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Comment by dcolkitt | Hacker News Reader

Americans enjoy substantially higher material consumption than their European counterparts. The US has 85% higher household consumption expenditures than France (about the median of the EU15). The difference between the US and France is about equivalent to the difference between France and Mexico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_household...

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  Median wealth per adult in the US:  $79,274
  Median wealth per adult in France: $133,559

Mean wealth per adult is reversed (much higher in the US), because a few US billionaires are really really rich. But unless you're one of the few lucky billionaires, you're doing better living in France.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

That’s the Credit Suisse report that includes things like natural resources. It’s entirely unrelated to actual individual wealth.

So Canada gets credit for its uranium reserves and then divides it across the population.

No relation whatsoever to actual cash in the bank.

“ These figures are influenced by real estate prices, equity market prices, exchange rates, liabilities, debts, adult percentage of the population, human resources, natural resources and capital and technological advancements, which may create new assets or render others worthless in the future.”

"Good quality of life" is not the same as "higher material consumption", though the former is unquantifiable and subjective. As someone who has lived about equal amount of time in the U.S., I'd say I have better quality of life in Europe but less material consumption.

Is it common to associate quality of life and consumption? I’m sure there is some correlation but it seems a bit strange, especially when you think about things France has such as universal free healthcare or free access to good education.

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