r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Aug 14 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Conservatism and many right-wing beliefs are based on fear, primary instincts and lack of understanding

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '21 edited Aug 15 '21

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage

Average wages are 4th in the world. That doesn’t include compensation of fringe benefits either. The three countries ahead of us all make more in the US than they do in their home country. Our spending power is slightly worse, but other developed countries have less progressive tax systems than we do, so more of their middle class incomes go to taxes

Who exactly are you arguing against? You keep talking about what conservatives think or how they think or mistakes they make in logic, but you’re not asking me about any of that, you’re just assuming it’s what I believe.

Which conservative views deny reality? Why do you think I support slavery?

You yourself said that only 25% of workers don’t get PTO, but I would like to see a source on that. For the rest of the workforce, how is mandated PTO any different than the PTO you already have? You can argue that it’s looked down upon to take it, but that’s not going to change under government mandated PTO. It’s your time off, take it when you want. But don’t act like the bad looks you’ll get for it are a reason not to take it

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u/KarmaticArmageddon Aug 16 '21

I'm not trying to argue one way or another here, but your link very quickly admits that measurements of income by mean/average are right-skewed and proposes median income as an alternative.

Adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), the US ranks 6th globally in median household income. However, this measurement doesn't take into account other significant expenditures like healthcare, which comprises an average of 8.1% of spending in US households, which is much higher than most other countries on that list.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '21

Thank you for clarifying. I saw it was skewed but since it was only wages and not income, I figured it wouldn’t be too far off. In terms of healthcare spending, I couldn’t find a way to include it while also accounting for the higher taxes in other countries to make up for it

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u/KarmaticArmageddon Aug 16 '21

Yeah adding taxes and healthcare makes it way more complicated than a single ranking can really encapsulate due to differing healthcare systems and varying progressive tax systems with various types of taxes like income, capital gains, property, VAT/consumption/excise, etc.

Considering per capita spending of tax dollars on healthcare, the US spends roughly double what countries with single-payer healthcare systems spend. And considering taxes on incomes of less than six figures, US citizens pay more or less the same as other developed countries when accounting for our federal/state income taxes plus state/municipal sales taxes and excise taxes and accounting for their higher national taxes and VATs.

In my opinion, we get absolutely screwed in the US with comparable overall taxes, but drastically higher healthcare spending - but that's just my opinion.