| I think you're putting too much weight into Picketty's fairly contentious conclusions. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/... https://www.econlib.org/archives/2014/06/unpersuaded.html https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/capital-... http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/krugman-reviews-picketty/ (for some starters, if you somehow have not seen how it is not the Bible that some people want it to be?). Also it is hard to compare Europe's norms which country-by-country are generally featuring a lot more ethnic-cohesion and have social spending heavily subsidized by America's military (not to mention much more density for things like trains) I say this as someone who wishes there were more dense, EU-style cities in America. Mobility is certainly not dead in America, and the middle class is shrinking because more people are moving up and making more money overall: http://www.aei.org/publication/yes-the-us-middle-class-is-sh... I think anyone trying to say "you don't know how shitty you have it!" is akin to saying "you vote against your own interests" which is really saying "I think I know better than you" -- which is trash. The fact of the matter is a lot of people prefer US-style suburban living. America certainly has its share or problems, reliable/trustable Governance being a big one (social welfare spending in the US, despite the money thrown at the problem, is just not up to the standards of northern EU although certainly preferable to what goes on in southern EU -- see cohesion argument though culture matters a lot too) See this as an example why both the left and right suck when it comes to US healthcare: https://www.econlib.org/the-case-for-european-health-care/ In fact, I would argue much of the problem in the US arises because our politicians are simply full of bad ideas and not held accountable to them. Fortunately our institutions restrict them from running amok too much. ex: the US subways suck because city politicians allowed construction and transit unions to run roughshod over the taxpayers for years on top of increasingly stupid regulations (lol @ US being the reliable land of laissez-faire) and that is why it costs 7x more to deploy subway in the US than most first world nations https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-... Still, I am willing to bet a chunk of cash that the US generally has the better recipe for ensuring economic dynamism and mobility. I'll take the hopeful over the complacent, given the choice. |