If Sweeden became a US state

Haha I like that comment about how everybody is bashing the use of median income while offering a more arbitrary and harder to measure metric instead. Somebody correct me... but wouldn't that be a pretty good metric if it's pre-tax, since that would be without healthcare costs on both sides anyways? I would think that using anything but pre-tax "revenue" (median income for individuals) you would have to argue why one cost (healthcare) should be considered but other costs (shelter, food, autos, education) shouldn't. So I guess you would want to carry it through to one of the logical ends, but to use disposable income you would have to then be able to compare quality of life on a quantitative basis, which rules that one out too (in my opinion).

This reminds me, perhaps unfairly, of the the "cost of living as businessman" things that used to be published every year or so, that showed that Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen were so and so many times more expensive that the average city. Not just per cent, times.

The major factor behind that was child care: Hiring a full-time nanny for your children is awfully expensive in Oslo, therefore being a businessman is awfully expensive.

Now, Oslo is expensive. No question. But noone needs a full-time nanny there, even if they might in Mumbai.

Perhaps the mental association is unfair. Perhaps the OECD data it's based on includes a comprehensive model of such things. Sweden and Germany have efficient health, childcare and education funding, the US does worse, all of that could be factored into such a comparison and perhaps they are factored into this one.

I guess the Swedish government could borrow a lot of money to lower their taxes on income. That would look great in your stats, but the national debt would quietly sky rocket behind the scene, just like in the US.

Of-course america is going to be country with the most american dollars !

All this analysis tells me is that america is suffering from the same sort of inflation that Spain suffered when it stopped becoming the economical power house and Britain suffered during the 20th Century. What happens is money that was issued as dollar debt to foreigners creeps back into the economy that taxes in american dollar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)...

This list should tell you everything - The difference in purchasing power between a Swed and american is just 6,000 dollars.

This is not even accounting for how expensive healthcare /education is in america - since america does a shitty job training its doctors compared to European nations - and even cuba.