Why do americans make so much money?

Why do americans make so much money?
Middle class in USA is upper class in Germany, while american upper class is unreachable for us.
And that even though americans are stupid as fuck on average.
What is it? Taxes? Muh Freedom? Wallstreet? Petrodollar?

Other urls found in this thread:

thrillist.com/travel/nation/paid-time-off-which-countries-get-the-most-vacation-time
economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-12
youtu.be/xNzXze5Yza8
oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/hours-worked/average-annual-hours-actually-worked_data-00303-en?isPartOf=/content/datacollection/lfs-hw-data-en
reliableplant.com/Read/25992/Americans-working-one-job
youtube.com/watch?v=PTBl2BBpWSY
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

>Why do americans make so much money?
>And that even though americans are stupid as fuck on average.

Now I'm not telling you, rude

stereotypes do stem from somewhere afterall

because our taxes are 1/3rd of yours hans

i highly doubt you know what "middle class" is for a typical american

We unironically work insanely hard. I know American pop culture pushes the meme that we're lazy on average (Homer Simpson and other sitcom dads), but if you look at the numbers Americans work crazy hours and take very few vacation days. It's almost Japan-tier.

>Middle class in USA is upper class in Germany, while american upper class is unreachable for us.

True, but German lower class is American lower-middle class, while American lower class is basically Poland. The people in the middle class in Germany suffer a bit to make sure that the people at the bottom don't have to wallow in filth, it's kind of admirable actually.

im 22 and make really good money, especially considering how low the cost of living in my city is. but i work 50 hours a week so it's not perfect. i do have a lot of vacation days though.

They make more money because their insurances and social taxes or whatever they are called are not directly taken with the state tax. They pay all on their own.
Or... am i wrong?

With a bachelor degree for example in finances you can start a good job with 3.500 euros brutto in Germany. What would you get with the same example in the USA? Is it 10.000 dollars?

Probably a combination of higher expectations, bumpkin culture, and the fact that many Americans don't care for, or know much about global politics/geography.

>What would you get with the same example in the USA? Is it 10.000 dollars?

Lol, $10,000 is below the poverty line. If you have a degree in finance and you're earning less than $25,000 as a starting salary, you fucked up and are probably working at McDonald's or something.

Tell more about your job and what you get paid.

they have huge working class populations including immigrants and ghettos. thats the reason. the social construction of bongland and shartland is different from other first world countries

Sorry, we are used to speak about a mounths salary.
In that case 3.500 euros would make like 40.000 euros a year.

Oh, ok. Yeah, $40,000 sounds about right for a finance major.

They work twice as many hours a week

And there's a massive disparity among finance majors. If you went to a top-tier economics school (Harvard, Yale, UPenn, UChicago, etc.) you could expect to make $60k+ starting out with a good internship. If you went to Ripoff Community College you'll be lucky to start out with more than $30k. The same is true of most professions in the US.

you only work 20 hours a week? fuck

So, against what OP is saying, the difference is not that big.

What does the living cost then? What would you pay to have a small appartment in.. Boston? Or somewhere in California? I know NY and LA are ridiculusley expensive.
How about the food? Or electricity bill? Are all americans crazy about having insurences for.. like everything ?

Americans can be broadly defined to fit into three categories: the lazies, the crazies, and the meth-daisies.

The lazies are typically the Americans that shitpost here.

The crazies become entrepreneurs and chase ideas everyone else tells them are completely nuts - but they still follow through with it thanks to American individualism. They either crash and burn or become ludicrously wealthy. Think of Elon Musk, of Donald Trump. These people get by on three-six hours of sleep a day and still have enough energy to power through anyone else's opposing viewpoint.

The meth-daisies work 15+ hours a day, usually three or more jobs, oftentimes construction. Stimulant consumption is popular among this group, usually "just coffee" but American meth is the purest in the world and we have more than our fair share who abuse it for productivity reasons. Functional addicts are hard to pick out of the crowd because they do all the things regular addicts do not, like grooming, self-care, eating/sleeping regularly etc.

