Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Germany is poorer than Appalachia. It also has higher unemployment than Appalachia. The only Appalachian state with similar income is West Virginia. Even Kentucky is richer.
It's definitely more egalitarian, but not by much anymore. Income inequality in Germany has been growing much faster than in the U.S. Income inequality is outrageous largely planet-wide, and Europe is a long way from the egalitarian postwar decades. Since the 1990's and Chancellor Schröder, inequality has skyrocketed.
And inequality is not important if medians are high. Who cares if there are a bunch of billionaires if the median family is making high incomes? Who cares if there are no billionaires if the median family is poor? Median incomes in the U.S. are well over 50% higher than in Germany.
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It's ridiculous to consider GDP per capita (or median income) without PPP for the purpose of comparing standard of living. Sure, the US still comes out well but not by such a large margin (depending on who you ask, about equivalent to the Netherlands, which is one of the wealthiest EU countries but not by such a huge margin).