America: one of the highest median household disposable incomes on earth. 25% higher than Norway, 30% higher than Germany and 50% higher than Sweden.
America: owner of 45% of all global private wealth.
America: half the unemployment rate of the EU and Eurozone.
America: a higher median income than Finland, with half the unemployment rate. Finland I'll note has been in a soft-depression for nearly a decade, with net negative growth over that time. Their economy is a disaster.
America: median house two to three times larger than what's typical in Scandinavia, at a much lower median cost as well.
America: drastically lower household debt to income ratio than Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands.
America: where more people have moved up and out of the middle class, than have moved down out of it, for 40 years running. So much so, that it's contracting the middle class, and the majority of those people are moving upwards.
America: nearly twice the GDP per capita of the Eurozone.
America: adding an economy the size of Germany in the time - eight years - that Europe's economy has had zero growth.
America: household poverty line nearly twice as high as the EU and Eurozone. A line so high, that 70% of all UK households would fall short of the US household poverty line (per the guardian).
Careful here...
You need to subtract:
- cost of health care (even if you are a W-2 employee, you still have to pay, typically 30% of the cost, self-employed people may end up $25K/year for a family of 4)
- cost of higher education - $250K/child for private college, $!20K/child state college
- additional taxes, like real-estate, excise taxes
- hidden taxes: telecom, airport/FAA (sometimes half of the price of the ticket), etc.
- absurd real-estate prices (on the coasts)
While the US is probably still ahead, the difference is not as big as you stated.
US households have better balance sheets than most highly developed European nations. So that's obviously not making the impact that people would like to claim it is. The median student loan for all people with student loans, is a mere $13,000.
> cost of health care
I agree, that's why the US has such low taxes on the middle class compared to most of Europe. However, the median US household has $15,000 more in disposable income than for example Sweden. That's a dramatic sum, that can easily cover health insurance - and in fact enables the US to be the vast consumer engine that it is. Simultaneously the median household net worth is higher in the US than Sweden or Germany.
As a significant counter point, a vast number of Americans are receiving compensation at their jobs in the way of health insurance coverage. That isn't counted at all in the US disposable income numbers and it's an extremely large number financially.
> additional taxes, like real-estate, excise taxes
That's a rather ridiculous inclusion. Most of Europe is overflowing with similar taxes, including very high VAT taxes.
> hidden taxes: telecom, airport/FAA (sometimes half of the price of the ticket)
Those referenced costs are comically trivial compared to the extreme disposable income gap in question between the US and most European nations.
> absurd real-estate prices (on the coasts
That's a pretty narrow example. Real estate costs are not absurd along most of the US coast in fact. South Carolina, Oregon, Georgia, Florida, Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, half of California, most of Washington - all of those are perfectly reasonable for the most part (most of Florida for example is not absurdly priced).
Unlike in Europe, you can possess an extremely high standard of living in the majority of the country by just avoiding half a dozen cities. Want to move to Boise Idaho? You can have a household disposable income higher than Sweden, with real estate costs 25% that of Sweden. In Europe, you can't just choose to move to Portugal, much less Czech, much less Bulgaria, and expect to have an income as high as in Germany or Sweden, in order to take advantage of lower cost real estate.
When you have a strong safety net, your don't need that higher balance sheet because the chances of needing it due to catastrophic events are vastly higher. I would be far less scared of being indebted in a Nordic country than in the US.
> As a significant counter point, a vast number of Americans are receiving compensation at their jobs in the way of health insurance coverage. That isn't counted at all in the US disposable income numbers and it's an extremely large number financially.
Yeah, and you lived scared out of your fucking mind if you have some sort of condition where if you lose your job your health can be compromised. What if you have children?
Also, American health coverage is an absolute piece of crap.
> Want to move to Boise Idaho? You can have a household disposable income higher than Sweden, with real estate costs 25% that of Sweden. In Europe, you can't just choose to move to Portugal, much less Czech, much less Bulgaria, and expect to have an income as high as in Germany or Sweden, in order to take advantage of lower cost real estate.
Yeah, but you have to live in Boise, Idaho. Something tells me that the average European metropolis is far more relevant culturally. This fact is not lost in the younger generation that keeps moving to the big cities.
= The student loan debt is close to 1.3 TRILLION in 2016, almost TWICE the credit card debt (already substantial at 700 BILLION)
= With a delinquency rate of ~20% (compared to 2% in real-estate)
= The class of 2015 graduated with $35,051 in student debt on average, the most in history.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-growing-student-lo...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/student-loan-delinquencies-decli...
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-card-data/credit-card...
Insurance? Sure. I mean, a young, single person pays a bit above $250 in CA for a plan that meets ACA "Bronze" criteria, which pays about 60% of total cost. So minimal health insurance for a household should be easily doable under $15K per year. OTOH, total health expenses for a household would probably bring you right up to that $15K number, eating up the entire difference.
And healthcare isn't the only place where the US fails to provide services that governments elsewhere in the developed world provide.
Americans receive compensation to the tune of over a trillion dollars per year via health insurance coverage at their place of work. None of that gets counted in the US income figures.
If people had to pay $2500/month for a family of 4 or $80 for a single aspirin in a hospital, they would go ballistic on day one. Also - health premiums go up 10-15% EVERY YEAR. That;s why your annual raise is 3% or less.