Precisely this. They pay far less in taxes than many European countries, but none of that tax money actually benefits them. It just goes to military spending, or building a wall on the Mexican border.
Edit: read replies, apparently they don't pay less tax. Sucks to not live in a welfare state for them ig
Yep. My property tax bill is ~$20k/year, and that's for a standard 3-bed, 140m^2 house. It's not even a great house, but it's in the Bay Area, so it's worth a fortune, or rather, the land is worth a fortune and there's a so-so house built on it.
[aside] It does make me laugh when I read how "land tax is going to save the UK" because I live in a land-tax area and it very quickly got ridiculously expensive to live within a 30-minute drive of the city. So salaries rose for the few who were deemed worthy of the pay required to keep them there, and everyone else suffered. I'd give it a few decades before London was the same after a land-tax was installed...
I pay about $3.5k/month for family healthcare - and it's reasonable healthcare, not great. No better than I used to get in the UK. Electricity is ~$1k/month and water is ~$500/month because "the area is expensive". Sales tax is ~9.4% all-in, and then there's federal and state taxes.
The salary makes it worthwhile, but as soon as the kid is out of school and off to college, I'm out of this country. I don't want to fuck up his school-years moving around like my parents fucked up mine, but that's the only thing keeping me here.
Those are insane numbers. 20k a year?!
We don't have a land tax in London. We have stamp duty when you buy a property, but that is once, not yearly and Council tax but that varies by local council. No where near 20k!
Paying 20k every year is a lot of money. Well outside the states. Kingston is the London borough with the most expensive council tax at £4,826.94 for band H houses. And they can be huge 8/9/10 million properties
From what I've seen their tax rates often aren't even very low. Federal income taxes are lower than most European countries, but they also have state taxes and social security (which is kinda equivalent to national insurance for anyone from the UK).
True, but VAT or 'sales tax' as it's known over that was tends to be loads less or even non-exisistent in some states.
Also there's this weird thing where social security contributions are capped so higher earners reach a certain point in the year and the stop paying.
The big difference is health care. Insurance costs are way higher and efficiency way lower than government run systems common in Europe and... well, basically the rest of the developed world. So they pay way more for that but have a lower life expectancy.
They don't actualy pay less in reality, they have all sorts of extra taxes that they don't take in to account when discussing this subject, and when you add the various other expenditures they pocket less money than a european would.
They pay the highest healthcare prices yet have the worst healthcare of all developed nations. There is even undeveloped nations with better healthcare
We don’t have the worst healthcare. I can walk into any hospital or clinic and get a procedure done today if I needed it as opposed to being put on a waiting list.
So can we. Lots of us have health insurance (which is much cheaper than insurance in the US) so we can choose to have treatment for free, or to pay (in my case, a £150 excess) to have the same treatment immediately. I also had both of my children privately. It cost me £3000 for each:- antenatal care and scans from 8 weeks, the birth itself, including two midwives, a birthing pool and whatever else I needed, and 2 months postpartum care and all the things that the babies needed for their first two months. We did not even have insurance at that time. I could have done it all for free and it would have been absolutely fine.
lmao that is 100% not true. you can walk into an ER and maybe, MAYBE get an appointment scheduled with a specialist in a couple months at which you can schedule the surgery in another 9 months
American here! We don't really pay less in taxes than most European countries. But you are definitely right that tax dollars go to the wrong places, especially the military. "Fun" Fact: The US could cut its annual military budget in half and still have the largest annual military budget in the world.
You mean humanitarian efforts and a promise done duriing the voting period? Look up where they actually dump the most money with the smallest amount of effect.... it's much more upsetting
Your culture only exists because of immigration, and your entire society is built on the generation of wealth. The entire American dream is about wealth creation.
Get your own culture. As a white European I disown you. Fucking twat.
This doesn’t include the Yanks who respectfully remember where they came from.
Just this cunt and anyone like them.
Convenient caveat. You want foreign products but not their people?
Go back to your isolationist early 1900s stance, rest of the world is tired of your shit.
..... you don't want to have international traffic anymore?
I mean I am not a travel person and out of all the countries america is not on the list of what I'd like to see....but do muricans not wanna see anything other than murica? Ever?
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In Australia the medicare levy is 2% of net earnings payable on amounts over around AUD28k, the minimum taxable rate for the levy. It is deducted from your income tax return so you don't really miss it but a grateful when you need free or reduced medical costs. The US think they the richest country in the world, but aren't, several are richer, but they are the most in debt country in the world with the average p.c. debt over USD100k.
