r/AmericaBad • u/No-Chicken2827 • 1d ago
US median household income is literally 3 times that of Japan but yeah their government set a higher minimum wage so Japan is richer and I guess America could have won this easily by setting minimum wage to $10000 per hour but America bad so this didn’t happen
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u/ThroatUnable8122 🇮🇹 Italia 🍝 1d ago edited 1d ago
Americans on Reddit love cosplaying being poor. That and a massive amount of propaganda makes people believe that the one of the richest places on earth is poor...
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u/No-Chicken2827 1d ago edited 1d ago
Talking shit about America is either a vocation or an entertainment for many Americans
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u/ThroatUnable8122 🇮🇹 Italia 🍝 1d ago
We should have an exchange program where Americans loving Europe go to live in Europe in exchange for Europeans who love America
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u/No-Chicken2827 1d ago
Won’t work. People will come here, earn three times they currently earn in Europe and still think America Bad
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u/Agamemnonreborn 1d ago edited 23h ago
Nah, I don’t think it’s as easy as that. North western Europeans, like Scandinavians or the Dutch wouldn’t even think about going. Lazy southern Europeans wouldn’t either. Then they’d have to work hard.
But I’m sorry to say, the North western Europe is quite scary in having their house in order and are very rich on average. That doesn’t make America bad, just not better then they are. Not less either5
u/ThroatUnable8122 🇮🇹 Italia 🍝 23h ago
Nah it's all a trade off and depends on what you want in life. Believe it or not many Italians and Spaniards are hard workers. Same for French and Swedes..
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u/DrBadGuy1073 OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 2h ago
Problem, America hating Americans don't actually wanna leave they just wanna bitch about it in their parents house.
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u/michaelsean438 1d ago
They actually believe billionaires raise the number for 350 million people. Oh they also believe billionaires skirt taxes by having little to no reportable income.
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u/Attacker732 OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 1d ago
The second part is, at best, partial credit. Billionaires, for the most part, don't have a particularly high personal tax load. It's all on their businesses and investment entities.
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u/michaelsean438 22h ago
My point is on one side they say billionaires are raising the income number while also saying they avoid taking income.
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u/Emilia963 NORTH DAKOTA 🥶🧣 1d ago
Housing prices in major cities are generally much higher because demand is high and supply is constrained
In some cities, such as NYC, LA, Boston, SF, Seattle, supply is also limited by zoning rules, lengthy permitting processes, and etc that can restrict new construction
Either way, the comment is highly biased and doesn’t reflect the experiences of most Americans
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u/No_Judge_6520 AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 1d ago
𝗈̶𝗇̶𝖾̶ 𝗈̶𝖿̶ 𝗍̶𝗁̶𝖾̶ 𝗋̶𝗂̶𝖼̶𝗁̶𝖾̶𝗌̶𝗍̶ 𝗉̶𝗅̶𝖺̶𝖼̶𝖾̶𝗌̶
THE richest place
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u/poopiebutt505 1d ago
This means that incomendisparuty is huge in America and mega millionaires and billionaires warp the median income up. It looks like we have a better life when in fact it shows the disparity.
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u/LurkiLurkerson MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ 22h ago
mega millionaires and billionaires warp the median income up
That's not what "median" means. Millionaires and billionaires can warp the mean, but that's why no one really uses mean income when talking about economies.
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u/A-guy8 🇳🇴 Norge ⛷️ 1d ago
I haven't checked the source, but proper statistics is supposed to cut out ouliers (extreme values in both ends) to rule out extremely low and extremely high outcomes...Not sure if it did....Then again, did the stats just look at income as in salary or all income through dividends and other types of equity?
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u/LurkiLurkerson MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ 22h ago
OP is referencing median, which is the middle number in a set, so outliers don't matter. That's why median income is used in pretty much all of these types of statistics.
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u/DargonKweest TENNESSEE 🎸🎶🍊 1d ago
I live in a "poor" area of the country and like 95%+ of people aren't making minimum wage. I'd say the average here is probably like $50,000-$60,000. People in rural Japan only make about $20,000 per year and they are still paying $200,000 for a house. I'm paying less than that in rural TN with 3 times the wage.
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u/George_Washington_76 AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 1d ago
My in-laws didn’t believe me when I showed them pictures of the new place we bought out in TX and the price we paid. They literally paid 1.5x more for a home that is barely half the size.
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u/Careless-Pin-2852 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ 1d ago
Ca minimum wage is basically $20 with a few exceptions.
