I'm not sure it's related to your question of "Is there an important sense in which Sweden has more abundant resources than, say, the US?".
The answer is yes, in some cases. Because wealth is distributed so that everyone can afford things like education, healthcare, daycare. If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps that's different in an important sense from if 0 people have a superyacht and everyone gets access to education and food.
You asked for an example about, I handed you one, it seems like you accidentally missed the example in a pursuit to prove the American superiority.
>If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps
In this hypothetical, the median income will be very low.
I'm not trying to be combative, I just try to correct misconceptions when I see them. It seems like some people have the misconception that the US is a place of a few superyachts and mostly foodstamps. That's not really the case.
> It seems like some people have the misconception that the US is a place of a few superyachts and mostly foodstamps. That's not really the case.
It's what i see on the news (not superyachts that much), on the "internet" (Reddit).
I understand reality is different, and that it's also different across states. But the stereotypes come from somewhere/something.
I'm sad that we don't have better workplace equality. We should take after NA in regulating resumes. We're allowed photos, names, gender, well anything we want to put on our resume we can. This could/does cause bias way too early in the selection process for jobs.
It doesn't explain why women, who on average perform better in school choose to pursue a career in Healthcare, which is "the worst" industry to work in over here. When there are so many other industries where they could make a great living with less stress, better schedules and more cash on hand.
> Because wealth is distributed so that everyone can afford things like education, healthcare, daycare. If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps that's different in an important sense from if 0 people have a superyacht and everyone gets access to education and food.
From your username I’m going to assume you can read Swedish, in which case I’ll recommend Andreas Cervanka’s latest book on the redistribution of wealth in Sweden in recent decades, in favor of the richest in society:
These are not apples to apples comparisons though, for the very reasons mentioned upthread.
A median wage of $32K in Sweden might come with near zero expenses for health, education, additional security, daily transport, etc.
A median US wage of $47K might incure additional expenses for health, education, etc.
These are post tax "median disposable income per person" figures - and other countries get a great deal more direct benefit per citizen post tax than the US provides.
If this is after taxes then the numbers are indeed way different. I effectively pay 55% taxes on my income (some is nicely hidden behind an employers tax so that the population doesn't see how much they're actually paying). The employers tax isn't part of your income, but it's part of what companies pay for your time.