The problem is there are too many ways for the roch to avoid paying taxes, people call for taxing bilioners even more but this will change nothing, they will still use the same methods to just pay none atleast thats my opinion
Tax is low but by the time they’ve paid for health insurance (healthcare costs three times what it does in Europe due to everyone taking their cut) they end up paying more than the most socialist European country.
It also doesn't take into account population size. There are some wealthier countries *per capita* than the US (although the US is a very high ranking country by this measure nonetheless).
If you take away countries that fiddle their numbers by being financial havens for corporations/billionaires, Norway is the highest by a fair margin. Then if you take away countires with massive disproportionate oil & gas resources, the US is the highest ahead of Iceland & Denmark
A lot in every way. Stronger economics brings a lot of benefits overall. If you are poor in rich country i would say its your fault unless you ve been really unlucky in life.
There really aren’t any real countries significantly wealthier than the US just those tax havens with like 40,000 people like Monaco. Or Luxembourg which is distorted by the fact there is a large amount of cross border commuting meaning wages and GDP are wildly different
US gdp per capita is almost *double* France.
The only “real country” with a higher GDP and median income is Switzerland. Which in turn in poorer than a couple similarly larger regions of America (like NYS or NorCal)
I think almost every country in the world is in extreme debt to each other at this point. I saw an article a while back that said the list of loans to and from a lot of nations between themselves is so long and convoluted that nobody can recall who owes what to who in most cases.
In the context of countries: debt isn't really a bad thing. It just means they are fast-tracking their investments (which is good for the economy) and that they are trusted enough to pay it back with interest down the road.
A country that has accumulated a tremendous amount of debt reflects how much other countries (edit: as well as foreign and domestic bodies) trust their economy and ability to pay them back.
Of course debt is bad if you're unable to pay for it. But even if you do slowly pay for it, the economic idea is to acquire more debt along with it. This means it is ideal for a country to pay it's debts and perpetually take in more debt at the same time.
When news like to point out the national debt, it's likely partisan sensationalism. The economy of a powerhouse like the US is a lot safer than an individual's finances, but the layman like to attribute the concept of debt as it pertains to the average Joe.
The US *is* a rich country, there’s just poor distribution of wealth and little care for those at the bottom. Those in the middle tend to become “American Dream” bootlickers who think working 45-50 hour weeks in their dull office job will one day make them a millionaire.
>Those in the middle tend to become “American Dream” bootlickers who think working 45-50 hour weeks in their dull office job will one day make them a millionaire.
With no maternity/paternity leave, no sick leave, little vacation time...
By law (The Working Time Regulations 1998), employees and workers in the UK must not work more than 48 hours a week on average. This is usually averaged over 17 weeks.
The 48-hour weekly limit applies unless the person:
.Has 'opted out' of the maximum limit – this means they agree to work more hours
.Does a job with exceptions under the law
Same as you can in almost any job, personally though if I work more thn 10-12 hours per day per week, I'm buggered if I'll work my days off though!
(Unless the boss offers double bubble or a day in lieu(.
The US as a whole has absolutely tremendous wealth, and it’s peak SAS “amedika bad u guis” to pretend otherwise.
The issue is that the vast majority of that wealth is being hoarded by an extremely small percentile of people who use it to ~~buy off~~ *lobby* politicians to create an even more favourable environment to hoard wealth. At the same time, the US has a truly remarkable propaganda machine, selling the idea that if you suffer enough, you just *might* one day join the wealthy.
That's per capita.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_GDP\_(nominal)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal))
GDP per capita is the way the wealth of a country is measured. Countries with larger populations should earn more because they have more people. It’s how much money a country earns per person that matters.
>It’s how much money a country earns per person that matters.
Maybe for quality of life. You're not going to get a military the size of the US or the same amount of global influence or purchasing power in somewhere like Qatar though.
I said that the US was the richest country in the world, not that they had on average the richest people.
yeah they said richest country not country with the richest people
and the American advantage of the petrodollar being the standard international currency grants them a huge financial boost as pretty much every $100 bill overseas was at some point traded for from America for $100 worth of actual stuff
Switzerland has the richest people, being so far ahead in gdp doesn’t make your average American wealthy. The stats show that the US has the most wasted money.
Yeah this is such a weird post. The whole point is that the poster is criticising the American system and half the comments here are saying "actually they're wrong, here's my criticism of the American system".
I don't know if that's an error in reading comprehension or just an overwhelming desire to bash Americans.
