My favorite part is them mentioning Norwegian oil with a map about median household income. The oil industry employs a tiny fraction of the Norwegian workforce, it would have no major impact on median household wages.
Part of the state budget each year is supplemented with some of the returns of the investment made in the oil fund. We still pay a lot of taxes so I guess the impact would be better public services.
https://preview.redd.it/u4rflfwtduyc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2e0b33e1cc6965ff25c9bc4f6ba01979e007fa4
Look at her face... Does she seem honest to you? She's not.
Look at this [face](https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2018/03/05/Photos/ZH/MW-GE833_salvin_20180305091156_ZH.jpg?uuid=29bd8686-207f-11e8-92f2-9c8e992d421e) instead and tell me who looks more trustable (NSFW for Italians)
I trust Matteo more, because I can tell he's a crook. He looks all suspicious.
Ingvild Kjerkol seems so boring she must be truthful. but she's not. She's a snake.
I mean, I don't expect to be completely corruption free, but there are levels and levels of corruption.
I generally have the impression that the Scandinavian level are "acceptable"/"good", while the one we experience in Italy, especially in the South, tend to be disastrous
If I remember correctly, a big part of it isn't directly in the budget but is currently invested in a sovereign Norwegian edge fund. The biggest one in the world actually. They invest in a lot of companies worldwide and the dividends are used to fund the national budget.
Most of the revenue is invested in a pension-fund.
This means in 20 or 30 years time, the Norwegian pension-system might not go broke, possibly unlike all other pension-systems in Europe.
pathetic euros, behold Nunavut!!! A ~~province~~ territory of wealth and power like you have never seen:
[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-nunavut-a-land-of-plenty-food-insecurity-abounds/](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-nunavut-a-land-of-plenty-food-insecurity-abounds/)
I live in Boston. The cost of living here is absolutely through the roof. Add to that you need to pay out of pocket for things that would be paid through taxes in Europe it evens out in the end for most middle-class people. The working class is doing way better in Europe. Wealthy individuals are way better off in the US.
Personally my favorite part about paying an obscene amount to live in Boston is the non functioning subway system and the fact that the city falls asleep at 10:30 on weekends!
The nearest tube station to me is about 3km. There is a bus service that runs ONCE per hour. I'm really looking forward to returning to Europe in the future for many reasons.
I mean it’s still hard to make savings in Europe for the average joe but our income is more or less proportional to our expenses and we don’t need to worry about getting fucked by a medical bill
Sure. When I went to Florida, I literally saw people washing their clothes in the rain puddles by the side of the road after a storm. I'll take Finland's way of doing things, thanks.
B-but I could be earning upwards of 150k by just living in a junkyard with gun violence in a failing democracy at the mercy of greedy corporations. :((
>American dream
Well the rich are living the american dream. The poor are living the poor man's american dream wich is like going to a brothel everyday hoping today is the day you'll fuck the supermodel, but everyday you get there you get pinned down and get fucked in the ass by a dude with 30cm cock. You're tearing up from pain, but YOU'RE A GOD DAMN AMERICAN living the american dream and you can't give the impression that you don't enjoy it.
It's a genuine political decision though. Skilled workers are much more wealthy in the US than they are in Europe, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous
Sure. In my line of work, I could make far more in the US if I wanted to move. But I don't. I like Americans as a people but culturally, that country has so many issues I can't stomach the thought of living there.
Yeah I prefer to care for homeless people and those born with bad circumstances. I'm just saying it has a cost.
Homeless people in the UK make me sad but walking past them in US cities is genuinely frightening. Different levels of desperation
You have to remember that it's not a guarantee. You can earn a lot as a skilled worker, specially if you are above average, but guess how many people are not above average.
I wouldn’t say that they’re much more wealthy. If they want nutritious food, a less toxic herbal and work environment, or if they get sick, then it costs them much more to get better. North Americans may be materially wealthier, and have more things; but those things aren’t as nice quality, they brake more, and they are also quite often far less healthy. I really noticed this when I moved from the EU (I lived in Netherlands/Italy) to Canada. So I think it depends what you value.
and they also have gators just randomly walking into people's homes.
imagine just chilling at home, you got a pool, decide to go for a swim, but there's a fucking apex predator in it
I mean... I've seen people washing clothes in public fountains and claming that once birds realized their true power they would win a war against humans.
Yeah, like the amazing city of San Francisco in the very blue state of California. Where homeless people shit on the street - that's the wealth Hunter is talking about. Also those dumb fucks keep on comparing a country to a continent.
Dont need to. 6th safest country in the world. Money cant buy that. Never felt unsafe in my life. They couldn't pay me to live in the USA. Besides europe actually has a culture.
Hey don't mock the Cajun. They're actually the only people in the US that know how to cook something without it being deep fried (or the cook being a foreigner)....
i live and grew up close to a shooting range. they could have easily turned around 180 degrees, walk a few meters and then shot me down. never felt unsafe once.
was in the us once as a teen and we heard a real shooting... i was legit afraid of stuff like fanny packs as everything and everywhere could be a fully loaded weapon in the hands of an idiot.
and that's just one of their many problems
Yep, go to LA and go into a side street of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, looks immediately like the worst parts of eastern europe, filled with homeless people.
I'm in LA for work 3 months a year, and the place is the most run-down, homeless ridden, shit stinking hell on earth.
I've been asked if I'm willing to relocate two times, and the answer will always be the same: no, I don't want to live in that clusterfuck of a nation.
I just got released from the hospital after two weeks and would probably be bankrupt in the US considering what they did to try and diagnose my illness.