After world war 2 the USA had basically all the gold in the world, and all other countries decided to back their currencies to the Dollar instead of Gold, this allows us to do all kinds of fuckery to keep other countries from getting more rich then us. It is also why US sanctions work so well, when your Reserve of wealth is the USD and we suddenly say that money is worthless it is a big hit to an economy.

>comparing Elon Musk and Donald
>does not know the different between old money and nouveau riche

This is the answer

Personality phenotype matters more than status at birth. A thousand rich sons end up broke because they did not share their father's business acumen.

Plus, Musk's family was hardly "poor" either.

1 TRILLION dollars per year in military spending.
That doesn't include funding for countless intelligence operations, analysis and political/sociological manipulation efforts.

>1 TRILLION dollars per year in military spending.

$900 billion, technically. And that doesn't mean much when the country's GDP is $18.56 trillion.

>this allows us to do all kinds of fuckery to keep other countries from getting more rich then us.

Not really. It's just that other developed countries are smaller. So even if they have a higher GDP per capita than the US (like Australia and Canada both do, for example) it makes very little difference because of the sheer size of the American population. France could double its GDP per capita tomorrow and still have an economy not even 1/3 the size of the US's.

>work crazy hours and take very few vacation days. It's almost Japan-tier.
No.

America spends more on social security/medicaid by far than it does on military.

Nice argument.

thrillist.com/travel/nation/paid-time-off-which-countries-get-the-most-vacation-time

Turns out that it's actually worse than Japan.

Their currency is propped up by high demand from abroad.
This makes dolaroos worth more.
Not to say that america isn't rich or productive, but their purchasing power isn't entirely up to that.

>What does the living cost then?

Depends on where you live. Boston, NYC, Chicago, and LA are all crazy expensive, but the South and "Flyover Country", which include about half the population, are relatively cheap.

>How about the food?

It all depends on the person. Food is generally pretty cheap because our government subsidizes the hell out of our farmers.

>Are all americans crazy about having insurences for.. like everything ?

Not really. 40 million Americans didn't even bother getting health insurance until the government forced them to.

You have free education and medical care
They don't

This is a very broad topic. There are some websites for this to give you good answers. Otherwise the replies here will be all over the place since that depends on many different factors. But as a short answer, the two most important factors are your salary and real estate prices. You could make six digits and still never afford your own house (NYC, Bay area) or you can make 70-80K a year and live like a king (ex. the Midwest outside of big cities like Chicago).

>Donald Trump
>old money
The Astor family, Roosevelt family, and even the Bush family are the real old money. Trump literally cannot be compared to them.

>France could double its GDP per capita tomorrow and still have an economy not even 1/3 the size of the US's.

Ironically despite all the "fat American" jokes it seems that people keep forgetting the ridiculous number of people who live in the US. Give the UK a GDP per capita of $150,000, and it still wouldn't have an economy even half as large as the US's.

*it seems that people keep forgetting the sheer size of the US

this

America is the third largest country by population in the world.

American here. I make 550k annually, my wife makes about 250k. Feelsgood.

I am fat though due to burgers, damnit.

We don't get our shit for free. We have to bust our asses to get it. When you get 320 million people busting their asses working 60 hours a week, alot of shit gets done.

>didn't even bother
See, we first need to define which income group we are talking about. If you talk solid middle class and higher, most people carry:
- health insurace (100-300USD a month)
- car insurnace (anything from 500USD a year for a cheaper car up to 2000USD a year if you are under 25)
- homeowner's insurance (500-1000USD a year)
- life insurance (i dont have it, but usually very cheap)

yup, really popular here
economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-12

"""Free"""

My employer pays for my medical care. I spent 5 days in the hospital this year and paid a whopping $0 for the privilege. I do pay $5 per prescription though, of course that's a lot in Polandland.

>20h
well all that matters is how much you make an hour.

Correction, it was 6 days. And the quality of care was extremely high, I was treated like a King and didn't have to wait for anything.

what if you're retired, or your employer doesn't?

>employer doesn't
only if a really shitty job or self employed
when you retire you get a medicare coverage (if you worked a certain number of years) or medicaid (if you are poor) ,

american upperclass doesn't exist, chances of you being born into upperclass is non existent.

My brother was unemployed and his son got cancer. He paid nothing, government paid for everything and his son got first-class treatment by top doctors for a year. My brother also went on dialysis at the same time. Didn't pay a dime.

*My nephew succumbed to cancer anyway. Cancer fucking sucks. :(

>what if you're retired
Medicare.

>or your employer doesn't
You're fucked, but all government jobs and just about any job that requires skill and education will pay for your healthcare.

not to say that everyone does, though. Most people still work full-time. Wages are okay in the Netherlands and although taxes are relatively high, the quality of life assured by the government is really good (in my opinion), as in that it is the right balance between a free market with opportunities, whilst still being fair for everybody.

It has to be a really shitty job. Even most fast-food workers get health care.

is Philips your largest employer?

i see, seems okay... the general tone of discussion about US healthcare stills seems to be negative though, but I don't really know too much about that to be fair.

feel sorry for you man :((

sorry i didn't make myself clear, i mean to say, if you only work 20h a week, you can do it here, at places like walmart, but you get paid per hour so it sounds really horrible. so i was just curious if you can maintain a decent life style in the netherlands only working 20hrs a week.

it certainly used to be, post-WW2, (my granddad was a chemist for them egg.) especially in the southern part of the Netherlands (North-Brabant etc) but because of various reasons the company has dropped off in size and holds a fraction of what it used to be, although it's still large. The largest employer right now is actually the National Police force, with just over 50k employees iirc

>US healthcare stills seems to be negative though
well it is politics, people mostly talk about the worse case. it is about equality, and social issues, and poor people, and gimmidats etc.
if you have good education or learned a good trade, you will be fine here. but being poor really sucks here. that's the main difference.

Well, the majority of part-time workers are female, and the general theme you'll see is that young couples who have a child (or something similar to that situation) will split up the financial responsibility in 20h each.

Usually that will be a pretty nice lifestyle, and you won't have many problems with money.

Single-worker households sometimes can manage to work part-time only, but you need to be good at what you do, often it's freelancing for a very high hourly tarif (€250/hr or such). That really isn't for everyone though.

Being poor has always sucked in comparison to not being poor, throughout human history, in every single country. There's are some quality of life improvements a few small countries have managed to work out over the USA for poor people. Good for them, hopefully the USA cleans up the mess that is Obamacare and actually makes it work for the people. And hopefully Trump brings back some jobs to America for those who want to work but can't because of globalization.

But in general, I've been poor in the US for years. I grew up relatively poor. It's not that bad unless you're poor as dirt and in that case there are programs that will kick in to cushion your rock bottom.

Because we are considerably productive + Americans work their fucking assess off.

That's not an exageration. I've been to several Euro countries and you guys don't approach work like we do.

It's not uncommon for middle managementt and up to work 70+ hour weeks.


meme ad, but ring of truth

youtu.be/xNzXze5Yza8

Good point. to be honest i think it's a pity Americans come up with their hur dur dur muh american dream shit to make it seem more fair

True, it's almost insane to me how little off time Americans have. 4 fucking weeks on average? And then have to spend it with your family...

I'm living proof the American dream exists for some people. After tripping my ass on shrooms I decided to make some major changes in my life and find a valuable trade. I'm now a homeowner, free of debt, and have a good trade job that pays well.

The fact the American dream exists, however, isn't a good reason to not try to improve things for the poor. Providing better jobs is the best thing we can do, and for those unable to work due to disability or other major reasons, we provide reasonable welfare.

There's definitely an attitude difference in the USA, that if you can work, and work is available to you, but you refuse to take it because you're lazy... well... you made your bed, now lie in it. Some would say that's morally wrong, but I think at best it's morally grey. We're not in a post-scarcity utopian society yet.

That's often a choice. Most jobs will let you negotiate it at the expense of salary. I choose to work a job that gives me unlimited vacation. Last year I took off about 9 weeks and traveled to Europe and Asia.

We work harder, better, faster, and stronger. Seriously.

No need to get angry big boi, I don't want you to get a heart attack

nice for you (seriously no /s)

More opportunities because they're a big country with lots of people and resources

>even though americans are stupid as fuck on average

If they're so stupid how come they have more money than the average German?

Checkmate Steiner

Like india or Russia or nigeria?

>And that even though americans are stupid as fuck on average.

America isn't even in the top ten

oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/hours-worked/average-annual-hours-actually-worked_data-00303-en?isPartOf=/content/datacollection/lfs-hw-data-en

Mexico 2246
Korea 2113
Greece 2042
Chile 1988
Russian Federation 1978
Poland 1963
Iceland 1880
Portugal 1868
Israel 1858
Estonia 1852

From reading lots and lots of burger stories on the internet, it appears to me that about 2/3 of them work a second job, seriously WTF? 80 hours a week? Even as stereotypically work-obsessed nation, this seems extremely excessive. Some (5-10% I guess) apparently do a third part-time job on top of that, totalling up at 100 hours?
Yeah naw, fuck that, I'd rather do my regular 40 even if it means I can't afford my 3rd 400hp gaz guzzler and 2nd heated hectare-sized swimming pool

you know the difference

>70+ hour weeks.
kek, make that 100

>From reading lots and lots of burger stories on the internet,
that's the best source of info!

>about 2/3 of them work a second job
yeah, right keep reading, you will find what you want to find.

Work makes you free. This is where all the freedom comes from

Just a general impression desu, working more than one job is extremely rare here in comparison

>Work makes you free
You like literal translations, don't you

yeah could be. jedem das seine :D

I get paid $26 an hour to bag groceries lmao

Just a reminder that working long doesn't equal working hard, having worked with americans made me realise that people mostly try to get by in work hours doing nothing or little, even doing personal shit in work hours.

Eh, getting paid €16/h for simple office job but still wouldn't want to swap with you, as long as my beer goes for €11 per 20x0.5L crate (premium brands, cheap ones are available from €5) and my wine for €0.80/L (growers in family)

That applies to you too. You stated that you read a lot of stores on the internet about americans working 2 jobs. So you spent a lot of time and came to a wrong conclusion. Thats not very efficient. 5 seconds of googling would get you much further:

reliableplant.com/Read/25992/Americans-working-one-job

There is a link at the bottom that will lead you to the source data: US dept of labor. As you can see 5% is not exactly 2/3, right?

I thought Germans were smart? Or you are 15?

>immigrants
>ghetto trash
>working

There's at least two of us ITT desu

Please tell me about my country some more you slope eyed cunt.

Because we don't believe in socialism and thus we pay lower taxes.

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youtube.com/watch?v=PTBl2BBpWSY

They don't mean 2 full time jobs, fuckhead.

Americans have higher tax rates than Canadians.

The only difference is that our upper class starts around $200k and yours at around $400k.

Okay, then "guaranteed". Better?

>26$ per hour

That's like 3 days worth of my shitjob. What is this black magic?

Brb, moving to Alberta

>what is this black magic
Living in a first world country

>After tripping my ass on shrooms I decided to make some major changes in my life and find a valuable trade.
I did exactly that, but with acid. I also quit smoking after that trip.
What trade? HVAC here

wtf how are you the only socialist government with income taxes below like 40% on the middle class

Wages in Australia are inflated to account for the ludicrous cost of everyday goods

>middle class in the US
That thing that doesn't exist?

As free as police, roads, fire departments, that army, the navy, the bombs dropped on the middle east, politician's salaries, and the reimbursement banks get.

>t. poorfag

I thought that was the OP who said
>americans are stupid as fuck on average

so I thought he was really smart but he disappointed me :D

wtf are you talking about