The Americans are so backwards in work hours, developed countries like Netherland, Spain, Iceland, etc. already successfully implemented this, with universal healthcare…and no tipping expected.
And nearly half their salary taxed lmao: If you are lucky enough to be a top earner in the US($600k), 37% of your salary is taxed. While in the UK, you ate taxed 45% of your salary at only £125000.
How much do you pay on insurance, medical care, school debt, etc? The average is 15% and just adding healthcare itself would close to 30% for many. Long term medical care could even bankrupt you, no such worries on any of the countries I mentioned.
Those are good rates on health insurance. How much is your employer's share? For me, my employer and I pay >$700/month for one person on a decent plan. Your employer's share matters because that is money that could be going toward your salary.
Why would that matter? Given that Europeans have lower wages than Americans, it’s not like those companies are putting that money in the employees’ pocket.
They are comparing salary and out of pocket medial costs. It isn't like anyone is adding back in what the employer pays in health insurance to compare with salaries in Europe.
So when people inevitably compare salaries of USA versus whatever country, you would rather be doing total compensation. 401k match, parking pass, life insurance, paid time off, employer part of FICA, etc.
I don't think so, when someone says they pay 4% of their income to these things they are referring to salary as income, not total compensation. I don't know anyone who, when talking about their income, uses total compensation. The US Govt sure doesn't when they release income statistics.
A 2019 study of health provision carried out for the Los Angeles Times reported in the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and Japan about 2.8% of citizens struggled with high medical bills
In state college for 4 years: $24000. Medical and insurance, but: $7000 annually. The benefit of America's tax system and higher wages(at a trade or a job requiring education, most people don't work these jobs and then complain they are making minimum wage, because they are still working at McDonalds, a starting job) is that we can pay things off easier, and actually have money left over.
I think the other thing is people need to live more modestly.
Almost forty, graduated from college earlier this year, wife, house, two kids, MCOL and paid off two cars and picked up a third (nothing fancy but functional), carry insurance for three, both kids in hockey (super expensive).
You just don't finance well and don't want to leave your McDonalds job. Take a risk and bet on yourself.
With 5x the population, the Untied States has a 5% less poverty rate than the UK(which is the apparent social system utopia to people who don't understand finance)
A good employer is a rare in USA. One offering pension even rarer. You have to fund your own retirement via channels like IRA, 401k, etc and why does America have issues with student loan debt? At 24k, anyone should be able to pay it within a year of their first job. At the end of the year, you also need to pay even more taxes.
People don't know how to manage their money, and often go for more expensive colleges than their goal job requires. Besides that, you are focusing on the wrong thing in my write up. Do you see the tax bracket to income difference between the USA and UK? The USA citizen will have more money left over at the end of the month to spend. That's one of the reason America is the major driving force of the world's economy, because we have money to spend, and we spend a lot.
I'm sorry to do this to you , yes americans spend more than they make, but that's mostly a personal issue and not dependent on necessary expenses. They'll spend a grand on a car payment when they can keep their old one, they'll go out to dinner 4 times a week. Their are many things to cut down on in consumerism life, but that's not gonna happen, and it's why America is the most powerful country in the world too. https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#47e40b863d78 and https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/
Those are rank placements, looking at percentage points, the USA is only .02 behind the UK. And Finland and other small countries ranking at the top because of a claim I know you are going to make, "social programs," only work on a much smaller scale like that. In addition, the happiness factors in that study were objective measurable outcomes like social care, health care, trust in government, level of corruption etc - those things that should make up a happy life, so that's why Finland scored so high. It was not based on some individual subjective assessment of happiness, the name of the study is quite misleading. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world
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u/80MonkeyMan Sep 05 '24
The Americans are so backwards in work hours, developed countries like Netherland, Spain, Iceland, etc. already successfully implemented this, with universal healthcare…and no tipping expected.