This is very deceptive. Under this methodology, people too poor to be called “middle class” in the US would be called middle class or higher in the other countries. Note how much higher the median income in the US is than in any other very large country (UK, Germany, France). There is no doubt the US is more unequal, but absolute wealth for the vast majority is higher.
It’s unfair for many other reasons as well. In the US more of that income might go to services that are cheaper in other countries (e.g. healthcare, education).
So, what looks like a higher number (even adjusted for PPP) might still be lower in practice.
The graph isn't about absolute levels, but income distribution. The point I think they are trying to make is that higher total income countries tend to have a more equal income distribution. The US doesn't fit that trend, though also some of the lower total income countries such as the Czech Republic have more equal distribution as well.
It’s incredibly deceptive because not only is almost everyone in the US wealthier than their counterparts in the distribution in Europe, but they have much higher purchasing power due to much lower prices.
There should be data available for distributions of income including government transfers. But I would expect that the median for US would still be faring much better than the median for France.
Do we though? I spend most of my income on rent, healthcare, and student loans. I don't buy much because at the end of the day there's not much left over.
It’s hard to make a comparison because it’s purchasing power that counts not dollar income. It’s much cheaper to eat better quality food from Waitrose in London than from Wholefoods in New York. I felt that food shopping in New York State in general was about 3 times more expensive than in the UK. But British people pay more per m² in rent because our houses are smaller than US and EU averages. In fact many new builds built in Britain would be illegal in a lot of EU countries because they are too small. So it’s more complicated than dollars.
Fair point but I think you can make the same claim if you only compare to countries of equivalent "first world" status. EDIT: It is still a potentially deceptive visualization though.
What I said holds true when comparing to all of the major European powers too. The only countries that exceed or even come close to US per capita are small, homogenous countries with niche economic specialties or resource wealth.
You can address that by using Gini index x median income. The result is the same: the US continues to be an outlier with significantly higher inequality than most developed countries.
