When it Comes to Household Income, Sweden and Germany Rank with Kentucky

Shocking to say the least. These figures dispel a lot of leftist myths!

Were Norway a US state, it would rank between Delaware and California, which are among the US’s more urbanized and wealthy states. Sweden and Germany, on the other hand, place closely to Kentucky, which is sixth from the bottom for US states in terms of median income.

Article:

It has nearly reached the point of dogma with many leftists that European countries enjoy higher standards of living thanks to more government regulation and more social benefits. What the data really suggests, however, is that even after social benefits are incorporated into the income data, the median American still has a higher income than most European countries.

Since I published that analysis last October, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based in Paris has updated the numbers. Here is the ranking straight fom the latest “Society at a Glance” report from the OECD:

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The comparisons were based on a measure of income known as “annual median equivalized disposable household income.” The measure attempts to take into account the realities of taxes and social benefits, and thus provide a more practical estimate for differences in household income among countries. The data is also adjusted for purchasing power parity, which means it’s taking differences in purchasing power in different countries into account. Moreover, median income is more helpful when there may be large income inequalities at work. Use of a median measure instead of an average reduces the effect of a small number of extremely rich people skewing up the numbers.

In the updated measure, we can see that the United States is in fourth place behind Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland. The US comes in at $29,100, while Luxembourg’s median income level is at 36,400.

The US’s median income is 79% the size of Luxembourg’s while Sweden’s median income (to name one often-touted example) is 83% the size of the US’s.

These comparisons are only at the national level, of course, and one of the largest problems with comparing the US to other countries, is that the US is much larger than every European country. This is true even of Russia, which has less than half as many people as the US.

Many countries — especially the smaller ones, including all the Scandinavian countries — are composed of only a handful of metropolitan areas, often with fewer than ten million people. The US, by contrast is very large, and very diverse in terms of geography and demographics. The US has more than 320 million people. Consequently, any statistic for the “United States” ends up burying within it the often-sizable differences from state to state and from metro area to metro area.

To incorporate individual sttes into the analyis, I have looked at how the Census Bureau’s median income for each state stacks up against the US median income overall. I’ve then adjusted the OECD measure to be proportional to that.1

While it is a rather crude means of adjusting the data, can see that the result is plausible. A wide variety of other measures of state-level wealth routinely put Massachusetts — for example — above national levels, while measures of Arkansas put it below national levels.

The next step, then, is to compare these values to the OECD’s values for each country. Obviously, any country with a disposable income measure above that of the US overall will find itself with an income level above most US states. At the same time, a country with a disposable income measure below that of the US overall is likely to find itself ranked below many US states.

When we graph them all together we find:

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https://mises.org/wire/when-it-comes-household-income-sweden-and-germany-rank-kentucky

eeeerrr leta updated list, wachana na hii ya 2016 with a 2010 PPP

Health care is free in Germany.
In America the unemployed are paid with food stamps, in Germany the unemployed are paid 400€ a month and their rent catered for.

let that sink in

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Health care isn’t free in germany. It’s not “free” anywhere in the world. See, in the recent presidential democratic debates, our socialists have extolled the virtues of countries like the one you live in. What they omit is telling the American people what it’s going to cost in the form of increased TAXES. They are also not telling us WHO will benefit from “Medicare for all.”

Basically what the left has been saying is a lie.
Many European countries like Sweden have gained a reputation as being very wealthy in spite of their highly regulated and taxed economies.

So we assumed that the rest of Europe is more or less similar, even if slightly poorer. But if we look more closely at the data, a very different picture emerges, and we find that the median household in the US is better off (income-wise) than the median household in all but three European countries.

The German healthcare system dates to the 1880s, making it the oldest in Europe, while today its doctors, specialists and facilities make it of one the very best healthcare systems in the world. Today it operates under a dual public-private system.

The healthcare system in Germany is funded by statutory contributions ensuring free healthcare for all.

Basic healthcare and all level of education is free in Sweden and most Scandinavia.

Moreover there’s better public utilities such as public transport in Europe than North America.

If you are a healthy highly capable person with no kids and family, the USA is better.

However, if one has average “abilities”, has a family of say 5, one will enjoy a better living standard that comes with longer holidays and better work life balance in a western Europe country.

The US is unforgiving. One minor incident and one find themselves in streets!!

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I wonder which country has the most motivated doctors in the world? I have a relative who works as a doctor in Germany. What she takes home minus taxes is what an American nurse earns…sad.

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How about my niggas in Baltimore and Detroit…

She has no coupons on her fridge though… :wink:

Hehe, in short you earn like a doctor in Germany sasa wewe unajiona dagitari eh?:D:D

what americans have is money. An american can buy your old torn socks for $100 if you convince him that he can put it to use.
forget systems. Americans have money to spend and recently the gap between them and others has become very wide.

No. These comparisons have taken into account taxes, and include social benefits (e.g., “welfare” and state-subsidized health care) as income.

I find it rather fascinating that even after purchasing power has been taken into account, Sweden’s median income ($27,167) is higher than only six states: Arkansas ($26,804), Louisiana ($25,643), Mississippi ($26,517), New Mexico ($26,762), New York ($26,152) and North Carolina ($26,819).

Similar case happening in Germany. Things look even worse for the United Kingdom which has a median income of $21,033, compared to $26,517 in Mississippi !!

Baltimore is in Maryland state whereas Detroit is in Michigan. Look them up! Their median incomes are well above those in Sweden and Germany.

Those lying Democrats! We, Republicans say no to socialism aka poverty. No to equal output for unequal effort.

Everyone for himself, God for us all.

I am an doctor. :D:D

Germany tax rate is at 42%. US tax rate is 22%. Hakuna healthcare free hapo Germany.

And most European countries. Michelle Karume would not have died because of lack of funds if she was out here. Quality and value of life is paramount.

You wish! The APN who finally got the license . According to your posts and braggadocio, you come up as someone who’s desperate for validation. Folks who got that MBChB in less than 6 yrs don’t behave like you do. Wale wa kupitia nursing ndio hutafuta public address kama wewe

Purple you are v wrong about the medical health system across Europe. NHS is one of the best health providers in Europe. As for Germany hata sisemi kitu. Lived there for a time and they are tops.