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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

For a long time America has been by far the richest country in the world, without a credible second place (though maybe China is that now)

And yet for decades the quality of life of hundreds of millions of Americans is lower than that of people in other, poorer developed countries.

Why is that? What's the point in having the richest country if it doesn't have the best conditions for those living in it?

Is it worthwhile just being rich for the sake of being rich, even if you get no benefit from it?

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> And yet for decades the quality of life of hundreds of millions of Americans is lower than that of people in other, poorer developed countries.

This statement is wildly ignorant or intentionally misleading, you are claiming that at the very least 2/3 of all americans have a quality of life worse than other poorer countries. this is simply a false unsubstantiated statement.

No, it's completely true. Most Americans do not have a better quality of life than most Swedes, most Danes, or most Germans.

I think part of many Americans' quality of life definition is the possibility to hit it big and end up in the top 10% and have an even better life than most Swedes/Danes/Germans. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

There is no objective measure of quality of life. It might well be that you personally would rather be poor there than here, but it's not an objective and verifiable statement, and it could easily go the other way. It depends on which factors that you, personally, rate highest.

I agree that there is no 100% objective measure; however, that doesn't mean that we cannot look at common factors and get an overall idea.

Something along the lines of the degree to which one's life allows them to: Meet their physical needs Own a house/land Raise a family Have atonomy Satisfy higher needs such as education, creativity, self improvement, etc.

Depending on how you measure how "rich" a country is, the US often isn't #1 and there are plenty that are a close #2 (Japan, Western Europe).

And yes, the quality of life for many Americans is lower than developing countries, but that's because the developing countries have become richer.

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