alt Hacker NewsHe finds that “average poverty is substantially higher in the US, even though average incomes are higher than in most Western European countries”.
That seems like a complicated way to "talk about median income without talking about median income". By the end, they do describe the basic situation: US has greater total wealth and total income but that wealth and income is so unequally distributed that more people are poor.
Cost of living and cost of goods sounds ludicrous from outside. Like rents and car payments, and insurance. And even stuff like some restaurants... Ofc, there is expensive locations outside but there is also lot more reasonable places. From outside it feels that there is something especially broken in cost wise in USA.