knb comments on Open thread, June 20 - June 26, 2016 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Elo 21 June 2016 02:45AM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 23 June 2016 07:51:11PM *  -1 points [-]

File under "we're not as rich as we think we are", this Wiki page shows that economic-basket-case Greece has higher median net worth than the US. Australia is astoundingly rich, +$60k higher than the US average (which includes the megawealthy) and $175k higher than the US median. Even econo-sluggard Italy has $100k higher median than the US.

Comment author: knb 24 June 2016 11:49:12PM *  0 points [-]

I think apples-to-apples comparison is tricky here. Things like the age structure of the population can matter a lot here. A country with an average age of 50 should have a higher level of net worth than one with an average age of 30.

In any case I'm not sure net worth is the valid way to think about "how rich we are" compared to income or consumption or quality of life or whatever.