Europeans like to tell themselves that the trade-off here is that everyone but the richest have higher incomes in Europe. But in reality the trade-off is a much more difficult one: disposable incomes for all but the lowest 20-30th percentiles tend to be higher in the US.

That's not letting the US off the hook. If anything the relative well-being of the US makes its weak safety net and family policies even more outrageous.

@ernietedeschi Yeah we tend to believe that life in the US is horrendous for the bottom 90% and the middle class has teeth falling out of their mouths because they can't afford dental healthcare

@SylvainRibes The typical European's understanding of American life comes from a mix of a very narrow segment of Twitter and Marvel movies.

@ernietedeschi It is still true that the US-EU gap in per capita GDP is greatly reduced if you only look at the bottom 80% of the population:

@ernietedeschi We need a new measure of disposable income. By fam situation. Like, in the US, pre taxes, I was making 35% more than in norway. BUT I also spent a kidney on childcare and housing. anyway, COLA is understudied.

@ernietedeschi But is PPP correct?

@ernietedeschi Do we know what the differences in in median hourly wages? Wondering how much the EU trades leisure time for overall income?

@ernietedeschi If you adjust median income for mean hours worked, countries like Germany come out similar to the U.S., both before and after tax. Having worked in the U.S. and in Europe, poor work/life balance is always a top area of dissatisfaction in the U.S., but in Europe it’s great.

@ernietedeschi For the last decade though it's important to note that the US became the biggest oil and nat gas producer while Europe is facing it's most serious energy shock since the oil crises. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the US outgrew us. If anything the gap should be even higher

@ernietedeschi Are you sure those wikipedia figures are correct? According to the ONS, the median wage in the UK is £35464 pa, which converted by the PPP ratio taken from OECD is $54560.

@ernietedeschi @Noahpinion Median income comparison is almost meaningless if you don't account for differences in out-of-pocket expenses. Americans pay a lot of stuff from their net salary that Europeans pay with taxes.

@ernietedeschi >>*Median* US incomes are much higher too.<< A little war here and a little war there** to secure access to cheap resources (bananas or ore or oil) by ripping of populations of foreign countries, greatly helps [**or the bombing of a gas-pipeline to sell energy at higher prices]

@ernietedeschi This is a fairly recent development. The US was not ahead in these statistics 20 years ago.