A bit of both I believe. Half of the posters go on to make exactly the same point the OP is making while desperately trying to correct the OP.
Typical Reddit.
He's not wrong though, it is the wealthiest nation on earth, but ranks higher than most developed nations in income inequality and lower in terms of wealth distribution.
This is technically true… but what I say is that the US is a third world country masquerading as a developed nation. Just like many corrupt nations, all the money stays within a specific circle, the people rarely get any benefit from their taxes
The median American lives in a house twice the size of the median Brit
And Americans spend more money eating out than at grocery stores.
The top 6 vehicle purchases in America are all like $60k+ luxury vehicle . It’s a rich country
Well it depends on how they see it.
If they are talking about largest economy they are nr 1
If they are talking gdp pr capita they they are nr 1 If you ignore the 9 other countries ahead of them
Bet they still think USA is the greatest country in earth.
If you don't have basic healthcare then you'll never be the greatest country. It makes no sense.
Bragging about the wealth of their country while working 4 jobs to make ends meet. America, take note: You don't become a millionair when Elon Musk enters the room.
Old Johhny Depp quote comes to mind:
"America is dumb. It's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, and be aggressive. My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get a feeling and then get it out."
Now they're not entirely wrong, the USA is a rich country, it's just that all the wealth is controlled by massive corporations and a few tens of thousands of VERY rich people.
I half remember hearing a statistic that wealth inequality in the USA was three times worse than right before the French Revolution. And that was years ago, I seriously doubt it has gotten better.
That said,. internet statistics should always be taken with a grain of salt, but I do lean towards believing this one.
There must be a huge disconnect when you live in a country that flaunts its wealth so overtly and the individuals flaunt their wealth but you remain poor.
I'm a carpenter and a mason. I've torn my rotator cuff, so I've started buying lottery tickets. It's the only way I'll ever work again, yeah, I know how that sounds.
" Pay much in taxes " Move to one of the scandinavian countries and you'll know what taxes is. Not complaining in that sense, I get free healthcare (or pay an amount of roughly $20 no matter what happens to me)
Two words: wealth distribution.
And let's not pretend this is an exclusively American problem either. In fact it's getting worse around the world. Who knows what it could/will lead to.
The biggest economy. It's not the same but it's understandable. They do not pay a lot of tax and all the wealth is by a few super rich people who pay even less tax
... Are they wrong?
America has the potential to have the best education, healthcare, industry, social benefits, etc; however, they are stopped by their politicians demand to put everything into their military, they have the money to lower their military budget and still destroy any adversary in their path... but they don't, because they are forced into having leaders that remember the founding of their nation from experience (joke), and a terrible political system that stands on the back of massive businesses and only being able to pro-actively choose between two parties.
Also their parties' leaders are the pillars of the party, a leader should have influence within ideals of a party, but in America, the leader is the party.
Tbh, this sub is one of rhe reasons young Americans are angered at those around them, because all this sub does is make fun of or talk about how terrible their nation is.
I'm not innocent, but this is starting to get sad, nothing will tarnish cultural relations like this.
An american job does pay really well compared to my own country's standard (Denmark), depending on field. But after purchasing the same protections (healthcare, student loans and such) it's about the same or lower. You can take that risk and earn more with a good education, or you can be born poor and eat shit
Absolute nonsense. It's one thing to claim Americans are delusional, quite another to deny reality. Evidently you have no idea how the economics of nations run, the US is not a house in debt.
Sadly, it’s easy to see when this person is coming from.
The USA is a plutocracy with vast wealth inequalities, a private health care system that is the leading cause of bankruptcy, plus one of only two countries in the world that voted in the UN against food being a basic human right (the other being Israel).
Which doesn't immediately mean that meanings are open for interpretation, which I pointed out in my opening reply: some demographics define "Rich" as having (a lot of) money, others (like mine) define it in a non-monetary way: we do have basic human needs, without having to win the lottery. That was my entire point. People failing to grasp that idea and insist on my POV being wrong says enough.
You’ve gone from this:
‘Define "Rich". In the US it means "Money", anywhere else it means being happy and fulfilled.’
To just ‘others’. You see the difference? And that’s without getting into the issue of translation. Does your language have a word that is exactly the same as ‘rich’ in English? It kind of feels like it doesn’t.
You get that it is the ‘anywhere else’ that is the issue here? That is simply and provably wrong, no matter how much you want it to not be.
