Even the GDP per capita number is misleadingly optimistic if the 0.01% are taking the lion's share of growth that I'll stipulate might be "the same or higher than Sweden's entire GDP."
If the typical American isn't prospering, what good is it?
>If the typical American isn't prospering, what good is it?
Well, neither is the typical Swede. They have an astronomical housing bubble that's just waiting to burst, the average household has a debt around twice the income, while the gap between rich and poor has been widening for a long time now.
It's not all roses and relative to where they are, most seem to be preparing for worse days ahead, rather than better ones.
The reason I used Sweden as an example is that many Americans think commerce in Sweden must be hobbled by taxes and regulation. It must surprise some people that Sweden's GDP per capita has grown the most among Western industrial nations, and much more than the US.
I'm not claiming the wealth gap in Sweden is healthy on an absolute scale, but relative to the US it's about half. Every economy has challenges, but the historical results I posted show that US chest-thumping is exceptionally silly.
When the bubble bursts, then it'll be thanks to tight monetary policy, ironically. Sweden is now experiencing monetary-policy driven deflation, and hopefully I don't have to explain why that's a bad thing for a population with high household debt.
Well yeah. The US is much bigger and contains more people than Sweden. So what? If the Texas seceded again it wouldn't make Texans suddenly 50x poorer.
http://snbchf.com/global-macro/gdp-growth-per-capita/
As the proverb goes, we need to take the plank out of our own eye. Those commies in Sweden are kicking our libertarian asses.