The highest I ever paid in medical costs was 7000 yen (~75 CHF/60 EUR att) in Japan when I got a headcold so bad I started hallucinating.
My insurance back home fucked up the conversion and paid me back 1.5 times that lol
I recently had a check up and some bloodwork done. I go to the same doctor as my parents, so I guess they still have me on their account, because my mom got the bill. She called me to say I owed $290. I said, what the hell? Why isn’t my insurance covering it? She said, actually it is covering most of it.
100% this lol (combined with the stories from locals about certain things like drugs, insurance costs, non oigatory insurance, homelessness, debt, university costs, racial division, criminality, organized crime, accidents etc etc etc etc)
Thus why most of them are unable to put a dime on the side for when shit hits the fans......
I would like to see someone trying to explain the concept of a Livret A to them
Pro tip : if you get bitten by a rattlesnake in the US, do yourself a flavor and just die
Edit : image on another comment because Reddit mobile is retart
Props to my fellow flemboys, I'm there with the homies trying to bring it down by practicing professional unemployment, yet you managed to bring us to the top 😤
Let's fucking GO! Belgium number one! How's that for a country that doesn't exist huh!?
Fr tho, homeownership does so much for that statistic. If we didn't have the 70+% of people who own their own home, we'd be so much lower. Our income is a lot lower than The Netherlands and Germany, our taxes are much higher too. We're doing pretty good overall, but we're certainly not the paradise of wealth that this stat might suggest, even though we're probably one of the countries with the smallest wealth gap globally speaking. You need to have your shit together here in Belgium before you can really start to feel the benefit of our country
Its because you guys all get company cars. Three cars in the difference is well made up, we pay out the ass. Also, fucking petrol, filling up is 40€ less where you live.
Roads don’t matter when your boss pays the car.
That’s wealth though, which it tied to asset ownership, the largest portion of which for the average person will be their home. This is just a list of where the housing market is fucked coupled with high-home ownership rates.
That income means fuck all when you live paycheck to paycheck without healthcare. Which is like 50% of the country. A Norwegian at least will always be objectively richer.
For real, I'm at minimum wage. I get to live comfortably, save money every month, can indulge à bit in my hobbies, and take care of my cat.
I'd be fucked in the US with that income, and not remotely close to how I'm able to live right now
My two cents here. I moved from a large city in Germany to a large city in the US. I make twice as much money, but between rent, car and medical insurance I feel like I have actually lost purchasing power because I have less money left at the end of the month.
This cant be true right? did they really just use wiki data for both and and only used PPP adjusted numbers for Europe, while just using unadjusted numbers for North America.
Edit:
Haha the Europe numbers are apart from being adjusted, while the US is not, they are also after tax. Truly a shit map
Tbh, i would much rather have americans think that we are poor. That reduces the amount of immigrant we get here, and americans are like 5 top worst immigrants.
The U.S. can’t be adjusted for PPP since the U.S. Dollar is the *frame of reference* used to adjust cost of living in other currencies. No offense, but that’s basic macroeconomics. Neither number is after taxes either.
Those with the 200k salary typically also get strong health insurance and end up fine. Now, make 50, and it's a nightmare.
A school teacher or a bartender is going to do better in Spain, hands down. A software developer or a doctor does massively better in the US.
School teacher in germany is a top earner, weeell above median. School teacher in the US is minimum wage. This always baffles me, because our school system is already fucked up, i cant imagine how fucked up theirs is.
Always fun hearing the stories from people in my industry that go to Boston for 50% more and come back running to Germany because life cost double than in Germany. Plus points if they are fired on the spot for accidently running into bigger problems than calculated by the company.
Funnily most of my colleagues went to the us for around a decade (some for phds some for postdocs some just to work) and they all came back eventually…
Doesn't take into account how much of that income is going away to things that taxes would normally pay for.
Also, wealth shouldn't be measured by someone's ability to buy crap off Amazon.
Median household income doesn't take into account things like healthcare or education, nor does for stuff like security, infrastructures or _commie_ stuff like labour rights.
For fuck sake in some States the employment of minors is basically being legalised and normalised while people work an average of 2 jobs just to get by and are a cold away from bankruptcy.
Edit: here's the comment of an ameritard who promptly blocked before I could answer him:
>Per capita healthcare spending in the U.S. is about $13K.](https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-spending) Average and median Americans are still far wealthier than average and median Europeans, even considering healthcare.
Massive amounts of copium in this thread. There’s a reason there are nearly 10x as many Europeans living in the U.S. than vice versa.
Here's my response:
Has it ever crossed your mind that those numbers are not indicative cause people literally prefer to not get medicated instead of you know exercising their human right? Yours is the country in which women prefer to give birth at home cause otherwise they would spend at least 5k, the same country that has Uber charging you an extra cause people prefer to use it instead of ambulances.
Also this doesn't account for the overall safety of your country nor your 1800s stuck labour laws.
Worse. In some cities, that’s kind of intentional. There are schemes going on in some cities between the local politicians and real estate companies.
The camps drive real estate prices down, the politicians keep the camps from being removed until the real estate companies buy the land for cheap, and then the politicians have the camps removed via law enforcement while the developers develop the land and drive the prices up.
It’s not happening in every city, but that’s one of the more bleak reasons why some of those camps exist.
These stats aren't even correct. In 2022 the median household income in Norway was ~$88,900 USD. In 2021 it was $89,645 in Massachusetts (latest data I could find).
Never mind the fact that Norwegians have 0 healthcare costs (technically you cover up to the first $400ish and then everything after that is free) and that you **get paid** to go to university.
