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So move to Canada, what's stopping you? What are you smoking, poverty wages for waiters? A fellow intern at Goldman told me that she made $400 a night waitressing in Manhattan in 1997. Today in Manhattan, somebody with zero skills working at Chipotle makes over $60K per year + 401(k)+health insurance + dental plans plus two meals a day. On Maui, a guy told me his daughter is a waitress at Mama's Fish House, and despite the place pooling tips, she clears more than $400 per day, plus health insurance, dental. Lastly, the wealth statistics are clearly bullshit. For starters, how do the statistics account for pensions, social security, private businesses? In the US, more than sixty five percent of households own their own homes. 40.3% of US homes are owned without a mortgage. So more than 26% of us households own at least one home without a mortgage. Also, it would be instructive to know how many of people with median wealth below $60K in the US worked for at least thirty years. Costco pays $33 per hour to someone who works as a cashier with 30 years of experience, with health insurance, dental and 401(k). Is that poverty level too? Most of the kids I went to high school were first generation immigrants, most parents worked menial jobs, and now after thirty to forty years of working, all parents own their own homes, many own two homes. So spare me the bullshit about poverty level wages. Lastly, you are missing cultural differences - in Europe they save, in US they spend. know a 45 year old guy and his 40 year old wife, they live in a studio paying $1100 a month on Maui, combined income close to $150K per year, yet have no savings. I know a doctor and his wife, $600K annual income in NYC, zero savings, why? Take-out twice a day and four vacations a year including a $40K a year cruise. (By the way, a relative is a doctor in residency with $200K in debt and making $70K a year and aged 29. In a few years, once she finishes residency, she is going to be making $300K+ per annum. So is she poor? A 29 European doctor is wealthier according to government statistics, but in reality, how much would he make in Europe once residency is over?)

Why is it that the loudest people normally have the least to say? And how can you base your beliefs on what Trump says when all he does is lie?

Nobody is comfortable with China or any foreign power vacuuming up American personal data. But voter rolls are public records. In those 18 states voter registration files are public information. Political campaigns, corporate data brokers, and commercial marketers legally buy or download this exact data every day. The declassified intelligence files don't show a hack of secure government databases. They show China gathering data that is already legally out there. They don’t contain SSNs or Driver's Licenses. Publicly accessible state voter files do not contain highly sensitive information like Social Security numbers or driver’s license data. States are required by law to keep those specific identifiers strictly confidential and restricted. You can't use it to steal a vote. Simply knowing someone’s public name and address does not allow a foreign adversary to request a ballot and vote it. Election security relies on localized verification. In fact, the declassified documents released by the White House themselves explicitly state there is zero evidence that China altered voter rolls, produced fake ballots, or changed a single vote tally. So it’s not about hypocrisy. It’s about a fundamental difference in the crime. Russia and Iran carried out cyber warfare by illegally hacking into private, encrypted servers to steal confidential, non public data for hack and leak operations. China is playing a long-game information warfare strategy by scraping public records to map out American demographics and target us with social media manipulation. Both are threats to be taken seriously, but only one is a breach of actual election security infrastructure.

i think the US is the best place to be at the top 20% or so of society (sometimes I think this number is actually like top 2% but not really)...it drops off pretty quickly after that....if you have median gumption, median intelligence or median privilege, i don't think it's a great place to be relative to the others on your list. it's certainly a better place to be than other places not on your list. also, US is best place to live a suburban lifestyle, if you have a enough $$$. but asia is so much better for urban lifestyle because its so much safer and infrastructure is better. also, median asian and jewish wealth is about $0.5mm and median white wealth is $280K...so about 2/3 of the country represented by those folks are doing better than the whole.

Fair point. I was thinking more from money being split between different opportunities (?) between stock market and sports bet. CBOE is looking attractive compared to its peers. I need to dig more to see why its lacking interest in the group. The last comment in the investment ideas forum was in 2020.

