Palo alto is not typical of America. Its one of the richest places in the country for one along with having a high percentage of liberal/educated people.

IN America you have to be upper middle class at minimum to have the same standard of living as the bottom tier in Scandinavian countries.

Thanks for educating me about Scandinavia, I only lived in Sweden for 30 years :) With regards to standard of living, I disagree that you have to be upper class to maintain a typical Swedish standard of living. If you derive "upper class" from the national median salary then yes, but that would put a lot of the California working class in the "upper class" bound as well.

I live in the Midwest. Skin-to-skin is the standard of care. It is not just the coasts that do these things.

I always assumed poor people had midwifes

Source: born in a house not a hospital like my whole family

Doubtless, you're leaving soon then...

I've been a digital nomad for about 4 years. got stuck back stateside for a few months due to the pandemic but I can't wait to leave again.