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> - Consumer spending; > - Disposable income; While it is undeniable that the US leads in these areas, it should be pointed out that the distribution of who s
by gspr 1y ago
> - Consumer spending;
> - Disposable income;
While it is undeniable that the US leads in these areas, it should be pointed out that the distribution of who spends and who has disposable income does matter. As in: if you and your 100 closest neighbors live in poverty, it matters very little if you have a multi-billionaire on the block who brings up the average disposable income.
> - Size of housing afforded;
Europe is a lot more densely populated than the US. You really should be comparing urban areas in both, or rural areas in both.
> - Top university rankings;
> - Research and development;
I'll grant you these.
> Europe suffers from many things that would be hard to imagine in the US. Only 20% of European homes have air conditioning vs 88% of American homes. This causes real problems. In 2024, there were 62,700 Europeans who died from extreme heat, compared to ~3,000 Americans.
As others have pointed out: European homes tend to be much better insulated, and have much greater thermal mass, than American ones. Moreover, a far bigger percentage of the American population lives in warmer climates than in Europe.
That being said, the deaths from extreme heat do show that something needs to change here in order to meet the warming climate. And things are. The push for heat pumps in Europe also opens the door to running them as coolers when needed (when they're the air-to-air type).
- yes_really 1y ago> While it is undeniable that the US leads in these areas, it should be pointed out that the distribution of who spends and who has disposable income does matter. Agreed. But the median American has one the highest consumer spending and disposable incomes in the world. > Europe is a lot more densely populated than the US. You really should be comparing urban areas in both, or rural areas in both. OK. But housing in American cities is generally larger than the equivalent in European cities. And housing in American suburbs is likewise larger than in European suburbs.
- gspr 1y ago> Agreed. But the median American has one the highest consumer spending and disposable incomes in the world. Absoutely. But the differences are no longer insane when considering medians: US at 43 kUSD, and the rest of top 5 at 42, 41, 39, 37. While for the means, the US is 50% ahead of number 5 (top 5 goes 62, 47, 47, 42, 41). That's yaw-dropping, while the lead in medians is not. Randomly sourced from https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/disposable-income-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/disposabl... , which I assume is at least in the ballpark. > OK. But housing in American cities is generally larger than the equivalent in European cities. And housing in American suburbs is likewise larger than in European suburbs. Sure. But it's still important to compare apples to apples. And when doing so, the difference, like for disposable income, is far less stark.