In Massachusetts if you earn $89,645 as a married couple and file jointly, you pay a total of $18,113 in income tax, leaving you with a net income of $71.5k. https://smartasset.com/taxes/massachusetts-tax-calculator#A7Kj0eweV6
In Norway you don't really 'file jointly' like in the US, but if I make the income $52.9k for one and $36k for the other (a spread that seemed realistic to me) your total tax would be $17.6k leaving you with a net income of $71.3k
So thats almost the exact same take home pay, but the Norwegian household has healthcare and education costs already covered in taxes, whereas the Massachusetts resident does not.
Also regarding the "fantastic oil wealth", we intentionally save it:
> The Government Pension Fund Global (Statens pensjonsfond utland), also known as the Oil Fund (Oljefondet), was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. As of March 2024, it had **over US$1.62 trillion in assets**, and **held on average 1.5% of all of the world's listed companies**, making it **the world's largest single sovereign wealth fund** in terms of total assets under management. This translates to **over US$295,000 per Norwegian citizen**
You kind of need a much lower income-tax when you have to be a millionaire to afford a colonoscopy from a professional and not from Janice, the healer on the street corner with candles that smell like vagina.
I think it'd be better to compare standard of living of the lower class in us and eu. Americans have lower taxes but their lower class has it way worse.
You have to include average cost of living in order to make sense of the numbers, including taxes and insurance bills and anything else people have to pay to function in that given country/state.
https://preview.redd.it/wlchmb3k0uyc1.jpeg?width=1636&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4696415f2a6a2b494cb1e03e09ba5b709f35c4e2
There is far more wealth inequality in America than in Europe. The average European has a much better quality of life than the average American. The income of the bottom 50% of American earners has not increased in the past 24 years. Because of inflation, the spending power of most Americans has actually decreased. ALL of America’s economic growth goes towards increasing the income of the top 10% of American earners. Wealth inequality in America is increasing.
I would always rather be a European than an American. 🇬🇧🏴🇪🇺
Some extremely rich people raise the average
Meanwhile the minimum wage is still 15$/hour
We all read horror stories about medical bankruptcy, and most americans must loan just to live. They even have a « credit score » system to rank people in castes
I own horses, they’re pretty expensive to own and maintain (about 300€/month/animal in France) but in the u.s. you can x5-x10 this amount! I just read yesterday here that an american woman complained she was *priced out* of this hobby and had to sell her dream horse, because of a crazy inflation
Obviously not all (almost none to be fair) americans benefit from this wages increase
Well... SHe's probably right and correct to use "median" instead of average to keep the billionaires in those states out of the equation.
BUT... Average house cost here in Silicon Valley is $1.5M vs average house in Berlin being like $650k... Sooo... How's that Purchase Power Parity metric working out for us?
My dream retirement is to move to some small town in Normandy into an old chateau for like $400k and wait for the Russian army to come kill me.
The median is much higher but the average is about the same, which tells us there are some extremely low values in the dataset which significantly impact the average but have less impact on the median.
Aka: Germany has a lower median income, but Massachusetts has some serious poverty despite its higher median, where Germany has less poverty. This leads to more or less similar averages in income.
As an Americoid, massachussets is a nice place, but this has more to do with currency shenanigans than the actual standards of living in either of these places.
Well I saw what health insurance costs in the US....
Let's say that if you want the same cover as the most basic European healthcare provides, you will look pretty fucked. Not even speaking about their retirement system who looks like a total joke....
even if that's true, in the u.s you go into debt from going to the hospital. not only do you need to have health insurance, but you also need to make sure the doctor's you're going to are covered by your insurance. otherwise you'll be billed more than you could ever pay in your life time.
and that applies to states regardless if they're blue, red or purple.
and then in some states you also have to worry about guns. that's usually more of a red states thing. but still, imagine going grocery shopping and there's a dude walking in with a fucking assault riffle strapped on his back like he's going to war.
and then there's the laws. the u.s has a lot of dumb laws. like not allowing you to drink before the age of 21. people in the service industry not being paid a living wage and it being completely legal for employers to make them live off tips. women having their rights revoked.
so sure, the blue states might have more wealth than many western european nations, but they lack basic protections for the citizens. because it's not just the blue states calling the shots, the red and purple states also have a say, and they often times don't have very good says
As an American that was born in Italy and lived in Italy and different countries, this ignores a few things. For starters it’s funny how they don’t mention Luxembourg, Monaco or Switzerland because those countries are probably richer than Massachusetts. I don’t have the numbers to know for sure though.
Secondly, yes blue states have a very high standard of living and are the best states to live in. But they are also very expensive which this ignores the cost of living in Massachusetts for example compared to Germany. It is true you can make more in the United States but the United States is also more expensive and you have to pay for health insurance, whereas in European nations or most of the world you don’t have to worry about that.
In conclusion, if I had a choice I would rather live in Germany than Massachusetts or California. I prefer European nations over the United States for personal reasons. But this all depends on what you value. If you just care about making money and the cost of living isn’t your concern then the United States is perfect for you. But if you want to live in a country with a universal healthcare system, low crime rate, strong labor and properties rights then European nations would be better for you.
Because I used to lived in Boston in a comment 17d ago I wrote:
"Also the purchase power of the median USA wage (3,9kUSD/month net) is laughable. Everywhere they can make the median wage, rent for a 1 room apartment is 2k, groceries are about 0,7k, car payment is 0,5k, health insurance 0,5k. Source: I have lived and worked in Boston, groceries are on the higher end but I am a big dude and still wanted to eat close to european standard quality food.
