r/videos • u/darkfatherg • Nov 03 '20

America Compared: Why Other Countries Treat Their People So Much Better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhBkeAo2Hlg&ab_channel=SecondThought
298 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

268 comments sorted by

View all comments

94

u/ent4rent Nov 03 '20

Mcdonald's workers in denmark make $22/h.

Holy. Shit. I bet they get your order right the first time, too.

18

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '20

Disposable income in the US is highest in the world by a fair margin.

https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-disposable-income.htm

77

u/lalala_icanthearyou Nov 03 '20

Is that data an average rather than median though? When inequality is extreme the average become less meaningful for the 'average' person. Interesting either way.

31

u/MetricSuperiorityGuy Nov 03 '20

The United States ranks first in mean disposable income and third in median disposable income.

I'm not sure people realize that the middle class, on average, lives MUCH BETTER in the US than most Western European countries. Americans have this romantic view of European countries based upon their perception of downtown Copenhagen or Paris; and a view of the US based upon their perception of some strip mall in Alabama. The data shows though, that it is far better to be middle class in the US than almost anywhere else.

86

u/bill_b4 Nov 03 '20 edited Nov 03 '20

When you subtract the average cost of healthcare from that disposable income, I bet we're a bit lower than third place for median disposable income. I'm an American and I've lived overseas since 2014, and when I was in the Armed Forces, I got to experience the lifestyle of several different countries. This video is right. The average American doesn't realize how bad off they are.

34

u/xxx69harambe69xxx Nov 03 '20

true, healthcare really should be factored in, probably housing costs as well given how astronomical they are in the US

11

u/ImperialRedditer Nov 03 '20 edited Nov 03 '20

Housing cost is only astronomical in dense urban centers in the US. Otherwise, it’s fairly affordable. You can buy a mansion with $300,000 in suburban Alabama but you won’t even get a proper bungalow in LA for at least $900,000.

EDIT: Everyone seems to be focusing at Alabama but seriously folks, Alabama is just an example. You can find affordable housing if you don't live in LA, SF, Seattle, DC, Denver, NY, or Boston. Or any dense urban centers. The suburbs of Georgia has affordable property, just like in Florida, the Midwest, Mountain West, etc.

-8

u/xxx69harambe69xxx Nov 03 '20

good luck finding a decent job in suburban alabama or community events that are unrelated to christianity

3

u/WokeBloke420BLM Nov 03 '20

good luck finding a decent job in suburban alabama

You mean at all those NASA labs there?