And forgive me for being blunt. The Chinese stole the data directly from government databases. 18 States. Worse, yet - Biden Admin did NOT tell you. If the media spins it as "harmless data, they are lying. The hack is actually sensitive & confidential voter data that IS NOT publicly available. Chinese intelligence reportedly accessed millions of U.S. voter records, stealing sensitive information including partial Social Security numbers, driver's license data, and detailed voter profiles from at least 18 states. The data breach involved names, addresses, and voting histories. And with this information - they can obtain a voters ballot and vote. Regardless - are you comfortable with the Chinese having YOUR SS#, DL, Address, Name, etc?? I doubt you are - shit, even an American Corporation is required BY LAW to notify you personally that YOUR private data has been hacked. In this case - you are finding out YEARS later your private information has been hacked, since Biden Intelligence Agencies BURIED the hack.

The point is that the lawsuits brought by Biden DOJ were BECAUSE of the threat to Federal Elections. The data was hacked by Iran and Russia and stolen to influence the elections - according to Biden DOJ. It is almost identical in INTENT - but in potential impact, totally dwarfed by the massive amount of voter data that China hacked. Can't have it both ways - and say Trump is wrong, but Biden is not. That is just hypocrisy.

The Brookings Institute did a famous study. How can a person do well in the USA - ie., stay out of poverty?? 3 Things only required only in general: 1) Graduate from High School 2) Get a full time job 3) Do not have children out of wedlock https://www.brookings.edu/articles/three-simple-rules-poor-teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/

I have a suspicion this has less to do with universal healthcare than with wanting to live the ski bum lifestyle.

The United States is loaded with poor people. There are more whites in poverty than blacks. Thing is, most everyone has more than enough food to eat. Food is cheap here. Many of the poor are fat. Many Americans are fat. Most people have a place to live, a car, and air conditioning. Poor have access to decent health care. So it really depends on what you are measuring.

You're right, and re: Vancouver I totally agree, not even up for consideration. I am looking more into the interior (golden, revel, kimberley etc.). I just think at least in Canada and EU, the social safety net (mainly healthcare) solves a lot of problems that would bankrupt a similar person in the states. It keeps people off the streets and makes society itself less cutthroat. I spent 10 years in Canada so I know it's not perfect, but weighing the pros/cons vs the States, I think it's a more reasonable tradeoff. Put more bluntly: I'd trade 100 US billionaires, and all the "wealth" they've created, for a more Canadian-esque society.

If your goal is to escape the $1M homes and struggling service workers, BC may not be the refuge you think. Vancouver is one of the least affordable housing markets in the developed world, while Canadian wages are lower than comparable U.S. wages. In BC workers are being priced out of the communities they serve with long commutes, and high housing costs.

Honestly as I get older I find less and less reasons to remain in the US. Quality of life is just worse on the average. Who wants to go out to eat and realize the waitress, the cooks, even the manager are living on the poverty line or already in poverty? It's gross and has only gotten worse over my lifetime. Colorado is great because of the natural altitude, but it's not ski bums and crunchy hippies anymore, it's the rich who can afford 1M+ homes, and the have-nots that serve them and are forced to live in, essentially, ghettos. BC is looking better by the day. I am lucky to have citizenship options elsewhere in actual first-world countries.

#15. Germany $53,485 - $346,614 is higher than #28. US $68,998 - $696,277 ?

Depends on how you measure wealth. Looks like the US has the highest number on the far right. If you are seeking to qualify that number, perhaps keep in mind that the US also is the Country with the most opportunity for success, if not one of them. With opportunity comes success and failure, which also creates income/wealth disparity. If you further want to qualify the number on the right, Americans also spend as much or more than residents of any other Country and my guess is the savings rate in the US is not as high as some of the other countries, on average. And then there is the recently ended open border policy that allowed anyone to come into the US - not conducive to increasing per capita wealth statistics. I think the only thing one can conclude is that your chart should be taken with a grain of salt.

Yep, if you start your adult life with student loans, pay a high rent, and have to finance a car your net worth stays near zero for a long time, even if you have a high income.

I am reading....looks like rents and debt could be the main reasons...it seems that if you factor in the value of public safety nets (that Europeans have and it is like an hidden wealth and US have not) the gap is bigger...

