r/politics • u/ben_watson_jr • May 19 '24

How Can This Country Possibly Be Electing Trump Again? Soft Paywall

https://newrepublic.com/article/181287/can-america-possibly-elect-trump-again
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u/stackens May 19 '24

And compared to our peers our inflation is actually pretty low

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u/themanebeat May 19 '24

And people are significantly richer in the US.

Not just who you think is rich, but by global standards nearly everyone in the US is in the top 1% globally in terms of wealth. Yes, you are a 1%er

Americans are incredibly spoilt and have everything they'll ever need

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u/Telzen Georgia May 19 '24

Fuck off. Americans don't get to spend their money in other countries, they spend it locally. It doesn't matter if the US dollar is crushing some other countries, that doesn't help any of us afford food or housing. And spoiled? Americans? The people living paycheck to paycheck? The people who don't get free Healthcare like most of the other rich countries?

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u/themanebeat May 19 '24 edited May 19 '24

Look at how cheap gas is for your car, or how much your car costs in the first place. Or how little you're taxed. Or how many people there, even poor, have smartphones

Coming from Europe you can easily see that even spending locally Americans earn more, pay less for stuff, live in far bigger houses, and are taxed less.

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u/CarcosaAirways May 19 '24

Spot on. That's not to say America is better than Europe, of course. Europeans may be better off. Stats show they're happier. I'm certainly happier in Europe than when I was in the US. But the social safety net comes at a cost. Everyone pays their fair share in taxes, rich, middle class, and poor. Houses are MUCH smaller on average. They have less cars, and the ones they do have are more expensive and smaller. Gas costs more. Hell, they even use less air conditioning. The wages they earn are lower even after factoring in all the welfare benefits the state provides.

America could realistically have many of those benefits too and still be richer. If Americans were taxed at rates similar to Europeans and got similar benefits, they'd likely still have more money left over and more things (house, car, etc.) to show for it. But anyway, all that to say, Americans are more well off than they realize.