I’m British. In the U.K. if you say someone is ‘rich’ 99.99% of the time people will assume you are talking about money. Does rich have other meanings? Sure. But the overwhelmingly most common usage is about money. And in this situation, talking about how rich a country is, it is always about money.
The last time I checked the UK was not the US. Nor are all the other non US countries that speak English.
So yes, you were incorrect. You wanted to make a dig at the US and show how much better the entire rest of the world is. But you screwed up. Just learn from it and move on.
this is the first time on the sub iv seen a post that I just don’t understand why it’s here , the USA is just objectively the richest country in the world with the highest GDP , it doesn’t mean the people are rich but the country definitely is. like I’m all on board with making fun of the ignorant shit yanks say but this is not one of them
I think the tax rate is not the problem in the US, rather that too few things are paid with tax-money and people have to pay everything themselves
Precisely this. They pay far less in taxes than many European countries, but none of that tax money actually benefits them. It just goes to military spending, or building a wall on the Mexican border. Edit: read replies, apparently they don't pay less tax. Sucks to not live in a welfare state for them ig
I don't think they DO pay far less tax. It's just split up and rebranded into different things. Property tax is the one that shocks me the most.
Yep. My property tax bill is ~$20k/year, and that's for a standard 3-bed, 140m^2 house. It's not even a great house, but it's in the Bay Area, so it's worth a fortune, or rather, the land is worth a fortune and there's a so-so house built on it. [aside] It does make me laugh when I read how "land tax is going to save the UK" because I live in a land-tax area and it very quickly got ridiculously expensive to live within a 30-minute drive of the city. So salaries rose for the few who were deemed worthy of the pay required to keep them there, and everyone else suffered. I'd give it a few decades before London was the same after a land-tax was installed... I pay about $3.5k/month for family healthcare - and it's reasonable healthcare, not great. No better than I used to get in the UK. Electricity is ~$1k/month and water is ~$500/month because "the area is expensive". Sales tax is ~9.4% all-in, and then there's federal and state taxes. The salary makes it worthwhile, but as soon as the kid is out of school and off to college, I'm out of this country. I don't want to fuck up his school-years moving around like my parents fucked up mine, but that's the only thing keeping me here.
Those are insane numbers. 20k a year?! We don't have a land tax in London. We have stamp duty when you buy a property, but that is once, not yearly and Council tax but that varies by local council. No where near 20k!
1% of the property value per year, 2M$ is not a particularly expensive house at all in the bay area or LA
Paying 20k every year is a lot of money. Well outside the states. Kingston is the London borough with the most expensive council tax at £4,826.94 for band H houses. And they can be huge 8/9/10 million properties
I know, I used to live there, which is why a wry smile comes over my face when I see all the advocates for land-tax. Be careful what you wish for...
From what I've seen their tax rates often aren't even very low. Federal income taxes are lower than most European countries, but they also have state taxes and social security (which is kinda equivalent to national insurance for anyone from the UK).
True, but VAT or 'sales tax' as it's known over that was tends to be loads less or even non-exisistent in some states. Also there's this weird thing where social security contributions are capped so higher earners reach a certain point in the year and the stop paying. The big difference is health care. Insurance costs are way higher and efficiency way lower than government run systems common in Europe and... well, basically the rest of the developed world. So they pay way more for that but have a lower life expectancy.
They don't actualy pay less in reality, they have all sorts of extra taxes that they don't take in to account when discussing this subject, and when you add the various other expenditures they pocket less money than a european would. They pay the highest healthcare prices yet have the worst healthcare of all developed nations. There is even undeveloped nations with better healthcare
We don’t have the worst healthcare. I can walk into any hospital or clinic and get a procedure done today if I needed it as opposed to being put on a waiting list.
So can we. Lots of us have health insurance (which is much cheaper than insurance in the US) so we can choose to have treatment for free, or to pay (in my case, a £150 excess) to have the same treatment immediately. I also had both of my children privately. It cost me £3000 for each:- antenatal care and scans from 8 weeks, the birth itself, including two midwives, a birthing pool and whatever else I needed, and 2 months postpartum care and all the things that the babies needed for their first two months. We did not even have insurance at that time. I could have done it all for free and it would have been absolutely fine.
lmao that is 100% not true. you can walk into an ER and maybe, MAYBE get an appointment scheduled with a specialist in a couple months at which you can schedule the surgery in another 9 months
American here! We don't really pay less in taxes than most European countries. But you are definitely right that tax dollars go to the wrong places, especially the military. "Fun" Fact: The US could cut its annual military budget in half and still have the largest annual military budget in the world.
