optimistic. The wealth chart offered up by the federal reserve show the bottom 50% population-wise only own 2.5% of the wealth. Particularly alarming (though not surprising) is how much that share has shrunk in the last 20 years. See: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/ https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...
        ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
        Oh that makes much more sense, thanks for clarifying. Still, a quick google search says Europe's bottom 50% own only 1.2% of the wealth there.
        bestouff 2y ago
        Maybe. But they have free healthcare and a better living.
deleted 2y ago
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Gud 2y ago
I disagree. I am ambitious and from Europe. I live in Switzerland and I love it here. There is no way I would wish to move to a dysfunctional country like the US(no offense).
- ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
  We have 45M+ immigrants in the US. This does not count children of immigrants, only people who were born in another country and now live in the US. That is 5x the total population of Switzerland. And no offense taken, I've heard Switzerland is an amazing place!
  - sumuyuda 2y ago
    I’m not for sure what you are trying to say with that statistic, but Switzerland has a much higher percentage of immigrants. 40% have a migration background, you can see the stats here: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/migration-integration/by-migration-status.html https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m...
    - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
      I wasn't really trying to compare immigration between the two, more just trying to illustrate the scale of US immigration vs the OP's anecdote
  - Gud 2y ago
    What's your point?
    - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
      Your personal immigration preference is not worth mentioning since we have actual statistics on the subject
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  Switzerland is great and I live there too, but the USA is hardly dysfunctional and we shouldn't overpraise Switzerland. This is a country that now has basically only one big bank, for a country that was once famous for banking! And look at how many well paid tech jobs in .ch are with US firms. Try and create a tech startup in Switzerland and you will quickly figure out why.
piva00 2y ago
Life expectancy is definitely not trending down in a lot of other developed countries, that's quite unique to the USA in that cohort.
bitcharmer 2y ago
American exceptionalism is strong in this one. No, most of us would not like to live and work in the USA. As always, you guys think too high of yourselves.

rqtwteye 2y ago

"anybody ambitious would kill for the kind of opportunities Americans have" That's probably true for the very ambitious. I think the US doesn't work as well for people who just want to have a decent life.

hamster77 2y ago
It’s a better place to achieve something in than to live in… but how nice is Western Europe going to be to live in if it continues to be outgrown by the US and have to compete with Asia?

BizarroLand 2y ago

You're talking about the lottery winners, comparing the wealth and opportunities of the top 50,000 Americans to the average joes of the world and overlooking the reality of the other 369,950,000 Americans who have roughly the same quality of life that the people in your country do. I'm from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the poorest location in America. I have memories of my uncles sleeping in the snow, 14 people stuffed into a 2 bedroom home, dirty streets and boredom being the norm, no jobs and what little money was to be had spent across state lines in White Clay for cheap liquor. There are far more of people like us than there are the people living the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Don't stab your brother in the back in hopes of being one of them.

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
This comment is as out of touch with middle class Americans as those "top 50k" are with the middle class. There is a huge gulf between the poorest 10% and the top 50%.
- BizarroLand 2y ago
  Half of the American population are contained in the bottom 10% of wealth in America. Every other American is in the bottom 10%, and 1 in ~7,500 are in the top 10%. If I were a gambling man I wouldn't take those odds.
  - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
    1 in 10 Americans are in the top 10%. 1 in 10 Americans are in the bottom 10%.
    - atmavatar 2y ago
      I'm pretty sure GP was talking more about which groups own which percentage of wealth in America i.e., the bottom 50% of Americans population-wise own 10% of the overall wealth, while the top 7,500 people (0.002% population-wise) own 10% of the overall wealth. That said, those numbers are actually overly optimistic. The wealth chart offered up by the federal reserve show the bottom 50% population-wise only own 2.5% of the wealth. Particularly alarming (though not surprising) is how much that share has shrunk in the last 20 years. See: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/ https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...
      - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
        Oh that makes much more sense, thanks for clarifying. Still, a quick google search says Europe's bottom 50% own only 1.2% of the wealth there.
        bestouff 2y ago
        Maybe. But they have free healthcare and a better living.

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Gud 2y ago

I disagree. I am ambitious and from Europe. I live in Switzerland and I love it here. There is no way I would wish to move to a dysfunctional country like the US(no offense).

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
We have 45M+ immigrants in the US. This does not count children of immigrants, only people who were born in another country and now live in the US. That is 5x the total population of Switzerland. And no offense taken, I've heard Switzerland is an amazing place!
- sumuyuda 2y ago
  I’m not for sure what you are trying to say with that statistic, but Switzerland has a much higher percentage of immigrants. 40% have a migration background, you can see the stats here: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/migration-integration/by-migration-status.html https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m...
  - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
    I wasn't really trying to compare immigration between the two, more just trying to illustrate the scale of US immigration vs the OP's anecdote
- Gud 2y ago
  What's your point?
  - ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
    Your personal immigration preference is not worth mentioning since we have actual statistics on the subject
mike_hearn 2y ago
Switzerland is great and I live there too, but the USA is hardly dysfunctional and we shouldn't overpraise Switzerland. This is a country that now has basically only one big bank, for a country that was once famous for banking! And look at how many well paid tech jobs in .ch are with US firms. Try and create a tech startup in Switzerland and you will quickly figure out why.

piva00 2y ago

Life expectancy is definitely not trending down in a lot of other developed countries, that's quite unique to the USA in that cohort.

bitcharmer 2y ago

American exceptionalism is strong in this one. No, most of us would not like to live and work in the USA. As always, you guys think too high of yourselves.