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Comment by cscurmudgeon | Hacker News Reader

I know this is a joke trash comment but sometimes politely responding with data may be helpful.

The average income in the US is $20k higher than that in Sweden.

https://www.worlddata.info/country-comparison.php?country1=S...

US is a top destination for Swedes moving out even without this incentive, but Sweden is not a top choice for US expats.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/523165/sweden-emigration...

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/american-...

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GDP per capita is an almost completely meaningless metric if you don’t also include cost of living and some way of measuring the quality of goods and services it acquires for you.

That is not GDP per capita but average income.

Feel free to add more data.

If you adjust by living costs and look at median wages, US looks even better.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

Does that extra 20k offset the chance you're going to go bankrupt by a medical bill or have your children shot at school?

Why don’t you do the computation?

Balancing out taxes are lower and inflation is lower in the US.

Answering your question:

Adjusting by PPP, US is second only to Luxembourg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

> Why don’t you do the computation

This was your response to my question about children being shot at school. It's clear we have a very different set of values here in Europe.

School shootings are an infinitesimal risk, gun violence in general might be worth pricing into the expected gain of moving into the US though

In 2024 in America, there have been 133 children killed or injured by gun violence at school. With about 74 million legal children, that’s 0.000798%.

I couldn’t find 2024 statistics, but in 2023 there were 391 gang-related gun deaths in Sweden. With about 10 million people, that’s 0.00391%.

America has gun problems for sure, but school shootings are largely irrelevant compared to deaths from crime and accidents. And it’s not “clear” that you have “a very different set of values” in Europe when we’re discussing a nearly 10 year wave of gun violence in a European country

Pro tip: when you check anything about the US skip the average and go for the median, it's completely skewed by the top 5%

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in...

Pro tip

1. This also applies to Sweden

2. Even by median income US is higher than Sweden and even after adjusting for PPP, so you can use cost of living. US looks better after addressing your concerns.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

What is the rent for a two room apartment in New York vs Stockholm?

What is the real salary once you substract retirement funds and medical insurance?

Factor in 7% or so goes into 401K, but its up to you - and medical insurance is usually largely covered by the employer.

"What is the rent for a two room apartment in New York vs Stockholm?"

Those two cities aren't really in the same urban league. Compare Stockholm to, say, Miami or Austin.

Is hurricane alley going to pay this wonderful 20k more and is it worth it to live there? I know Europeans who went there but not who stayed. Those are terrible places to actually work.

Oh wow, 20k a year makes anything worth it.

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