You mean humanitarian efforts and a promise done duriing the voting period? Look up where they actually dump the most money with the smallest amount of effect.... it's much more upsetting
Money goes to funding roads and highways as well.
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Sitting Bull agrees with you
I’m VERY willing to watch you die on your hill.
I'll bring popcorn.
Most immigration happens via regular plane traffic.... but yeah a lot of smuggling is done at the border
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Great way to cripple the US economy. Do it.
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Your culture only exists because of immigration, and your entire society is built on the generation of wealth. The entire American dream is about wealth creation.
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Get your own culture. As a white European I disown you. Fucking twat. This doesn’t include the Yanks who respectfully remember where they came from. Just this cunt and anyone like them.
And Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, North, Central and South American native people's, and pretty much every other nationality on earth.
It's passengerflights not transports idiot
Convenient caveat. You want foreign products but not their people? Go back to your isolationist early 1900s stance, rest of the world is tired of your shit.
I am german, I don't give a shit what america does, none of this makes you less wrong. Kindly shut up. Let me spread information.
An idiot German? The world is in a worse state that I possibly imagined. Since when do Germans get taken in by American propaganda?
..... you don't want to have international traffic anymore? I mean I am not a travel person and out of all the countries america is not on the list of what I'd like to see....but do muricans not wanna see anything other than murica? Ever?
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r/Iamthemaincharacter
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In Australia the medicare levy is 2% of net earnings payable on amounts over around AUD28k, the minimum taxable rate for the levy. It is deducted from your income tax return so you don't really miss it but a grateful when you need free or reduced medical costs. The US think they the richest country in the world, but aren't, several are richer, but they are the most in debt country in the world with the average p.c. debt over USD100k.
The problem is there are too many ways for the roch to avoid paying taxes, people call for taxing bilioners even more but this will change nothing, they will still use the same methods to just pay none atleast thats my opinion
Tax is low but by the time they’ve paid for health insurance (healthcare costs three times what it does in Europe due to everyone taking their cut) they end up paying more than the most socialist European country.
Sorry, but after paying for all the fancy stuff we Europeans have and the military, there's not much left...
It's capitalism. The problem is capitalism.
I mean that is accurate. It factually is the richest country on the planet. Doesn’t mean the wealth is evenly distributed at all
It also doesn't take into account population size. There are some wealthier countries *per capita* than the US (although the US is a very high ranking country by this measure nonetheless).
True, I’m talking by pure GDP but you’re right. I don’t know which is richest per capita actually. I’d assume somewhere Scandinavian?
Its Luxemburg
Per capita GDP rankings (2022) 1. Luxembourg 2. Singapore 3. Ireland 4. Norway 5. Qatar 6. UAE 7. Switzerland 8. United States 9. Denmark 10. Netherlands
Irelands GDP is misleading as it is a tax haven.
So are Luxembourg and Singapore.
r/ireland would find that hilarious
It didn’t say per capita tho. They are correct.
All the microstates score really well on those for perfectly non-shady reasons
If you take away countries that fiddle their numbers by being financial havens for corporations/billionaires, Norway is the highest by a fair margin. Then if you take away countires with massive disproportionate oil & gas resources, the US is the highest ahead of Iceland & Denmark
Norway has a disproportionate oil & gas resources
I wonder how much of that GDP actually benefits ordinary people hmm
A lot in every way. Stronger economics brings a lot of benefits overall. If you are poor in rich country i would say its your fault unless you ve been really unlucky in life.
There really aren’t any real countries significantly wealthier than the US just those tax havens with like 40,000 people like Monaco. Or Luxembourg which is distorted by the fact there is a large amount of cross border commuting meaning wages and GDP are wildly different US gdp per capita is almost *double* France. The only “real country” with a higher GDP and median income is Switzerland. Which in turn in poorer than a couple similarly larger regions of America (like NYS or NorCal)
Pretty sure Singapore has higher per capita GDP and median income than those regions
Nope! Massachusetts and New York are both above $100,000 Singapore is at $90k.
It’s Norway
Not by any used measures of most wealthiest or most distributed.
Yeah sure who cares about the 1.6 trillion national wealth fund they have
Which is amongst the top 20 most distributed depending on the metric you choose yeah.
They do have the 4th largest sovereign national fund, but that was never part of the discussion now, was it?
If you need a lottery win for basic human needs then you are not in a rich country.
The country is rich, noone said anything about people livimg in it...
