Let's (Not) Be More Like Europe

Professor Reynolds was on a roll today, providing me with the 2nd of his posts that I'll just cut/paste here in its entirety:

WELL, SOCIALISM DOES THAT TO YOU: If Sweden And Germany Became U.S. States, They Would Be Among The Poorest States.

Since Sweden is held up as a sort of promised land by American socialists, let’s compare it first. We find that, if it were to join the US as a state, Sweden would be poorer than all but 12 states, with a median income of $27,167.

Median residents in states like Colorado ($35,830), Massachusetts ($37,626), Virginia ($39,291), Washington ($36,343), and Utah ($36,036) have considerably higher incomes than Sweden. . . .

Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, has a median income ($25,528) level below all but 9 US states. Finland ranks with Germany in this regard ($25,730), and France’s median income ($24,233) is lower than both Germany and Finland. Denmark fares better and has a median income ($27,304) below all but 13 US states.

On the other hand, were Australia ($29,875), Austria ($28,735), and Canada (28,288) to join the US, they would be regarded as “middle-income states” with incomes similar to the US median of $30,616.

But wait, that doesn’t take cost of living, which is lower in the United States, into account. When you do, the disparity becomes much stronger:

Once purchasing power among the US states is taken into account, we find that Sweden’s median income ($27,167) is higher than only six states: Arkansas ($26,804), Louisiana ($25,643), Mississippi ($26,517), New Mexico ($26,762), New York ($26,152) and North Carolina ($26,819).

We find something similar when we look at Germany, but in Germany’s case, every single US state shows a higher median income than Germany. Germany’s median income is $25,528. Things look even worse for the United Kingdom which has a median income of $21,033, compared to $26,517 in Mississippi.

Ouch. But don’t get too full of yourselves, my fellow Americans, because if Bernie or Hillary win — and who knows what a President Trump would do? — we’ll be moving in their direction. Keep it up, and Mississippi might be as poor as Britain.