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Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by D_Alex on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @11:10PM (#24206787)
Not sure what you mean by much poorer... in any case here is a list of European countries which have a higher median wealth per adult than the US, roughly in order of wealth per adult:

Switzerland, Iceland, Luxmbourg, Belgium, Ireland, France, UK, Spain, Austria, Italy, Malta, Norway.

If you go by mean wealth on the other hand, only Switzerland is higher than the US. But that is not a measure of middle class wealth.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

Re:Modeling a Wealth Tax by jandrewrogers on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @11:53PM (#24206992)
A relevant factor is that the US has both a much higher income and a vastly lower savings rate than in Europe. Also, much of the wealth in Europe comes from hereditary property, which is not really a thing in the US. As a baseline, median Americans have much higher discretionary income than in Europe, so it is only savings habits that prevent many of them from accumulating wealth.

Americans with savings rates that are comparable to Europeans end up accumulating tremendous wealth over their careers, even in the middle class. This is offset by the majority that spend every penny. That Americans don’t save their prodigious income is an unfortunate artifact of having multiple generations of nearly unbroken prosperity.