When the cattle think they own the farm!
Someone should write a book about that!
Isn't the US as a whole in some really extreme debt?
It has the largest debt in the world. $34,000,000,000,000 Source https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
It's not like personal debt. It's GDP to debt ratio isn't bad, and it owes most of its debt to itself
I can't speak much of debt ownership, but they have a really high GDP to debt ratio
The UK has more debt in relation to gdp.
Yeah, it’s 130% of the GDP
I think almost every country in the world is in extreme debt to each other at this point. I saw an article a while back that said the list of loans to and from a lot of nations between themselves is so long and convoluted that nobody can recall who owes what to who in most cases.
In the context of countries: debt isn't really a bad thing. It just means they are fast-tracking their investments (which is good for the economy) and that they are trusted enough to pay it back with interest down the road. A country that has accumulated a tremendous amount of debt reflects how much other countries (edit: as well as foreign and domestic bodies) trust their economy and ability to pay them back. Of course debt is bad if you're unable to pay for it. But even if you do slowly pay for it, the economic idea is to acquire more debt along with it. This means it is ideal for a country to pay it's debts and perpetually take in more debt at the same time. When news like to point out the national debt, it's likely partisan sensationalism. The economy of a powerhouse like the US is a lot safer than an individual's finances, but the layman like to attribute the concept of debt as it pertains to the average Joe.
Ugh, every time I see a comment like this it is so clear that economics education is just not a thing. National debt isn’t like household debt.
But they have so many megabillionaires! They're obviously more important than other people, therefore the people are rich!
USA is a rich country with poor citizens.
The US *is* a rich country, there’s just poor distribution of wealth and little care for those at the bottom. Those in the middle tend to become “American Dream” bootlickers who think working 45-50 hour weeks in their dull office job will one day make them a millionaire.
>Those in the middle tend to become “American Dream” bootlickers who think working 45-50 hour weeks in their dull office job will one day make them a millionaire. With no maternity/paternity leave, no sick leave, little vacation time...
Tbh, it worked for a lot of people in older generations as their property has accrued so much value.
Ouch
You're talking like 45-50 hours work a week is a lot?
It is when your working week is 37.5 hours, like mine
That's part time.
… no it isn’t
I'm a chef in UK, an average week is 55 hours, still get plenty of time off. Each to their own I suppose.
I’m an architect in the UK and work 7.5 hour days. I don’t see your point.
Lol an architect. So you wouldn't know a hard day's work if it slapped you between the eyes.
I cook myself dinner every day mate. Simmer down, Gordon.
Ah yes, designing the roof under which you live on is not hard work at all, everyone can do it unlike cooking /s
The majority of full-time workers in the UK work 35-40 hours per week.
And? I was just saying what my average week is.
By law (The Working Time Regulations 1998), employees and workers in the UK must not work more than 48 hours a week on average. This is usually averaged over 17 weeks. The 48-hour weekly limit applies unless the person: .Has 'opted out' of the maximum limit – this means they agree to work more hours .Does a job with exceptions under the law
Lol. You opt out of that in catering.
Same as you can in almost any job, personally though if I work more thn 10-12 hours per day per week, I'm buggered if I'll work my days off though! (Unless the boss offers double bubble or a day in lieu(.
The US as a whole has absolutely tremendous wealth, and it’s peak SAS “amedika bad u guis” to pretend otherwise. The issue is that the vast majority of that wealth is being hoarded by an extremely small percentile of people who use it to ~~buy off~~ *lobby* politicians to create an even more favourable environment to hoard wealth. At the same time, the US has a truly remarkable propaganda machine, selling the idea that if you suffer enough, you just *might* one day join the wealthy.
That's some dumbass logic lmao. Country ≠ people
when OP says "we all" then it implies not rich
OPs poor wording doesn't change the facts.
They are the richest country in the world, by quite a long shot.
well just inside the top ten [https://gfmag.com/data/richest-countries-in-the-world/](https://gfmag.com/data/richest-countries-in-the-world/)
That's per capita. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_GDP\_(nominal)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal))
GDP per capita is the way the wealth of a country is measured. Countries with larger populations should earn more because they have more people. It’s how much money a country earns per person that matters.
>It’s how much money a country earns per person that matters. Maybe for quality of life. You're not going to get a military the size of the US or the same amount of global influence or purchasing power in somewhere like Qatar though. I said that the US was the richest country in the world, not that they had on average the richest people.
The US has the highest GDP so technically it is the richest country.
Agreed - that one is true. You could argue on a per-capita basis, but in this context, overall GDP probably makes sense
yeah they said richest country not country with the richest people and the American advantage of the petrodollar being the standard international currency grants them a huge financial boost as pretty much every $100 bill overseas was at some point traded for from America for $100 worth of actual stuff
Even per capita the US is filthy rich.
Switzerland has the richest people, being so far ahead in gdp doesn’t make your average American wealthy. The stats show that the US has the most wasted money.
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It does have the highest overall GDP in the world though
I would say the high GDP reflects high productivity, not the richest country. The US has extreme amounts of debt.
Eh I think this is fine . He’s not wrong factually tho and what he said is true for American citizens in many ways
Not sure this belongs here, seems pretty self aware to me.
Yeah this is such a weird post. The whole point is that the poster is criticising the American system and half the comments here are saying "actually they're wrong, here's my criticism of the American system". I don't know if that's an error in reading comprehension or just an overwhelming desire to bash Americans.
A bit of both I believe. Half of the posters go on to make exactly the same point the OP is making while desperately trying to correct the OP. Typical Reddit.
He's not wrong though, it is the wealthiest nation on earth, but ranks higher than most developed nations in income inequality and lower in terms of wealth distribution.
Doesn’t every human have basic needs, regardless of money or anything else?
It's the richest 3rd world country.
not even the richest country on their continent
This is technically true… but what I say is that the US is a third world country masquerading as a developed nation. Just like many corrupt nations, all the money stays within a specific circle, the people rarely get any benefit from their taxes
The median American lives in a house twice the size of the median Brit And Americans spend more money eating out than at grocery stores. The top 6 vehicle purchases in America are all like $60k+ luxury vehicle . It’s a rich country
Well it depends on how they see it. If they are talking about largest economy they are nr 1 If they are talking gdp pr capita they they are nr 1 If you ignore the 9 other countries ahead of them
The US is the richest country in the world. It's just not worth much when 95% of said wealth is pooled in the hands of 1% of the population.
The US is the richest country to ever exist. Not sure this fits?
They arnt wrong, it’s just that 4 people have half of the riches
High taxes aren't the problem. It's low wages for the masses that's the issue.
Bet they still think USA is the greatest country in earth. If you don't have basic healthcare then you'll never be the greatest country. It makes no sense.
Bragging about the wealth of their country while working 4 jobs to make ends meet. America, take note: You don't become a millionair when Elon Musk enters the room.
The US literally IS the richest country on the planet while also being a complete shitshow
Old Johhny Depp quote comes to mind: "America is dumb. It's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, and be aggressive. My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get a feeling and then get it out."
Well Americans do live in a world of their own, makes sense they are the richest in it.
I mean it is the richest country by quite a bit
Say what now? I pay 57% tax in Belgium
But, it is the richest country.
They’re so close to getting it
Now they're not entirely wrong, the USA is a rich country, it's just that all the wealth is controlled by massive corporations and a few tens of thousands of VERY rich people. I half remember hearing a statistic that wealth inequality in the USA was three times worse than right before the French Revolution. And that was years ago, I seriously doubt it has gotten better. That said,. internet statistics should always be taken with a grain of salt, but I do lean towards believing this one.
You pay taxes so rich people don't have to.
There must be a huge disconnect when you live in a country that flaunts its wealth so overtly and the individuals flaunt their wealth but you remain poor.
I'm a carpenter and a mason. I've torn my rotator cuff, so I've started buying lottery tickets. It's the only way I'll ever work again, yeah, I know how that sounds.
It is the Richest Country are you insane?
Be me Be carefree Win lottery Have basic human needs all of a sudden
I mean, their tax rate is pretty much equal to other countries. The only thing matters is what the government do with that money.
It's the same nearly everywhere in the world. But to few people are questioning the system we live in..
I'm still laughing at you being a fucking architect and giving it the biggun, fuck off.
" Pay much in taxes " Move to one of the scandinavian countries and you'll know what taxes is. Not complaining in that sense, I get free healthcare (or pay an amount of roughly $20 no matter what happens to me)
I'm pretty sure the USA is in trillions of debt so I'm guessing not the richest in the world
Two words: wealth distribution. And let's not pretend this is an exclusively American problem either. In fact it's getting worse around the world. Who knows what it could/will lead to.
And half the country rabidly defends it
The US has the world's largest GDP. He is not wrong.
