Americans Outearn Europeans, Vol. 366

[jojoju1998]

Here’s my perspective on USA being richer than Europe, I think few Americans understand how much UHC, relative low medicine price, a mostly functioning school system, a social security net, low inequality, high food safety standard, and low crimes rates means, and it’s not really something most Europeans are willing to trade for bigger houses and bigger cars.

Honestly looking at American and European politics and culture today, while both have their dysfunctional moments, do Americans really come across as happier? Because Americans to me come across as a people deeply unhappy about the way USA is going and much more unhappy about their institutions and political system. Only the British really seem to compete with USA, and among them there’s this feeling that soon their long national nightmare will soon end and they can build back Britain better.

Reminder : the US doesn’t have a singular school system. It has 35,000 decentralized autonomous school districts.


Crime rates also vary and depend by state, city, county, even neighborhood.


It’s the same for healthcare. The US doesn’t have a national healthcare system. It has 50 states with varying laws, and rules. We have public and private hospitals. Great insurance and bad. Great doctors and crap doctors.

It's the same thing regarding social safety nets.

We have 50 state social safety nets. And colletively, spending on social welfare averages about 800 billion a year.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

Things like Medicaid, SNAP, are all handled and administered at the state and local levels.

We look at Denmark for instance, and it has a population of 6 million. If we want to compare, the State of New York has almost 20 million.

Dnemark last year spent around 114 billion dollars on Social welfare Services. The State of New York by itself has spent 129 billion dollars or will spend projected in the coming year. https://openbudget.ny.gov/overview/overview-spendFunction.html

And it's spent on welfare, healthcare, education.

[ingemann]

Here’s my perspective on USA being richer than Europe, I think few Americans understand how much UHC, relative low medicine price, a mostly functioning school system, a social security net, low inequality, high food safety standard, and low crimes rates means, and it’s not really something most Europeans are willing to trade for bigger houses and bigger cars.

Honestly looking at American and European politics and culture today, while both have their dysfunctional moments, do Americans really come across as happier? Because Americans to me come across as a people deeply unhappy about the way USA is going and much more unhappy about their institutions and political system. Only the British really seem to compete with USA, and among them there’s this feeling that soon their long national nightmare will soon end and they can build back Britain better.

Reminder : the US doesn’t have a singular school system. It has 35,000 decentralized autonomous school districts.


Crime rates also vary and depend by state, city, county, even neighborhood.


It’s the same for healthcare. The US doesn’t have a national healthcare system. It has 50 states with varying laws, and rules. We have public and private hospitals. Great insurance and bad. Great doctors and crap doctors.

It's the same thing regarding social safety nets.

We have 50 state social safety nets. And colletively, spending on social welfare averages about 800 billion a year.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

Things like Medicaid, SNAP, are all handled and administered at the state and local levels.

We look at Denmark for instance, and it has a population of 6 million. If we want to compare, the State of New York has almost 20 million.

Dnemark last year spent around 114 billion dollars on Social welfare Services. The State of New York by itself has spent 129 billion dollars or will spend projected in the coming year. https://openbudget.ny.gov/overview/overview-spendFunction.html

And it's spent on welfare, healthcare, education.

I don’t get your point?

1: That New York outspend Denmark?

or

2: Denmark spend three times more per capita than New York*?

So what’s the point?

*which doesn’t include whatever federal money New Yorkers gets.

[Alcibiades]

If one is going to place this much emphasis on average house size as a quality-of-life measure, it’s perhaps worth noting that Greece is in second place in Europe.

[DaleCooper]

It feels like a very American thing to be talking about home size. If anything, I'd bet that the people that buy way bigger houses than they need have a lower quality of life.

[jojoju1998]

Here’s my perspective on USA being richer than Europe, I think few Americans understand how much UHC, relative low medicine price, a mostly functioning school system, a social security net, low inequality, high food safety standard, and low crimes rates means, and it’s not really something most Europeans are willing to trade for bigger houses and bigger cars.

