The median disposable household income in the U.S. in 2019 was $42,800

From The Pope Is With Us by Nellie Bowles, a column catching up on many news stories.  One point she makes is the unrelenting negativity against America held by left leaning Woke people which is both misplaced and corrosive to the commonwealth.  She quotes economist, Timothy B. Lee.

Big picture economically, America is the richest large country in the world on a per capita basis.\

The median family in America is richer than the median family in most European countries. The median disposable household income in the U.S. in 2019 was $42,800. That is compared to $36,675 in Canada, $31,323 in Germany, $28,585 in France, $25,730 in the UK, and $21,728 in Japan. 

And we're getting richer over time. In 1960, an American family spent 7% of their budget on clothing. Now it’s 2%. Today most middle class Americans have a closet full of clothes and wouldn’t have space for more. 

The U.S. economic model produces not only a lot of wealth, but inventions that the whole world benefits from. If you look at the most dynamic technology and pharmaceutical companies, a hugely disproportionate share are here.

One other piece of “America is great” evidence: way more people move from other developed countries to the U.S. than vice versa. 

There are 674,000 Brits in the U.S. (Only 171,000 Americans are in the U.K.)

There are 162,000 French in the U.S. (While there are 62,000 Americans in France.)

There are 320,000 Japanese in the U.S. (Compared to 58,000 Americans in Japan.)

The negativity bothers me because it’s a self-inflicted thing. Everybody has this impression that there are these crises everywhere. And they feel really panicked about the other side because they think, ‘there’s only a few years left.’ There are things I worry about (climate change). But people should recognize that what we have is pretty good. Chill out a little bit. That would be helpful.

We have our share of challenges and burdens but the overall picture for anyone living in the US is astonishingly prosperpus.