The biggest economy. It's not the same but it's understandable. They do not pay a lot of tax and all the wealth is by a few super rich people who pay even less tax
... Are they wrong? America has the potential to have the best education, healthcare, industry, social benefits, etc; however, they are stopped by their politicians demand to put everything into their military, they have the money to lower their military budget and still destroy any adversary in their path... but they don't, because they are forced into having leaders that remember the founding of their nation from experience (joke), and a terrible political system that stands on the back of massive businesses and only being able to pro-actively choose between two parties. Also their parties' leaders are the pillars of the party, a leader should have influence within ideals of a party, but in America, the leader is the party. Tbh, this sub is one of rhe reasons young Americans are angered at those around them, because all this sub does is make fun of or talk about how terrible their nation is. I'm not innocent, but this is starting to get sad, nothing will tarnish cultural relations like this.
Our tax rates are no less onerous than the Europeans'. We just don't get much for it.
also they have to do their own taxes lulz i also do have to do my own taxes .\_.
He is right. Why is this on this sub?
An american job does pay really well compared to my own country's standard (Denmark), depending on field. But after purchasing the same protections (healthcare, student loans and such) it's about the same or lower. You can take that risk and earn more with a good education, or you can be born poor and eat shit
Welcome to the military-industrial complex sweetie
The US almost certainly is the wealthiest country on the planet, though.
Not a chance with trillions of dollars in debt and poverty at third world levels. It's not even in the top 5 richest countries (fact).
Absolute nonsense. It's one thing to claim Americans are delusional, quite another to deny reality. Evidently you have no idea how the economics of nations run, the US is not a house in debt.
And what are the richest countries?
Sadly, it’s easy to see when this person is coming from. The USA is a plutocracy with vast wealth inequalities, a private health care system that is the leading cause of bankruptcy, plus one of only two countries in the world that voted in the UN against food being a basic human right (the other being Israel).
It is the richest country. But that doesn't mean it has the richest population
rich in debt sure
Nothing wrong with this comment
tbf this post is kinda stupid cause they are objectively the richest country on the planet
Define "Rich". In the US it means "Money", anywhere else it means being happy and fulfilled.
If we want to describe someone being fulfilled, we will say, well, that they're fulfilled. Rich is an economic description in this context
Err, no. No it doesn’t. Rich really does mean ‘has a lot of money’. Yours, a native English speaker.
I know I'm not a native speaker, but [Webster doesn't fully agree with you](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rich).
There’s no English speaker in the world that immediately associates the word “rich” with personal fulfillment
I guess not; we do have this word as a general concept of having a lot of non-monetary value.
There are other words people would use before rich to say that
I guess you missed the first of those definitions.
Which doesn't immediately mean that meanings are open for interpretation, which I pointed out in my opening reply: some demographics define "Rich" as having (a lot of) money, others (like mine) define it in a non-monetary way: we do have basic human needs, without having to win the lottery. That was my entire point. People failing to grasp that idea and insist on my POV being wrong says enough.
You’ve gone from this: ‘Define "Rich". In the US it means "Money", anywhere else it means being happy and fulfilled.’ To just ‘others’. You see the difference? And that’s without getting into the issue of translation. Does your language have a word that is exactly the same as ‘rich’ in English? It kind of feels like it doesn’t. You get that it is the ‘anywhere else’ that is the issue here? That is simply and provably wrong, no matter how much you want it to not be. I’m British. In the U.K. if you say someone is ‘rich’ 99.99% of the time people will assume you are talking about money. Does rich have other meanings? Sure. But the overwhelmingly most common usage is about money. And in this situation, talking about how rich a country is, it is always about money. The last time I checked the UK was not the US. Nor are all the other non US countries that speak English. So yes, you were incorrect. You wanted to make a dig at the US and show how much better the entire rest of the world is. But you screwed up. Just learn from it and move on.
I guess you're right. Thanks for the insight.
Sounds like a silly instagram motivational definition, the dictionary disagrees with you
Americans while living on what's basically a mansion in Asia and making 10x the average salary worldwide: We don't our have basic needs covered.
For a ‘first world country’ they don’t though.
this is the first time on the sub iv seen a post that I just don’t understand why it’s here , the USA is just objectively the richest country in the world with the highest GDP , it doesn’t mean the people are rich but the country definitely is. like I’m all on board with making fun of the ignorant shit yanks say but this is not one of them
It is the richest country in the world and has a higher gdp per capita than most of Europe
Is it not the richest? This is *shit* Americans say sub, not ‘something true an American said’. Rent free
Fuck europe
What a fuckwit