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Comment by danielvf | Hacker News Reader

90% is a a poorly chosen threshold for making America look bad vs other countries. American has a ridiculous number of upper middle class.

The 90% percentile income in America is around $200,000 per year. (Pre-tax). The 90% percentile household wealth in the US is around 1.5 million.

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So, what $200K is not a lot of money nor is $1.5 million. In Australia, some one earning $200,000 (US$133,000) gets a *MUCH* better life than anyone in America earning $200,000. Also, $US 1,500,000 does even by a house in a good neibourhood. The average house in all of Sydney is A$ 1,600,000 (US$,070,000)

Here are some of the reasons most Western countries are better than America:

1. Gun violence - I have offices in Sydney, London and in Sunnyvale. The American accepttance of violence is unique in the Western world.

2. No one is one sickness away from bankruptcy. My wife had a brain hemorrhage that paralysed her. Months in ICU with mulply brain surgeries followed by 18 months in world-class rehabilitation. Total cost, zero.

3. Compusury Employee paid pension. About 12% of all wages are paid into compusury superannuation. This means Australia has the4rd largest pool of investable funds in the world at USD 3.5 Trillion. Also, even the poorest have thousand in savings.

4. Education - Even in the worst schools the resources are better than most American schools.

America is a borderline failed state.

The USD 90% income is 200K USD. That's 300K AUD. The Australian 90% percentile income is 131,000 AUD per tax office stats. [1] That's less than half that of the US 90%. In fact, the threshold to move to a 99% income in Australia is lower than the US 90% income.

And that's even before taxes. Even a high tax US state like California has a lower total tax Australia.

But it's not just income, outside of health care, things are much cheaper in the US too. Sydney is an odd choice for talking about cheap housing. As you said, a median house price of 1 million USD. My local US city of comparable size has a median home price of $375K USD. I spot checked comparable vehicles, and they cost about 33% about more in Australia after currency conversion than in the US. Food, electricity, petrol, all more expensive than the US averages.

Government retirement plans is a similar story. As far as I can tell from [2] the maximum Australian pension payouts for a couple is 41,704 AUD per year. The US equivalent maximum social security would be 74,356 AUD. But Australian pension payments reduce based on your assets. As far as I can tell, having 1.5 million USD (2.2 million AUD) would zero out your pension payments.

[1] https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_1240/t_resize_width%2Cq_...

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