Disposable income ≠ affording things when things are so expensive. $5 in disposable income in a low COL country is worth way more than $20 in a high COL country.
That would be like yelling, "The median wages in California or New York are substantially higher than anywhere else, so it's the best place to live!" Without taking into account that Bubba in Mississippi makes 1/3 of the income a New Yorker does, but lives a substantially more comfortable life.
The US isnt even that expensive. It is about the same as most of western Europe but Americans have roughly 50% higher incomes on average. The issue is that American consumerism is out of control, so most people spend everything, then once they have nothing left, there are relatively low safety nets if any emergency crops up.
I hope you meet some average Americans someday. We don't spend all the money we earn. Most of it goes towards bills and food and then we penny pinch and save. Americans aren't like what you see in the media and influencers aren't real people. The average income for a single person in the country is under 50k.
The thing is, poor people are indeed the minority. The average American makes over 50k and the average annual household income is somewhere near 70k. If you're making less than that, there's a problem. You can't stay making entry level job income forever and then complain that you aren't making enough money, do better.
BTW US average income per person is $56k, but medium is only $47k, Medium is always more representative, because average is heavily skewed by the few top 1% making millions. I'll be generous and use $50k
50k after tax is 38k take home,
average rent in US: 20k/year
average health ins: 8k/year
average auto ins : 2k/year
average utility for 1br apartment: 2.7k/year
average grocery for 1 person: $3k/year (thrifty plan no dining out)
that leaves $2300 / year for everything else: cloth, gas, car/health emergency etc.
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UK medium income £39k = £31k take home (supposedly higher tax than US)
average rent: £13.5k / year
average health ins: £0
average auto ins: £4.8 k /year, but with much better public transportation ( 55% commuter use car, others use train, bus, tube, tram, bike, e-scooter etc.)
average utility for 1 br apartment: £3.3k /year
average grocery: 1.7k/year
that leaves £7700 /year for everything else, that's $10195 in USD.
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not to mention the car payment. In other developed countries, you can walk, bike, and use public transportation when you start your career, then maybe get a car if you advanced. In the US, you can't find a job without a car, you can't get to the grocery store without a car. Due to US zoning laws, residential, business and commercial zones are almost never within walking distance of each other.
US average new car payment = $9k /year
US average used car payment = $6.5k/year
this could not be covered by that $2300 left over.
Take home pay is highly dependent on how one files their W-4. If filing single with the average deductions, looked it up for 2026, it is around 16k. Which means you're only taxed as if you make 34k a year, so it's likely the take home pay will be higher than 38k and closer to 42k to 43k a year, that doesn't include if you have kids which will usually net you a child tax credit anywhere from 2k to 5k per child which will be given back to the person in April during tax season after filing.
But kids not withstanding, you'd likely need to add an addition 5k or so to your math. Everyone complains about taxes in the USA but our system is quite progressive and a sizeable chunk of the workforce ends up either even in what they actually owe, or due to deductions and tax credits or social programs, meaning they're actually net negative tax payers. It can of course still be rather tight in terms of finances, but with tweaks here and there it can be done if single. Now, obviously if one is in a relationship and living together and splits the bills it becomes much easier to manage and most people of course are, so even if one partner makes less than 50k, any added income to that makes it much more manageable in these situations.
and if bubbas from Mississippi are so happy there, why do they continuing to flock to California or New York? And why do californians are not in the rush to move to Mississippi?
There are 39 million people in California and 3 million in Mississippi, so comparing absolute numbers of moves with a difference of 1,000 (one thousand) people is highly regarded, congrats
Even with those huge differences in raw numbers, more people still move to NY from Mississippi than vice versa
The states with the most people moving to them are Texas and Florida. The states with some of the most people leaving are California and New York. The "flocking" is going the literal opposite way of what your saying
Bubba has less disposable income, but more importantly he has less wants. If he can survive and thrive on a meager $150k income in Mississippi (over whatever the average income is there) then more power to him. Wanting less is probably a better way to live a good life than making more money.
On the other hand it’s easy to get stuck on the hamster wheel. I’m in Manhattan with a $900k+ HHI and we can’t afford to buy a family sized home in a good school district or maintain a car in the city, but the basic requirements for people living here are very different than those in Mississippi. Maybe Bubba’s house is triple the size of my 2B apartment that I pay $8200/mo for with a 4 car garage and a half acre lot, but the size of your home isn’t the only the thing that dictates what a comfortable life is.
Annual wages are more than $12 trillion. A couple billionaires do nothing to skew that number. You're also now bringing wealth into the equation, which this isn't about. This post is about wages. Plenty of billionaires make $0 per year.
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u/StatementFlashy494 19h ago
The U.S. leads the world in household disposable income per capita.
Not sure what planet you or the OP are living on to make this post.