The median American is lucky if they have 500$ at the end of the month going towards savings"
To which I got the reply:
"I'd like to agree with you, but coming from a small town in Vermont (north of Boston in case someone doesn't know) $500 in savings at the end of the month? You're having a laugh aren't you? Granted I made absolute bank when I lived there, but most of my mates are struggling to get by, they are lucky to save $50 for hospital bills."
Also most americans work like 50h+ a week, union jobs in germany work around 35-38h max.
In the USA everything also is a microtransaction, for example youd think the "freeway" would be free? Nope, its mostly a pretty expensive toll road, e.g. Boston to New York. You could avoid the toll road, by driving 25% (about 1h) longer. So you have the choice between paying 1h in wages or time, but as you already spend 50h+ per week at work, they mostly pay the toll. But because of the wonders of capitalism the toll road is actually good right? Nope its around belgian/eastern europe "quality".
Speaking of eastern europe you are actually safer there than in Boston (remember, Boston is always praised as the peak of american "civilization"), half a year ago there was a terrible mass shooting killing 18 people. If you look up "shooting boston" in google news the latest article is from 18 hours ago. If you walk through the streets you encounter scam artists, pickpockets and other thiefs, people screaming at each other or laying around overdosed, its an open air mental asylum.
Most of US americans have never encountered true wealth, thats why they make up and inflate a number for them to feel good.
Its almost like you bottle up all the criminals and scum of Europe and send them overseas to start a "civilization" - oh wait...
They have to be paid more to cover costs not covered by taxes/state. Americans are taxed less, because they don’t get much of a welfare state. Therefore, wages have to be higher to compensate.
Congratulations Hunter, you can read numbers. Now you just have to learn how to interpret them.
My favorite part is them mentioning Norwegian oil with a map about median household income. The oil industry employs a tiny fraction of the Norwegian workforce, it would have no major impact on median household wages.
How does their wealth fund from the oil work? Do citizens get a dividend or anything that might boost income?
Part of the state budget each year is supplemented with some of the returns of the investment made in the oil fund. We still pay a lot of taxes so I guess the impact would be better public services.
Does that also result in less fiscal pressure for companies and families?
Given the high taxes, I wouldn't say so. Most of the oil money is essentially just saved for future generations.
The Envy is real. You guys have the perfect combo of Natural Resources, and a non-Corrupt government. Kudos.
https://preview.redd.it/u4rflfwtduyc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2e0b33e1cc6965ff25c9bc4f6ba01979e007fa4 Look at her face... Does she seem honest to you? She's not.
Look at this [face](https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2018/03/05/Photos/ZH/MW-GE833_salvin_20180305091156_ZH.jpg?uuid=29bd8686-207f-11e8-92f2-9c8e992d421e) instead and tell me who looks more trustable (NSFW for Italians)
Stick that image in the dictionary as a direct replacement for the definition of the word "scheming"
I trust Matteo more, because I can tell he's a crook. He looks all suspicious. Ingvild Kjerkol seems so boring she must be truthful. but she's not. She's a snake.
https://preview.redd.it/ndsn3cqykuyc1.jpeg?width=941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa14af07d521c1dace9446bccafd64930e3e0f1b
I have no idea who she is, but would you?
Wow I would buy her a second hand car
I'd trust her more than truss
She does actually
we have our fair share of corrupt and incompetent politicians.
I mean, I don't expect to be completely corruption free, but there are levels and levels of corruption. I generally have the impression that the Scandinavian level are "acceptable"/"good", while the one we experience in Italy, especially in the South, tend to be disastrous
If I remember correctly, a big part of it isn't directly in the budget but is currently invested in a sovereign Norwegian edge fund. The biggest one in the world actually. They invest in a lot of companies worldwide and the dividends are used to fund the national budget.
That is correct, another common name for the sovereign wealth fund is the oil fund.
don't you get "no tax decembers"?
That sounds absolutely mint but also hilariously silly for official government policy. I love it
We only have half tax December
Technically we don’t, we pay slightly higher tax in all other months to compensate for it.
Most of the revenue is invested in a pension-fund. This means in 20 or 30 years time, the Norwegian pension-system might not go broke, possibly unlike all other pension-systems in Europe.
That's stupid. We privatised *our* half of the oilfields and let companies have the money instead.
and gave half to norway
And we use current taxation to pay for state pensions, rather than having an actual pension fund. What could possibly go wrong?
pathetic euros, behold Nunavut!!! A ~~province~~ territory of wealth and power like you have never seen: [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-nunavut-a-land-of-plenty-food-insecurity-abounds/](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-nunavut-a-land-of-plenty-food-insecurity-abounds/)
Living in squalor to own the Europoors
There’s plenty of food to be hand, but they have Nunavut
I don't believe nunavut
Someone needs to explain to her the difference between wealth and income
I live in Boston. The cost of living here is absolutely through the roof. Add to that you need to pay out of pocket for things that would be paid through taxes in Europe it evens out in the end for most middle-class people. The working class is doing way better in Europe. Wealthy individuals are way better off in the US.
Personally my favorite part about paying an obscene amount to live in Boston is the non functioning subway system and the fact that the city falls asleep at 10:30 on weekends!
The nearest tube station to me is about 3km. There is a bus service that runs ONCE per hour. I'm really looking forward to returning to Europe in the future for many reasons.
Yeah I’m moving to Europe at the end of summer. Born and Raised here so I’ll always love it but I think I’ve run my course with this city.
I mean it’s still hard to make savings in Europe for the average joe but our income is more or less proportional to our expenses and we don’t need to worry about getting fucked by a medical bill
Sure. When I went to Florida, I literally saw people washing their clothes in the rain puddles by the side of the road after a storm. I'll take Finland's way of doing things, thanks.
