You think things are getting better there, or is it just that at least one of these studies is wrong?
You think things are getting better there, or is it just that at least one of these studies is wrong?
The decline of the dollar vs the euro may account for the apparent rise in per capita income.
The dollar-euro exchange rate changed, which magically makes the lifestyle of Europeans 20% better. That's why analyses like these are pretty shaky.
There's a grain of truth to the argument that Americans have much more material wealth than Europeans. Our houses are bigger, are cars are bigger, our portions are more generous, and you can buy four times as many types of cereal. That's the American way. We also spend a lot more for health care which is superior to European health care, and also more for health care which is worse than Europeans get (people who rely on ERs for their PCP.) Our system rewards initiative and hard work and that is strongly reflected at the extremes and among the middle classes when individuals do well. It's also easier to crash and burn here. Americans prefer our system, as well we should.
But anyone who has been to Europe knows that comparisons to the poorest of the poor in America are completely off-base.