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Comment by PCI-eX16 | Hacker News Reader

Can you elaborate on this, because you probably can't get much of this with the average (let alone median, which is usually the measure for this sort of thing) US income at all. "Certain" is terribly vague, and US and Germany are both big countries. Your housing dollar goes a lot further in some places than others.

I'll bet anything Germans have access to better vacations than Americans.

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For example, if we compare the average homes in the US vs Germany, which it would be reasonable to assume is occupied by those in the average income bracket of those countries:

- The square footage in the American homes is almost double that of German homes, and European homes in general: https://mises.org/power-market/americans-have-much-more-livi...

> you probably can't get much of this with the average (let alone median, which is usually the measure for this sort of thing) US income at all. - Housing expenditure as percentage of the household income is lower in the US than pretty much everywhere in Europe, meaning American housing is more affordable with respect to American salaries: https://cdn.mises.org/styles/max_full/s3/hsgexpend_0.png

- If we're talking cars, the same car will usually cost more in Germany than it does in the US, despite the US buyer having a higher income: (Transportation section) https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_resu...

I’ll add that the average German in a major city like Berlin can be housed within walking distance to a local bakery, grocery, school/day care, and work. For Americans, long commute times from their presumably bigger homes is common..

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