https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_...
The #1 rate of incarceration (by far):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...
The #1 healthcare costs (by far):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_h...
There are a lot of problems here that you are glossing over.
- Rate of incarceration may also mean that USA does a good job of imparting justice / catch criminals.
- Healthcare costs looks like an issue, but socialized systems also have their problems (bad quality, wrong economic incentives for doctors to improve their practice, etc.)
The rate of incarceration is largely due to the war on drugs. There’s nothing just about it.
I’d take NHS (despite its flaws) over my >2k /month health insurance any day of the week.
Would you also take the 40% reduction in post-tax, post-healthcare, post-retirement pay?
I actually favor a stronger social safety net and I agree that we need to reign in inequality (because an egalitarian society of very wealthy people and very poor people strikes me as completely infeasible in the same way that a prosperous socialist or communist country is completely infeasible), but that will almost certainly mean the professional class is worse-off. Reasoning soberly about tradeoffs is imperative IMO.
Yes, and I have! What I missed most when not living in the US:
* variety of everything
* large appliances
What I missed least:
* driving/car culture
* overwork
So sadly I found I was actually a typical “consumer” who wants things that are pretty crappy for the environment (except for the car thing). I was fine with getting paid less than I would in the US because as a senior technologist, I was making way more than most of the locals and the economy was tuned to their pay.
You aren't going to get a clear picture by cherry picking statistics that support your conclusion. You need to contextualize. Of course, if your goal isn't to get a clear, honest picture then we're aiming for different things and we may as well part ways now.
EDIT: From wikipedia, regarding measures of inequality:
> Gini coefficients are simple, and this simplicity can lead to oversights and can confuse the comparison of different populations; for example, while both Bangladesh (per capita income of $1,693) and the Netherlands (per capita income of $42,183) had an income Gini coefficient of 0.31 in 2010,[53] the quality of life, economic opportunity and absolute income in these countries are very different, i.e. countries may have identical Gini coefficients, but differ greatly in wealth.
In short, your claim is too subjective to be useful and is directly contradicted by multiple metrics.
Maybe you're arguing that I have no way of knowing that poorer people would be envious of richer people; fair enough, "envious" was figurative language on my part.