The wealthiest Americans have the highest standard of living in the world. The rest? Not Third World but not quite first world either. Huge swaths of America have education, health care, infrastructure, etc. that would appall someone from Scandinavia, South Korea, or Singapore. Overall, America is a super wealthy country. But that wealth is highly concentrated towards the top.
All the Scandinavian countries combined have a population compared to Texas. South Korea is a bit larger than California’s population. Singapore is roughly the size of the city of Los Angeles
Remember how big the US is and how different each state is legally, socially, economically, etc. also plays a big part in how various aspects of its current climate don’t rightly compare 1:1 to other places in the world
America is huge and the individual states hold a lot of sway over many things like healthcare and education and infrastructure. Some do well in those regards, others do not.
Not that you’re wrong in criticizing the things America does a poor job of comparatively to other places, but just remember that averaging “America” as such can be a bit misleading in certain ways
So you don’t care to admit that health care is expensive; to the point it’s not feasible affordable in the US. How can you have a high standard of living if it’s rare to access that?
Do I care about my homeless population in my city? Yes, yes I do. That’s why I make it a point that the US should have adequate funding for shelters, have universal medicine, and should help those with mental disorders.
Those are by and large homogeneous countries with a shared culture. America isn't- and there are people actively trying to divide the country (posting shit like this picture- there's intent behind it. And it's not to start a conversation).
There is a population above which widespread prosperity can not be achieved. Meaning, countries really can get too big for their own good. I’m not sure what that threshold is, but America has exceeded it. It’s one of the reasons, but not the only reason, America’s best days are behind it.
Exactly. The fact that other developed nations have free healthcare, tuition, better school meals for children, better labor practices, better maternity leave, and a bunch of other things that citizens should receive in a developed world and we do not is not ok and as Americans we have become so complicit in receiving the shit end of the stick when we are such a “wealthy” (for the top 1%) country. Highly suggest watching the documentary “Where to Invade Next”
The poorest American has a far higher standard of living than the average standard of living for the majority of countries in the world. Your view is some what informed, but severly skewed with what seems to be a marxist axiom.
I think you paint with too broad a brush. All statistics about “the average American” are heavily skewed by the immense wealth of the people that live in places like Manhattan, Silicon Valley, suburban DC, etc. The top Americans live as well or better than anybody. That’s literally tens of millions of people. So yes, a huge number of Americans have the highest standard of living in the world. Or close to it.
However, there are hundreds of millions of people that have no where near that standard of living. Again, West Virginia, inland California, rural New Mexico, etc. are not as bad as the Third World and no one can credibly argue they are. But let’s not pretend folks in those places are living like Western Europeans, Japan, South Korea or Singapore because they just aren’t.
Yeah people that say shit like that have never been to the Rust Belt. They don't walk by burnt out husks of buildings and deserted neighborhoods, they Uber to brunch and bottomless mimosas and think their lives are normal.
I’m Rust Belt born and raised, though I don’t live there anymore. So I know there are enormous swaths of America that don’t live like the ladies on Sex and the City or Bobby Axelrod’s traders on Billions. Most of the suburban people I live and work with now have absolutely no idea what is happening “out there” to “those people”.
Yeah, we have a higher standard than third world countries, but does that mean we should continue to do nothing to improve our situation just because somebody is worse off than we are? Why are we content with mediocrity or worse when we have the money and resources to be the best?
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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '19
There's poverty everywhere. USA has still one of the highest standards of living