Then why are so many people complaining about the cost of living, housing, healthcare, education etc? Could someone remind us what is and what isn't included in "disposable"?
The US median cost of living is lower than in: Germany, France, UK, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Canada.
Healthcare is a very legitimate complaint. It's plainly outrageous. Even in the case where the bill is often mostly footed by an employer, that comes out of wages to one degree or another.
Housing is not a legitimate complaint (everyone doesn't live in NYC, LA, Seattle and SF). The median US costs on rent and housing are lower than any comparable disposable income nation, and you get far larger accomodations (space) in the US than the other nations.
Education is not a legitimate complaint. The US is overflowing with modestly priced, high quality in-state university choices, including quite affordable state schools. If you spend $160,000 on a shit paying degree from a tier two school for no good reason, that's on you. You don't get to bitch about doing something that dumb when you could have gotten the exact same degree for $40,000 and paid for half of it with a part-time job over four years.
$40,000 euros for a degree is still a ridiculous amount. It costs $11,000 to go to Oxford per year right now, and before the ridiculous fee increases it would be about $11,000 for a 4 year degree.
It's about $5,000 per year on average across the EU, with some countries offering free tuition. Because, hey, it turns out educating people ends up a net benefit to society!
Education benefits but degree mills whether Asia, America or Europe don't benefit much. And this is increasingly common.
I don't think this is accurate. Maybe it used to be, but not anymore. For example, Numbeo says:
> Rent in Germany is 30.85% lower than in United States (average data for all cities).
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?cou...
It would be better to find more official data, but I wasn't able to find anything for Germany.
> Education is not a legitimate complaint. The US is overflowing with modestly priced, high quality in-state university choices, including quite affordable state schools. If you spend $160,000 on a shit paying degree from a tier two school for no good reason, that's on you. You don't get to bitch about doing something that dumb when you could have gotten the exact same degree for $40,000 and paid for half of it with a part-time job over four years.
$40,000 for four years of education + living expenses? Do you think students are living out of garbage cans? $10,000/year will probably cover in-state tuition + books/fees/etc., sure, and what do you think is a reasonable cost for housing, food, transportation, etc. for a student?
Could you please refer me to a source for cost of living comparison? I am not disputing this assertion, I have just been unable to find a good source comparing cost of living between countries.