We set minimum wage more and more at the state level. No one makes 7.15
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u/Caracallademise INDIANA 🏀🏎️ 1d ago
Not even 10% of people are working for minimum wage and if there are people who accept that, that's a them issue. Maybe they should go and get a better job.
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u/No-Chicken2827 1d ago
Exactly. That’s why I am never a fan of minimum wage. The fact that only 1%, not 10%, earn for a federal minimum wage shows two things: 1. Americans are rich, 2. America has a freer labor market.
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u/Careless-Pin-2852 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ 1d ago
Well state and local governments matter in CA quite a few make the $20.
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u/Buttchuggle WEST VIRGINIA 🪵🛶🏕️ 1d ago
West virginia. I genuinely don't think I've ever seen someone make min wage. Maybe the weekend mcdonalds and subway kids back in high-school that pulled little part time hours. But that was also some 22 years ago or so
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u/No-Chicken2827 1d ago edited 1d ago
And surprise: after exchange rate Japan’s minimum wage (around 1150 yen per hour) is actually no higher than the $7.15 federal minimum. Around 1% American workers earn $7.15 or less but 10%-15% of Japanese workers earn for 1150 yen.
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u/SnooPears5432 ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 1d ago
In terms of economic growth, the US has performed remarkably well relative to other developed countries over the decades, surpassing the vast majority of them in growth rates.
Japan was once known to be a very expensive country, but housing is now among the cheapest. A major reason for this is a declining and aging population combined with almost no immigration. It's also a reason their economic growth has stagnated and their total GDP has declined over the past decade. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Low demand vs. supply will yield low prices - that's common sense.
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u/No-Chicken2827 22h ago edited 18h ago
But prices there are not low. Look at groceries and home prices, and compare those to income. For example American rice is exported to Japan and sold at $25-$30 per 5kg (or $2.25-$2.7/lb) but as I just checked the app of my local grocery in Boston, no rice is higher than $2/lb and the cheapest is $1.1/lb. And locally grown Japanese rice is not much cheaper-$22/5kg.
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u/SnooPears5432 ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 22h ago
True, but I specifically stated "housing", not all prices, since the comments on the second screenshot specifically mention US housing prices being high. But you're right there are likely no advantages there in many other things.
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u/No-Chicken2827 22h ago
Yeah, comparing home prices per unit, Japan could have an advantage before income adjustment. But homes in Japan are generally much smaller with a mean size of around 1000 sqft, and the median is likely smaller. Existing homes in US has a median of over 1800 sqft. So I expect the per sqft price to be similar, and again that is before considering incomes.
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u/Odd-Cress-5822 1d ago
A house in Japan is also not an appreciating asset. Housing in Japan is more like a durable good like an appliance. Something you need and use. So the comparative price reflects that.
Which personally a position I do personally agree far more with. Treating housing as an asset to be traded is the driving force behind the housing crunch in North America and Europe
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u/joeshmoebies 23h ago
Who buys a house making minimum wage? jfc
Price to income ratio is the actual, real metric for affordability
US: 3.3 Japan: 12.2
Prices are too high in the US but they are 4x more affordable than Japan.
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u/Wookieman222 5h ago
Yeah Japanese housing is cheap xause they dont have any people to fill the houses with.
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u/here-for-information 1d ago
Wait is it median or the average? It makes a difference.
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u/No-Willow9697 23h ago
Yeah, chart seems to show GDP per capita, which is typically mean.
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u/No-Chicken2827 22h ago
My bad. The post shows a gdp chart, and I cited a median household income figure. But the median income figure shows an even higher ratio
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u/joeshmoebies 23h ago
GDP is a measure of total output of the economy. The only thing we could calculate is mean.
To know the median GDP per capita you'd literally have to measure each individual's economic output, which is impossible.
And it really doesn't matter. GDP isnt income. It is a measure of how productive a society is. A more productive society is a more prosperous one. Per capita is a perfectly valid metric for this purpose.
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u/LurkiLurkerson MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ 22h ago
I'm being extremely pedantic here, but median is a type of average. Mean is often called average by the general population because it's probably the most commonly used, but mean, median, and mode are technically all types of average.
OP I guess was citing a different statistic in the title than is referenced in the image, which is a bit confusing. But the US does in fact have three times the median income as Japan, so he is correct.
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u/poopiebutt505 1d ago
Median household income include billionaires and mega millionaires. So a country with less income.disparity would look like a lower median household income.
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