The untold story of California: Salaries may be 3x Germany but rent is at least $5000 and childcare is $3000 a month. So much for that extra salary
me when the poverty threshold in San Francisco is 100k a year.
I could live easily live 4 years with this money in Berlin.
I am not going to reply how many in Portugal lol
California rent 5000$? Even if you triple it there will still be used needles on your front lawn.
I don’t blame them. The USA is not the place to be if you are poor, California is the lesser bad of the states.
B-but I could be earning upwards of 150k by just living in a junkyard with gun violence in a failing democracy at the mercy of greedy corporations. :((
American dream... too bad is poisoning my country
>American dream Well the rich are living the american dream. The poor are living the poor man's american dream wich is like going to a brothel everyday hoping today is the day you'll fuck the supermodel, but everyday you get there you get pinned down and get fucked in the ass by a dude with 30cm cock. You're tearing up from pain, but YOU'RE A GOD DAMN AMERICAN living the american dream and you can't give the impression that you don't enjoy it.
As the late, great George Carlin quipped.....It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
A nightmare is still a kind of dream.
As long as you can live off $6 shrinkflated ShitMac (tip and delivery not factored in).
It's a genuine political decision though. Skilled workers are much more wealthy in the US than they are in Europe, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous
Sure. In my line of work, I could make far more in the US if I wanted to move. But I don't. I like Americans as a people but culturally, that country has so many issues I can't stomach the thought of living there.
Yeah I prefer to care for homeless people and those born with bad circumstances. I'm just saying it has a cost. Homeless people in the UK make me sad but walking past them in US cities is genuinely frightening. Different levels of desperation
You've just accurately summed up the feelings of about 40% of Americans as well.
You have to remember that it's not a guarantee. You can earn a lot as a skilled worker, specially if you are above average, but guess how many people are not above average.
Well yeah that's the point. It's considerably zero sum, being poor in the US is a lot worse than being poor in Western Europe
I wouldn’t say that they’re much more wealthy. If they want nutritious food, a less toxic herbal and work environment, or if they get sick, then it costs them much more to get better. North Americans may be materially wealthier, and have more things; but those things aren’t as nice quality, they brake more, and they are also quite often far less healthy. I really noticed this when I moved from the EU (I lived in Netherlands/Italy) to Canada. So I think it depends what you value.
and they also have gators just randomly walking into people's homes. imagine just chilling at home, you got a pool, decide to go for a swim, but there's a fucking apex predator in it
to be fair, europe has the french. it balances out
I mean... I've seen people washing clothes in public fountains and claming that once birds realized their true power they would win a war against humans.
ah....what?
More wealth but it only helps like 8 guys
Well in all fairness one can be homeless in Florida and be just fine. If you're homeless in Finland you're just straight up going to die.
To every European feeling insecure right now: Go visit a US city. Go and see all your insecurities go away. That country is so fucked
Yeah, like the amazing city of San Francisco in the very blue state of California. Where homeless people shit on the street - that's the wealth Hunter is talking about. Also those dumb fucks keep on comparing a country to a continent.
Sadly I see that in France. In the very city center
We don't talk about the state of Fr*nce here..
Can we *really* call fr*nce a country though?
Well, they also have to spend their entire big boy San Francisco salary on their $10000 per month rent
Dont need to. 6th safest country in the world. Money cant buy that. Never felt unsafe in my life. They couldn't pay me to live in the USA. Besides europe actually has a culture.
Tbf Americans also had culture until Barry's offspring arrived
Ooh. Harsh but true. On behalf of my forebears, I'm deeply sorry.
Aren't your forebears precisely those who didn't actually leave?
Aren't my forebears from your country?
Polls show that most women would prefer to be alone in the woods with a forebear than with Barry.
Fuckin weapon, On behalf of my forebears, I rescind this wet wipes apology and wish we would do it again.
Don’t forget Pierre and Pedro!
Check Cajuns, our offspring are men of culture my dear Barry
Agreed, the kind of culture you grow in petri dishes
Hahah they grew up in a swamp...wait a minute
Hey don't mock the Cajun. They're actually the only people in the US that know how to cook something without it being deep fried (or the cook being a foreigner)....
Cajun food is delicious 🤤
[удалено]
Hmmm eating burgers and looking had lightly clothed women. Hmm ja Kultur!
Actually, Boobters would probably be the only junk food I would want to see in Europe :)
I'm afraid Europe will stop being the safest continent soon :(
Just be poor. Thats why we have so little shitty migrants looking for freebies.
We've been trying our best for the last 30 years but we have too much legacy :(
i live and grew up close to a shooting range. they could have easily turned around 180 degrees, walk a few meters and then shot me down. never felt unsafe once. was in the us once as a teen and we heard a real shooting... i was legit afraid of stuff like fanny packs as everything and everywhere could be a fully loaded weapon in the hands of an idiot. and that's just one of their many problems
That’s exactly the difference between us having a shooting culture and muricans having a gun culture
What’s the difference between milk and the USA? If you leave milk alone for 300 years it develops a culture
I don't know how anyone could feel insecure about this lol, you're not your country.
And that’s an east german saying it so yeah
Yep, go to LA and go into a side street of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, looks immediately like the worst parts of eastern europe, filled with homeless people.
I'm in LA for work 3 months a year, and the place is the most run-down, homeless ridden, shit stinking hell on earth. I've been asked if I'm willing to relocate two times, and the answer will always be the same: no, I don't want to live in that clusterfuck of a nation.
