Iceland was a surprise considering the massive drop of the ISK with the bank crisis in 2008. They value of the currency is still down from what it was, against the USD the value is about half of what it was. So either they were really rich or wtf? Also.. if I read that source material right (skimmed) the data for Switzerland is from 1997? Maybe I mistook that. That's a while ago too.
I wouldn't be surprised, honestly. I live just outside of Vancouver and I feel like I'm going to live with my parents forever :/ Either that or I'll live in an apartment with like 2-3 other people.
There's a difference between expensive and unaffordable. In London and Barcelona wages are more commensurate with costs of living. Not so in a city like Vancouver, where some employers have difficulty finding and retaining staff since many workers can no longer afford to live there.
@redsplat: the facts do not support your thesis. The average wages in Canada are higher than in London or Barcelona (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage)
Also, Switzerland... and this goes for many other countries on the list... I don't think a country really gets to claim it is "wealthy" so long as they're going to charge for ketchup at McDonald's. I would say that that is some ghetto-ass 3rd world bullcrap... but... they don't even try to pull that sh*t in the Philippines or Thailand or India or Ethiopia (and in Ethiopia it's not even a true McDonald's just a cheap knock-off)... so... I don't actually know what that is. But it's stingy and low.
Mean != median. For example, let's say Bill Gates visits a homeless shelter. The mean wealth in that homeless shelter could be over $1 billion even though everyone but Bill Gates is poor.
Yes, while the mean for the US is $432K, the median is only $66K. Switzerland, on the other hand, has a much more even distribution of wealth, with a mean of $565K and a median of $228K.
The quiz is made up of either countries where everyone has a relatively large amount of money, or countries where there are quite a few (or very few sometimes) extremely wealthy people that skew the figures. Unfortunately, most of these fall into the latter category.
Actually, scratch that. It looks like $218,321 is just a dummy value they're using when they don't have good data. The exact same figure is given for Andorra, Liechtenstein, etc.
From the source: "Germany and Sweden remain below this level, probably reflecting generous state provision of
pensions and healthcare, which reduces the
incentive for individuals to save for their retirement
needs."
It should be added that employees have to directly transfer a significant part of their income to finance these security systems, instead of "sav[ing a significant part of their income] for their retirement needs". It is actually strange that these "state fonds" are not considered for the wealth calculation.
Neither Germany nor Sweden has a sovereign wealth fund with substantial assets. Why would we consider future government spending an asset? If anything we should subtract the value of the government debt.
Andorra should be included in the caveat at the beginning. There's no data, but based on the housing prices and the number of inhabitants, I'm sure it would be in the list.
Me too. Germany is the fourth biggest economy in the world. But, I suppose that since the population is so high, it fizzles out when taken per capita. Remember that East Germany was a poor country until the 1990', as well.
I don't think East Germany was all that poor. I think it was the wealthiest 'country' under Communist rule during the Cold War, and would still be considered one of the wealthier countries by world standards.
pensions and healthcare, which reduces the
incentive for individuals to save for their retirement
needs."
It should be added that employees have to directly transfer a significant part of their income to finance these security systems, instead of "sav[ing a significant part of their income] for their retirement needs". It is actually strange that these "state fonds" are not considered for the wealth calculation.
Quite surprised that none of the small Persian Gulf nations make the list.