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Comment by fnordian_slip | Hacker News Reader

In addition to what ManuelKiessling already said, I can also report that in my bubble this is not the case, but it is hard to accurately judge our bubbles.

According to this bar chart on wealth distribution in the EU [1] there is a huge difference between the average and median wages in Germany, so I would expect the group of poor workers to be much larger than we think it is.

Of course, being poor in Germany might mean something different than in the US, since we still have better access to healthcare (at least in my opinion, I don't know enough about the US system to be 100% sure).

[1]: http://media0.faz.net/ppmedia/aktuell/wirtschaft/831437975/1...

\EDIT: I should have cited the source accurately, the chart comes from the FAZ, a huge and respected German newspaper.

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Your chart is about assets not income/wages as you claim. Since the chart is in German too, readers can't see that.

People in Germany seem to prefer rent over freehold property, this might explain Germany's low numbers compared to other states.

Maybe my English skills aren't up to what I thought they were, so please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't "Bruttojahreseinkommen" "gross annual income"?

On the left there is wealth (/assets, "Vermögen"), then the next part is about the percentage of people who own houses ("Anteil Hausbesitzer"), and then comes the meat of the chart, the difference in gross annual income ("Bruttojahreseinkommen").

I am sorry to venture so far off topic, but I do most of my thinking either in German or in English which makes me vulnerable to stupid mistakes when the two overlap, so I would really appreciate it if you could tell me where I went wrong.

No sorry, you are right. There are also wages in this chart, I didnt't see that. Sorry for that...

But IMHO the difference between median and average isn't that big in Germany, even smaller than in Austria which doesn't have Hartz IV and Euro-Jobs. What would you consider acceptable? Also consider that these numbers may contain salaries for part-time jobs too. And those numbers are from 2010.

What would I consider acceptable? That's actually a good question, maybe I am just a bit hard to please. Now that I think about it again after a few days, you may be right, and I may just be too hard on Germany here.

It's probably just that I think that we should theoretically be in a good position to lower the divide between the rich and the poor, and instead it always seems to widen. I tend to forget that in a lot of other countries the situation is even worse, and maybe I should be thankful for what we have already achieved.

Thanks for the perspective, and a good Day of German Unity to you!

> People in Germany seem to prefer rent over freehold property, this might explain Germany's low numbers compared to other states.

For the average German, buying a house means 30 years of debt: 300 000 EUR vs. 50 000 EUR salary (which is actually 30 000 EUR due to taxes and mandatory health insurance).

But is this really different in other countries? I would say the numbers also apply for Austria. Although 300k is probably more the lower bound. Even if you built the house yourself in the rural area of the country. Austria already has a higher number of freehold property compared to Germany.

IMHO much of the difference between countries in this regard can be explained by tradition, history or population density.

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