Exactly, your GDP PPP can be double that of the US and it does you absolutely squat if the median wage is 10 times lower.
I swear I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen this low level of topical knowledge in a post on HN as this one.
I swear I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen this low level of topical knowledge in a post on HN as this one.
Whether it's better to take the median income or the per capita GDP (which is closer to the mean income) to represent the "typical" person is a different question.
Countries like Ireland and Singapore have per capita GDPs that are 10-30% higher than the US, yet median wages are lower.
Wikipedia even has section explaining why:
Many of the leading GDP-per-capita (nominal) jurisdictions are tax havens whose economic data is artificially inflated by tax-driven corporate accounting entries.