Confessions on Sidechat | I learned the median European has more wealth than the median American. This pissed me off because they have a better quality of life, walkable cities, 35 hour work weeks, better benefits, etc. And we say well at least we’re richer. I GUESS NOT.

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Confessions 22h

I learned the median European has more wealth than the median American. This pissed me off because they have a better quality of life, walkable cities, 35 hour work weeks, better benefits, etc. And we say well at least we’re richer. I GUESS NOT.

Anonymous 21h

Anonymous 22h

Yup. The typical (median) adult in most Western European countries has higher net wealth than the typical American adult, while the US has substantially higher average (mean) wealth due to greater concentration at the top. For many Americans the mirage of making it big and getting wealthy clouds their judgment in supporting policies that squarely benefit the 1% at their expense.

Anonymous 17h

Hi OP, many European countries benefit from uneven tariffs. Their healthcare exists by deep discounts and it’ll implode if they paid the market rate. As the US expands tariffs, basically nations around the world will need to balance their budgets when their economies grew because of favorable tariffs to them. Basically nations should exist on balance trade where tariffs only form to match the counter tariff or in time balanced trade will wreck their budget.

Anonymous

#1 22h

It’s because Americans spend their money dude

Anonymous

#2 22h

Mostly on unnecessary shit or keeping up with the joneses and adding more to their credit card bills. It’s stupid.

Anonymous

#1 22h

It’s easy to just blame us but most of the things we spend money on are free or significantly less in Europe. Like our 2 trillion in student debt, college tends to be free. Transportation- We depend on cars which are extremely expensive to maintain and operate (gas, insurance, car payment). While Europe has great transportation funded by taxes. Healthcare, we spend significantly more for the same thing through a broken system. Most European countries have universal healthcare.

Anonymous

OP 20h

No, that stuff ISNT free in Europe. They have to pay the majority of their incomes in taxes. As gas? That’s cheaper here. Cars? Also cheaper if you buy a small one like they do in Europe

Anonymous

#3 19h

Bruh how?

Anonymous

#2 19h

Ok but on an individual basis through taxes those services are distributed evenly to the population. And as Americans we can’t get those things without paying more than any European ever would. Cars a REQUIREMENT here except for maybe 3-4 cities that are actually walkable. Unlike in Europe

Anonymous

OP 19h

And to refute your whole argument, the savings rate in general varies across Europe but has little to increase wealth. Germany has the highest savings rate but has the lowest median wealth.

Anonymous

#4 17h

So what is left for Europe once balance trade adjusts their economy and budgets? Germany itself relies on uneven tariffs a lot too. Post World war was basically nations getting uneven tariffs and now the pendulum is swinging back to late 1800s economics where tariffs will match counter tariffs which means no advantage. Such a time relied on production and invention because they didn’t get a tariff advantage.

Anonymous

#4 16h

Are you talking about the United State’s globalization free trade policy word wide? I still don’t get how that would cause healthcare in Europe to be so cheap compared to over here. Are we subsidizing them to a degree with our HIGH prices? And you think this effect will mean revert at some point?

Anonymous

OP 16h

The drugs and exports to Europe are told to charge a lot less to get access to their market. They use high tariffs as their bargaining to keep those deals. Balance trade is changing all that because now they pay more across the board and in time medical exports will have to be priced at market value.

Anonymous

OP 16h

What that means is that their healthcare shouldn’t exist the way it is. Once paying market prices, their budgets will implode. Their other industries can be said the same too. This is all because they rely on a large tariff advantage for decades. The US got into debt to sustain it because that is the only way to allow their tariffs when we didn’t tariff them.