American economic dominance

[Northwestcoug]

But when your poor class is already considered middle class in other countries, I’m not sure the findings on social mobility debunk the title of this thread. The average Mississippian is better off financially than the average French person.

that doesn't debunk anything from those studies. It is talking about socio-economic mobility, the ability to improve or lower economic status.

I'd be a fool to argue that the US isn't in a class by itself wealth-wise. But there are other important economic indicators. You asked for one that the US isn't at or near the top; I gave you one.

[Jeff Lebowski]

But when your poor class is already considered middle class in other countries, I’m not sure the findings on social mobility debunk the title of this thread. The average Mississippian is better off financially than the average French person.

Yeah, no kidding.

And look at this:

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[Moliere]

But when your poor class is already considered middle class in other countries, I’m not sure the findings on social mobility debunk the title of this thread. The average Mississippian is better off financially than the average French person.

[Northwestcoug]

It’s probably not the best measure, but I’ve yet to see an economic measurement that doesn’t have the USA at or near the top.

Upward social mobility studies has consistently shown that the US lags many developed countries in socio-economic mobility.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/social-mobility-by-country#top-10-countries-with-the-highest-social-mobility

Here is an updated 2026 list. The devil is in the details, of course. And since I'm no economist I can't vouch for the metrics. But then again, who currently among us is?

[Moliere]

It’s probably not the best measure, but I’ve yet to see an economic measurement that doesn’t have the USA at or near the top.

[chrisrenrut]

A different metric just dropped and it not only shows America is richer than everyone else, it shows that every individual state is richer than everyone else.

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USA! USA! USA!

Is consumption a great measurement of “richer”?

Maybe not when you consider that “55% of US consumers carry credit card balances to cover essential expenses.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/11/ny-f...-persists.html

[Moliere]

That is pretty amazing scholarship. Essentially, folks who take care of their teeth have better lives. I wonder what the data tells us for folks who go to bed on time, do their homework and eat vegetables as part of their dinner as well? The big problem will always be the inability to redistribute parenting skills. If that home didn't teach them while in their youth to go to bed on time, do their homework and have vegetables with their dinner their public provided pretty smile won't do all the gee whiz things the wankers tell us it did for folk who had pretty smiles in the past. There are likely a thousand things the data can focus in on without really figuring out why folks have good lives.

Maybe the answer is to have the state parent the children. That way the parenting skills can all be the same and no one will have a disproportionate advantage over another

[Goatnapper'96]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9118621/

"There is a positive relationship between tooth retention, overall health, and quality of life. Older adults retaining ≥ 20 teeth are less likely to experience poorer health. Having < 20 teeth increases the likelihood for functional dependence and onset of disability, and may affect successful ageing. This review supports the general finding that the more teeth older adults retain as they age, the less likely they are to have adverse health outcomes. However, significant knowledge gaps remain which can limit decision-making affecting successful ageing for many older adults. This review highlights the need to consider, as an important marker of oral health and function, the retention of a functional minimum of a natural dentition, rather than a simple numeric score of missing teeth."

That's just one research article. There are many, many more.

That is pretty amazing scholarship. Essentially, folks who take care of their teeth have better lives. I wonder what the data tells us for folks who go to bed on time, do their homework and eat vegetables as part of their dinner as well? The big problem will always be the inability to redistribute parenting skills. If that home didn't teach them while in their youth to go to bed on time, do their homework and have vegetables with their dinner their public provided pretty smile won't do all the gee whiz things the wankers tell us it did for folk who had pretty smiles in the past. There are likely a thousand things the data can focus in on without really figuring out why folks have good lives.

[Moliere]

A different metric just dropped and it not only shows America is richer than everyone else, it shows that every individual state is richer than everyone else.

Embedded Tweet

USA! USA! USA!

[Jeff Lebowski]

You used to be cool.

You used to have a sense of humor.

[wuapinmon]

This is how canadapoors and europoors cope.

You used to be cool.

[Jeff Lebowski]

This is how canadapoors and europoors cope.

[tooblue]

Exactly. The stated goal in the methodology is "To understand how countries are perceived."

The study was not designed to determine which country has the highest standard of living, has the most individual rights, is the safest, or is the most economically dominant. It's all about understanding perception.

Tooblue - there are around 100 counties on the list and the survey asked each respondent about 1/3 of the list. Their targeted respondents were "engaged citizens who are broadly representative of the global population." While it's certainly possible that all 15k respondents had personal experiences in each of the 30+countries they were asked about, it is not likely.

It's much more likely that their sample consists primarily of people who have not traveled extensively since that is more representative of the global population.

Insanely weird and difficult past week, and then my original post took a week to be posted—also weird (unless Jeff was censoring me ... )

I get that y'all don't like the data, but that does not mean it is not valid, regardless unsupported suppositions such as: "their sample consists primarily of people who have not traveled extensively since that is more representative of the global population." And here is some other data:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-countries-for-quality-of-life?slide=2

And at this link below there are swaths of data that can be sifted through:

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/measuring-a-life-well-lived/

Consistently, regardless the source, the US ranks in the middle or lower half of these "studies." That's a fact.

[Omaha 680]

I wrote a brilliant response to the Wharton quality of life "study", but it was lost to history. Summary: Livability or quality of life scores are inherently subjective. However, if you want the study to have any meaning at all, the scoring/weighting methodlolgy should include at least SOME objective data points. The fact that the "study" used survey data of perceptions and didn't include actual statistics like PPP, GDP per capita, percentage of population with access to certain modern conveniences, life expectancy, violent crime rates, tax burden, etc. makes the study worthy of publishing on Buzzfeed.

[wuapinmon]

I refute that pretty teeth ought to be public responsibility!

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9118621/

"There is a positive relationship between tooth retention, overall health, and quality of life. Older adults retaining ≥ 20 teeth are less likely to experience poorer health. Having < 20 teeth increases the likelihood for functional dependence and onset of disability, and may affect successful ageing. This review supports the general finding that the more teeth older adults retain as they age, the less likely they are to have adverse health outcomes. However, significant knowledge gaps remain which can limit decision-making affecting successful ageing for many older adults. This review highlights the need to consider, as an important marker of oral health and function, the retention of a functional minimum of a natural dentition, rather than a simple numeric score of missing teeth."

That's just one research article. There are many, many more.