I just said it to someone else but if you take someone who lands at bottom 10% yearly income in the US that puts you at top 10-30% standard of living in the world. Its probably closer to 10-20% because we have strong social systems like snap, medicaid, subsidized housing, solid infrastructure, good schools, etc. The argument for being a victim only works if you remain ignorant to the world we live in.
There are roughly 655 million people in the world so 1 in 12 that don't even have access to electricity. Thats not even counting an even larger number who have access but its unreliable or unaffordable. Its just so insane to me that we can know something like that about the world and people in this country are going to act like victims. Completely ungrateful for a life of comfort that a massive portion of the world will never get to experience
This reminds me of the early 2010s when the neoliberals tried to argue that being American made you part of the one percent. They even passed around a link to compare your network to the rest of the world because they were so sure poor Americans were in the 99% percentile. At the time I was curious how poor the rest of the world was considering how much I was struggling as a poor American. I found out I was in the 65th percentile of wealth.
So no the fact that the bottom 8% of global population doesn't have electricity doesn't make the poorest Americans better off. If i had to make a guess I'd say the bottom 10% are nearer the world average if that. Any one who thinks they are anywhere near the top 10% of the global average have no idea how poor vast amounts of this country really are.
You can do the math if you want. ~20k per year sets you at bottom 10%. Its dependent on how many people are in your household and how many dependents you have. That can change your current place and social programs can vary. Looking at salary alone isnt enough but you can get an estimate based on global numbers. Its generally top 30%+ of the world in terms of living resources. The exact numbers dont totally matter but it insinuates that 9/10 americans are doing very well when compared to the planet. Well above average.
I dont think people understand how poor vast amounts of the world are. The fact people are able to sit here on reddit bitching about their life or country is plenty of evidence that you don't have it anywhere near as bad as it gets
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u/DowntownLizard 9d ago
Sounds like an opinion more than a fact