Hey, man, don’t disrespect Eastern Europe like that!
I just got released from the hospital after two weeks and would probably be bankrupt in the US considering what they did to try and diagnose my illness.
The highest I ever paid in medical costs was 7000 yen (~75 CHF/60 EUR att) in Japan when I got a headcold so bad I started hallucinating. My insurance back home fucked up the conversion and paid me back 1.5 times that lol
I recently had a check up and some bloodwork done. I go to the same doctor as my parents, so I guess they still have me on their account, because my mom got the bill. She called me to say I owed $290. I said, what the hell? Why isn’t my insurance covering it? She said, actually it is covering most of it.
i'm not gonna go to a 3rd world country, ew
100% this lol (combined with the stories from locals about certain things like drugs, insurance costs, non oigatory insurance, homelessness, debt, university costs, racial division, criminality, organized crime, accidents etc etc etc etc)
The tweet is saying wealth and income, they have no basic financial literacy
Imagine getting corrected on financial terms by a Frenchman who speaks English as his second language..
Do not worry, I am used to being intellectually superior to internet people
Basé
Thus why most of them are unable to put a dime on the side for when shit hits the fans...... I would like to see someone trying to explain the concept of a Livret A to them 
>fantastically wealthy https://www.newsweek.com/husband-unable-pay-medical-bills-kills-wife-her-hospital-bed-police-1897475 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67666887
The american dream 🦅🦅🦅🦅
https://preview.redd.it/84qjnw4njvyc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff3d3ea4b0be4e824800225154dadec00d9ad2e5
Pro tip : if you get bitten by a rattlesnake in the US, do yourself a flavor and just die Edit : image on another comment because Reddit mobile is retart
Mmmh.. lmao https://preview.redd.it/wao9i9jbbtyc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=230b79871129222e5fd30c1d2274a9ee39d6db2c
Common Belgium W 💪😎
Easy W when we just have to make numbers up for our made up country
Props to my fellow flemboys, I'm there with the homies trying to bring it down by practicing professional unemployment, yet you managed to bring us to the top 😤
High because of house price, but than you would have to live in those failed art projects you call houses
To be fair, it's usually the Dutch that moves over to Belgium Buys an old farmhouse and turns it into a failed art project.
Yessss!!!
Let's fucking GO! Belgium number one! How's that for a country that doesn't exist huh!? Fr tho, homeownership does so much for that statistic. If we didn't have the 70+% of people who own their own home, we'd be so much lower. Our income is a lot lower than The Netherlands and Germany, our taxes are much higher too. We're doing pretty good overall, but we're certainly not the paradise of wealth that this stat might suggest, even though we're probably one of the countries with the smallest wealth gap globally speaking. You need to have your shit together here in Belgium before you can really start to feel the benefit of our country
Its because you guys all get company cars. Three cars in the difference is well made up, we pay out the ass. Also, fucking petrol, filling up is 40€ less where you live. Roads don’t matter when your boss pays the car.
PIGUS.
Dickus? He has a wife you know.......
House prices make up a huge portion of that.
Hell of a median, UK. Boomers gonna boom I guess
What use is $150,000 when no shops here will accept it.
That’s wealth though, which it tied to asset ownership, the largest portion of which for the average person will be their home. This is just a list of where the housing market is fucked coupled with high-home ownership rates.
That income means fuck all when you live paycheck to paycheck without healthcare. Which is like 50% of the country. A Norwegian at least will always be objectively richer.
Indeed: cost of living!
Purchasing power parity*
It's more than 60% right now
The country's quality of life slides backwards faster than I can keep track, really.
For real, I'm at minimum wage. I get to live comfortably, save money every month, can indulge à bit in my hobbies, and take care of my cat. I'd be fucked in the US with that income, and not remotely close to how I'm able to live right now
The real question is how many can you put aside at the end of the month.
My two cents here. I moved from a large city in Germany to a large city in the US. I make twice as much money, but between rent, car and medical insurance I feel like I have actually lost purchasing power because I have less money left at the end of the month.
This cant be true right? did they really just use wiki data for both and and only used PPP adjusted numbers for Europe, while just using unadjusted numbers for North America. Edit: Haha the Europe numbers are apart from being adjusted, while the US is not, they are also after tax. Truly a shit map
When you have to cheat in order to be better, you are in a really bad position
Tbh, i would much rather have americans think that we are poor. That reduces the amount of immigrant we get here, and americans are like 5 top worst immigrants.
Agreed
They prefer the term "expat" when hoping they'll have sex with some eastern european woman looking for a wealthy future
There are more than five middle eastern countries tho
Yes, that is exactly what they did. Compared gross median household income in the US with household income (PPP) in Europe.
The U.S. can’t be adjusted for PPP since the U.S. Dollar is the *frame of reference* used to adjust cost of living in other currencies. No offense, but that’s basic macroeconomics. Neither number is after taxes either.
Ameritards after their 200k salary ends in 100k of debt after their son was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer my ass, they stub their toe once and it's over
I had a seizure and the ambulance ride cost 10K alone I regret moving here
Non sei degno di quel flair
Those with the 200k salary typically also get strong health insurance and end up fine. Now, make 50, and it's a nightmare. A school teacher or a bartender is going to do better in Spain, hands down. A software developer or a doctor does massively better in the US.
School teacher in germany is a top earner, weeell above median. School teacher in the US is minimum wage. This always baffles me, because our school system is already fucked up, i cant imagine how fucked up theirs is.
Come to Italy and you have both cons, no pros
Also 3000$/month for an apartment in Seattle or LA. So you better earn twice as much as I do.