Honestly looking at American and European politics and culture today, while both have their dysfunctional moments, do Americans really come across as happier? Because Americans to me come across as a people deeply unhappy about the way USA is going and much more unhappy about their institutions and political system. Only the British really seem to compete with USA, and among them there’s this feeling that soon their long national nightmare will soon end and they can build back Britain better.

Reminder : the US doesn’t have a singular school system. It has 35,000 decentralized autonomous school districts.


Crime rates also vary and depend by state, city, county, even neighborhood.


It’s the same for healthcare. The US doesn’t have a national healthcare system. It has 50 states with varying laws, and rules. We have public and private hospitals. Great insurance and bad. Great doctors and crap doctors.

It's the same thing regarding social safety nets.

We have 50 state social safety nets. And colletively, spending on social welfare averages about 800 billion a year.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

Things like Medicaid, SNAP, are all handled and administered at the state and local levels.

We look at Denmark for instance, and it has a population of 6 million. If we want to compare, the State of New York has almost 20 million.

Dnemark last year spent around 114 billion dollars on Social welfare Services. The State of New York by itself has spent 129 billion dollars or will spend projected in the coming year. https://openbudget.ny.gov/overview/overview-spendFunction.html

And it's spent on welfare, healthcare, education.

I don’t get your point?

1: That New York outspend Denmark?

or

2: Denmark spend three times more per capita than New York*?

So what’s the point?

*which doesn’t include whatever federal money New Yorkers gets.

No. That you underestimate how much the US spends on social services from my viewpoint.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wow, America has more space per person than Europe? What a shocking revelation.

[ingemann]

Here’s my perspective on USA being richer than Europe, I think few Americans understand how much UHC, relative low medicine price, a mostly functioning school system, a social security net, low inequality, high food safety standard, and low crimes rates means, and it’s not really something most Europeans are willing to trade for bigger houses and bigger cars.

Honestly looking at American and European politics and culture today, while both have their dysfunctional moments, do Americans really come across as happier? Because Americans to me come across as a people deeply unhappy about the way USA is going and much more unhappy about their institutions and political system. Only the British really seem to compete with USA, and among them there’s this feeling that soon their long national nightmare will soon end and they can build back Britain better.

Reminder : the US doesn’t have a singular school system. It has 35,000 decentralized autonomous school districts.


Crime rates also vary and depend by state, city, county, even neighborhood.


It’s the same for healthcare. The US doesn’t have a national healthcare system. It has 50 states with varying laws, and rules. We have public and private hospitals. Great insurance and bad. Great doctors and crap doctors.

It's the same thing regarding social safety nets.

We have 50 state social safety nets. And colletively, spending on social welfare averages about 800 billion a year.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

Things like Medicaid, SNAP, are all handled and administered at the state and local levels.

We look at Denmark for instance, and it has a population of 6 million. If we want to compare, the State of New York has almost 20 million.

Dnemark last year spent around 114 billion dollars on Social welfare Services. The State of New York by itself has spent 129 billion dollars or will spend projected in the coming year. https://openbudget.ny.gov/overview/overview-spendFunction.html

And it's spent on welfare, healthcare, education.

I don’t get your point?

1: That New York outspend Denmark?

or

2: Denmark spend three times more per capita than New York*?

So what’s the point?

*which doesn’t include whatever federal money New Yorkers gets.

No. That you underestimate how much the US spends on social services from my viewpoint.

Okay so your point is that a state with more than three times as many people as Denmark barely outspend Danish social spending?

[ingemann]

It feels like a very American thing to be talking about home size. If anything, I'd bet that the people that buy way bigger houses than they need have a lower quality of life.

It’s complex, housing size do indicate wealth, but it raise the question how the house is build. My understanding of American houses is limited to looking at Americans building houses on TV and YouTube, but when I see such programs the size do not shock me, what shock me is the lack of insulation and the shoddy materials even in places significant colder than Denmark. A modern house in Denmark more or less have to have half a meter thick insulation (either rick wool, glass wool or cellulose insulation).