Out of pocket health care expenditure as a share of GDP per capita is fairly low in comparison with other wealthy nations. Of European nations, only Monaco, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France are lower (and not by much!).
Transportation spending is indeed higher in the US than most of the developed world, but it doesn't eat away much at the increased disposable income per capita -- proportionate to household income we're talking about a few thousand dollars higher, and most of that is a very recent development as costs went way up over the last few years.
Certainly food and cars is not more expensive than most European countries. Health insurance is also not that much expensive, it is only the way you pay it which in Europe is by tax. There is the issue of not being covered if you don't have a job but that's has nothing to do with price. The US is one of the cheapest countries in the world with pretty decent salaries and endless variation in house prices, there also always cheaper cities or alternative states. Try that in Europe or Australia or Canada, good luck.
>The (average) income is therefore calculated according to the Atlas method from the quotient of the gross national income and the population of the country.
Ah yeah, surely that doesn't get insanely screwed up by America's near top of the list inequality?
The average salary for 9 homeless people and 1 CEO is $100k! Americans are definitely better off than Europe!
I mean, the same is true of median income as well. People overestimate how much inequality affects the actual end numbers in the US. The median incomes in the poorest US states are still higher than most of the world.