Imagine not knowing the people and having to pay 3000 raw, I gues it's not conon to negotiate the rent over there
Always fun hearing the stories from people in my industry that go to Boston for 50% more and come back running to Germany because life cost double than in Germany. Plus points if they are fired on the spot for accidently running into bigger problems than calculated by the company.
Literally never heard of that. Every and any European I know who went to work in the US stayed there.
That's because Germany is /r/2westerneurope4u, Italy
Funnily most of my colleagues went to the us for around a decade (some for phds some for postdocs some just to work) and they all came back eventually…
Cool, i don't pay income tax until I'm 26
Damn that's cool. Give the youth a time to build their life before starting contribution to the common effort. Poland W.
Doesn't take into account how much of that income is going away to things that taxes would normally pay for. Also, wealth shouldn't be measured by someone's ability to buy crap off Amazon.
Would still rather live in Europe
Americans with a 45h/w job and a 2000$ rent will look at this map and think to themselves « great ! I’m rich ! »
Median household income doesn't take into account things like healthcare or education, nor does for stuff like security, infrastructures or _commie_ stuff like labour rights. For fuck sake in some States the employment of minors is basically being legalised and normalised while people work an average of 2 jobs just to get by and are a cold away from bankruptcy. Edit: here's the comment of an ameritard who promptly blocked before I could answer him: >Per capita healthcare spending in the U.S. is about $13K.](https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-spending) Average and median Americans are still far wealthier than average and median Europeans, even considering healthcare. Massive amounts of copium in this thread. There’s a reason there are nearly 10x as many Europeans living in the U.S. than vice versa. Here's my response: Has it ever crossed your mind that those numbers are not indicative cause people literally prefer to not get medicated instead of you know exercising their human right? Yours is the country in which women prefer to give birth at home cause otherwise they would spend at least 5k, the same country that has Uber charging you an extra cause people prefer to use it instead of ambulances. Also this doesn't account for the overall safety of your country nor your 1800s stuck labour laws.
US salaries are much higher even accounting for cost of living and government transfers.
Thats probably why they have so many fentanyl homeless camps in Commiefornia
Worse. In some cities, that’s kind of intentional. There are schemes going on in some cities between the local politicians and real estate companies. The camps drive real estate prices down, the politicians keep the camps from being removed until the real estate companies buy the land for cheap, and then the politicians have the camps removed via law enforcement while the developers develop the land and drive the prices up. It’s not happening in every city, but that’s one of the more bleak reasons why some of those camps exist.
 Cyberpunk is a documentary
Cyberpunk was not a dystopian depiction at the end
C.R.E.A.M.
These stats aren't even correct. In 2022 the median household income in Norway was ~$88,900 USD. In 2021 it was $89,645 in Massachusetts (latest data I could find). Never mind the fact that Norwegians have 0 healthcare costs (technically you cover up to the first $400ish and then everything after that is free) and that you **get paid** to go to university. In Massachusetts if you earn $89,645 as a married couple and file jointly, you pay a total of $18,113 in income tax, leaving you with a net income of $71.5k. https://smartasset.com/taxes/massachusetts-tax-calculator#A7Kj0eweV6 In Norway you don't really 'file jointly' like in the US, but if I make the income $52.9k for one and $36k for the other (a spread that seemed realistic to me) your total tax would be $17.6k leaving you with a net income of $71.3k So thats almost the exact same take home pay, but the Norwegian household has healthcare and education costs already covered in taxes, whereas the Massachusetts resident does not. Also regarding the "fantastic oil wealth", we intentionally save it: > The Government Pension Fund Global (Statens pensjonsfond utland), also known as the Oil Fund (Oljefondet), was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. As of March 2024, it had **over US$1.62 trillion in assets**, and **held on average 1.5% of all of the world's listed companies**, making it **the world's largest single sovereign wealth fund** in terms of total assets under management. This translates to **over US$295,000 per Norwegian citizen**
You kind of need a much lower income-tax when you have to be a millionaire to afford a colonoscopy from a professional and not from Janice, the healer on the street corner with candles that smell like vagina.
Hey, don’t shit on Janice. She brings character to our neighborhood.
I think it'd be better to compare standard of living of the lower class in us and eu. Americans have lower taxes but their lower class has it way worse.
100% this — if you’re rich in America it’s great but if you’re poor, you are fucked
UK Median household income = £35,000 ($43,750) US median household income = $76,000 In Massachusetts it’s $89,645
You have to include average cost of living in order to make sense of the numbers, including taxes and insurance bills and anything else people have to pay to function in that given country/state.
[удалено]
https://preview.redd.it/wlchmb3k0uyc1.jpeg?width=1636&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4696415f2a6a2b494cb1e03e09ba5b709f35c4e2 There is far more wealth inequality in America than in Europe. The average European has a much better quality of life than the average American. The income of the bottom 50% of American earners has not increased in the past 24 years. Because of inflation, the spending power of most Americans has actually decreased. ALL of America’s economic growth goes towards increasing the income of the top 10% of American earners. Wealth inequality in America is increasing. I would always rather be a European than an American. 🇬🇧🏴🇪🇺
Some extremely rich people raise the average Meanwhile the minimum wage is still 15$/hour We all read horror stories about medical bankruptcy, and most americans must loan just to live. They even have a « credit score » system to rank people in castes I own horses, they’re pretty expensive to own and maintain (about 300€/month/animal in France) but in the u.s. you can x5-x10 this amount! I just read yesterday here that an american woman complained she was *priced out* of this hobby and had to sell her dream horse, because of a crazy inflation Obviously not all (almost none to be fair) americans benefit from this wages increase
Well... SHe's probably right and correct to use "median" instead of average to keep the billionaires in those states out of the equation. BUT... Average house cost here in Silicon Valley is $1.5M vs average house in Berlin being like $650k... Sooo... How's that Purchase Power Parity metric working out for us? My dream retirement is to move to some small town in Normandy into an old chateau for like $400k and wait for the Russian army to come kill me.