Yes, unpermitted operations should just get shut down until they get a permit. It’s that simple, imo. Looks like a datacenter near Palm Beach is also get shut down. That would be close to Mar-a -Largo: https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-project-tango-decision-ai-data-center-palm-beach-county/71940999

The reason Southern Europeans have higher median wealth isn't because they earn more money. It’s because of housing equity. In Italy and Spain homeownership is high and properties are passed down through generations without massive mortgage debt. Americans have access to the world’s largest high wage labor market and the opportunity to build a business. They have exceptional earning potential and purchasing power. The same economy that produces extreme inequality also creates extraordinary upside for those who succeed. Americans have substantially higher disposable incomes than Italians or Spaniards even though median wealth is higher in some European countries.

Trump targeting PIX payment system via tariffs. I don‘t think this goes anywhere: https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trump-brazil-payment-system-pix-097bacaa?mod=world_feat3_americas_pos2

In median wealth for person....is behind Italy, Spain, Portugal....etc... If you have different numbers please show them ( and source). Thx.

Hi, I always get the impression that people on this forum think of US as a rich country...with a great capitalistic system that produce wealth left and right if you only want to put the effort and have the initiative to do something in your life...the American dream...everyone has a shot at big success... Enough talk let's show the numbers (global wealth report 2026 is the source)...: Median Wealth vs. Mean Wealth per Adult Rank (Median) Country / Market Median Wealth (USD) Mean Wealth (USD) Impact of Inequality / Insights 1 Luxembourg $394,005 $654,732 Balanced distribution; exceptionally wealthy middle class. 2 Belgium $277,166 $408,000 High wealth equality with widespread homeownership. 3 Australia $210,783 $616,036 Widespread wealth, but heavily skewed upward by ultra-rich. 4 New Zealand $206,617 $449,852 Strong balance between total country wealth and distribution. 5 Denmark $203,771 $523,344 Robust social safety net supporting middle-class stability. 6 Hong Kong (SAR) $187,968 $648,267 Major financial hub with extreme capital concentration at the top. 7 Canada $147,811 $399,886 Significantly more equitable distribution than its US neighbor. 11 Italy ~ $110,000 $279,439 Solid baseline wealth due to high homeownership and private savings. 15 Germany $53,485 $346,613 Low homeownership rates; real estate wealth is concentrated in few hands. 28 United States $68,998 $696,277 Extreme gap; billionaires heavily inflate a mean detached from daily reality.

More like a dragon egg that had been marinating for a decade at medium heat before anything comes out of it.

Agreed. There has been one modest step towards something like this in an effort to reduce tax fraud (folks claiming dependent credits for children who don’t exist). It has been quite standard for decades now for Social Security cards/numbers to be made available for newborns by filling out a form made available to parents at the hospital where the birth took place. Still possible for some folks to fall through the cracks if they aren’t born at a hospital, or if their parents aren’t responsible and either don’t request one or lose one if it was issued. But the idea that from birth an individual should be uniquely identified and given documentation regarding their citizenship status either for free or at low cost makes a lot of sense. I wonder how citizenship was provable in the Roman world? In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was arrested and brought before the local authorities. He surprised the local governor by appealing his case to Caesar in Rome, which was his right as a Roman citizen. Perhaps he did not look that wealthy, because I recall that the person to whom he was appealing his case reacted in surprise and mentioned that his own Roman citizenship had cost him quite a bit of money. Paul replied something to the effect that he was born a Roman citizen. I think his father was a Roman citizen, which under Roman law, made him one also, from birth. At any rate, he appears to have been believed, and was sent on his way as a prisoner to Rome to have his case heard there. Unfortunately, I think the emperor at the time would have been Nero, which probably didn’t bode well for the eventual outcome of his appeal. My guess is there would have been some sort of birth registry/records available that would have supported Paul’s citizenship contention 2000 years ago.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pollution-musks-unpermitted-xai-power-project-hits-hardest-black-communities-2026-07-14/ Focusing just on the emissions element: A Reuters analysis based on that information found that those 30 turbines alone could emit nearly 2,500 short tons of nitrogen oxide, 4,000 short tons of carbon monoxide and 22 short tons of formaldehyde annually, assuming they operate continuously at 80% of capacity. According to the EPA, gas turbines are typically operated at loads of 80% or more to achieve efficiency. ... The xAI site’s potential emissions far exceed a Clean Air Act threshold that requires permitting for facilities capable of more than 100 short tons annually of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide.