Americans and Non-Americans, What is Your Opinion on the United States of America in General

[freedquaker]

sc94597 said:

freedquaker said:

Wealth Inequality in US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

The video forgets to mention a few things.

What Wasn't Said in "Wealth Inequality In America"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LHBViTZI0

It is true that Income Mobility is also important as the complementary video suggests but what THEY forget that the income mobility in US is also very low! So the legend that you can be a rich guy even if you are poor as heck is no longer true, by a long shot. A simple googling for "Income mobility US vs OECD" will provide you a legion of studies supporting this.

http://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobility/

The above study, for example, demonstrates the "Intergenerational earnings correlations accross OECD", and US is among the top, which is OPPOSITE of income mobility. In other words, US is not only a very UNEQUAL country in terms of income and even more so, in terms of wealth, worse yet, it is also one of the least income mobile countries.

sc94597 said:

freedquaker said:

For the last 20-30 years, things have changed big time. Just look at any economic statistics, US has started to lag severely. The wage rates are trailing, inequality is on the rise, health care system is shattering, and the education quality is suffering, not to mention the decades old infra structure. Just take a look at the following statistics and you'd be hard-pressed to believe that this is supposedly the leading country in the world!

http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/CN%20-%20United%20States.pdf

You forgot to mention things at which the U.S excels  though. Cost of living and marginal cost of living are much lower than other first-world countries. Economic mobility is at an all time high.

The link you posted shows the U.S. is above the OECD average in practically everything.

Some interesting quotes in your link:

"At the same time, the payoff for obtaining a higher education degree is much higher in the U.S. than in most OECD countries.
For example, over the course of his working life, a tertiary - educated man in the U.S. can expect to earn almost USD 675 000 more than a man with no more than an upper secondary or postsecondary non-tertiary education–far more than in any other country.
Meanwhile, a woman with tertiary education in the U.S. can expect to earn almost USD 390 000 more on average, an amount approached only by tertiary-educated women in Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom
Over the last decade, the earnings advantage of tertiary graduates over high school graduates has increased in the U.S.from 181% to 184% among men and from 169% to 175% among women . All told, the net present value of obtaining a higher education  –that is, the long term economic benefits, minus the associated costs  – is almost USD 330 000 for a man in the U.S. and more than USD 168 000 for a woman. Only in Portugal is this amount higher"

"Overall, the net public return in the U.S. amounts to USD 232 779 for each tertiary - educated man, and USD 84 313 for each tertiary-educated woman. For men, this public return is higher than in every country but Hungary; for women, it is the 7th-highest return among OECD countries"

And that is without conisdering non-economic factors to quality of life that should be considered. 

I actually did not forget to mention that. The US has of course many advantages, not everything is worse, many pros and cons. As you point out, many goods and services in US are way cheaper. However, you cannot just argue the quality of life with cheaper iphones, groceries and gas. There are many more vital things, which easily drag people to poverty. What's more expensive or worse in US? Healthcare, pre-college education, insurance, transportation, safety, freedom etc. The US lags most of the development in all of these.

What is also even more important is that even US is still better than half of the OECD in many aspects, things are GETTING WORSE, at least relatively. I am healthcare economist, so let's give an example about it. Life Expectancy at birth...

Year 2000 :

US : 76.7 years, OECD : 77.1

Year 2011 :

US : 78.7 years, OECD : 80.1

 

Now we are talking about the OECD AVERAGE, not the best of OECD, so it includes the likes of Chile, Mexico, and Turkey. The US was worse than this average, and the gap got bigger in 11 years; this is with 3 times the expenditure per person.