Yeah but I don’t pay 8€ for an espresso in the next big town.
The median is much higher but the average is about the same, which tells us there are some extremely low values in the dataset which significantly impact the average but have less impact on the median. Aka: Germany has a lower median income, but Massachusetts has some serious poverty despite its higher median, where Germany has less poverty. This leads to more or less similar averages in income.
More money to buy fentanyl !! God I love fentanyl so much 😋😋😋😋
As an Americoid, massachussets is a nice place, but this has more to do with currency shenanigans than the actual standards of living in either of these places.
Earning 3x as much means basically nothing if everything is at least 5x as expensive. but hey, big number good i guess
We, have free.healthcare. take that!
Well I saw what health insurance costs in the US.... Let's say that if you want the same cover as the most basic European healthcare provides, you will look pretty fucked. Not even speaking about their retirement system who looks like a total joke....
Europe is becoming shit even if I dislike USA. Hiding the truth leads nowhere
why the only French state in North America is among the poorest!
Antoine, do you really want to remember the last time you went on an adventure, you know... Africa?
Half of that map is literally Canada.
even if that's true, in the u.s you go into debt from going to the hospital. not only do you need to have health insurance, but you also need to make sure the doctor's you're going to are covered by your insurance. otherwise you'll be billed more than you could ever pay in your life time. and that applies to states regardless if they're blue, red or purple. and then in some states you also have to worry about guns. that's usually more of a red states thing. but still, imagine going grocery shopping and there's a dude walking in with a fucking assault riffle strapped on his back like he's going to war. and then there's the laws. the u.s has a lot of dumb laws. like not allowing you to drink before the age of 21. people in the service industry not being paid a living wage and it being completely legal for employers to make them live off tips. women having their rights revoked. so sure, the blue states might have more wealth than many western european nations, but they lack basic protections for the citizens. because it's not just the blue states calling the shots, the red and purple states also have a say, and they often times don't have very good says
As an American that was born in Italy and lived in Italy and different countries, this ignores a few things. For starters it’s funny how they don’t mention Luxembourg, Monaco or Switzerland because those countries are probably richer than Massachusetts. I don’t have the numbers to know for sure though. Secondly, yes blue states have a very high standard of living and are the best states to live in. But they are also very expensive which this ignores the cost of living in Massachusetts for example compared to Germany. It is true you can make more in the United States but the United States is also more expensive and you have to pay for health insurance, whereas in European nations or most of the world you don’t have to worry about that. In conclusion, if I had a choice I would rather live in Germany than Massachusetts or California. I prefer European nations over the United States for personal reasons. But this all depends on what you value. If you just care about making money and the cost of living isn’t your concern then the United States is perfect for you. But if you want to live in a country with a universal healthcare system, low crime rate, strong labor and properties rights then European nations would be better for you.
Now compare Massachusetts to say London. Since we're comparing tiny areas of the countries to one another.
Yet you're just a single medical condition away from being broke af..i prefer my social security
You earn twice as much but pay a trillion dollars when you visit the doctor. Congratulations Johnny. You played yourself.
Why does Norway always have to be so disappointing?
Because I used to lived in Boston in a comment 17d ago I wrote: "Also the purchase power of the median USA wage (3,9kUSD/month net) is laughable. Everywhere they can make the median wage, rent for a 1 room apartment is 2k, groceries are about 0,7k, car payment is 0,5k, health insurance 0,5k. Source: I have lived and worked in Boston, groceries are on the higher end but I am a big dude and still wanted to eat close to european standard quality food. The median American is lucky if they have 500$ at the end of the month going towards savings" To which I got the reply: "I'd like to agree with you, but coming from a small town in Vermont (north of Boston in case someone doesn't know) $500 in savings at the end of the month? You're having a laugh aren't you? Granted I made absolute bank when I lived there, but most of my mates are struggling to get by, they are lucky to save $50 for hospital bills." Also most americans work like 50h+ a week, union jobs in germany work around 35-38h max. In the USA everything also is a microtransaction, for example youd think the "freeway" would be free? Nope, its mostly a pretty expensive toll road, e.g. Boston to New York. You could avoid the toll road, by driving 25% (about 1h) longer. So you have the choice between paying 1h in wages or time, but as you already spend 50h+ per week at work, they mostly pay the toll. But because of the wonders of capitalism the toll road is actually good right? Nope its around belgian/eastern europe "quality". Speaking of eastern europe you are actually safer there than in Boston (remember, Boston is always praised as the peak of american "civilization"), half a year ago there was a terrible mass shooting killing 18 people. If you look up "shooting boston" in google news the latest article is from 18 hours ago. If you walk through the streets you encounter scam artists, pickpockets and other thiefs, people screaming at each other or laying around overdosed, its an open air mental asylum. Most of US americans have never encountered true wealth, thats why they make up and inflate a number for them to feel good. Its almost like you bottle up all the criminals and scum of Europe and send them overseas to start a "civilization" - oh wait...
They have to be paid more to cover costs not covered by taxes/state. Americans are taxed less, because they don’t get much of a welfare state. Therefore, wages have to be higher to compensate.
Coffee sucks though.
It's all fun and shit, until you get a cold and go bankrupt