comment: >
  
  
  the average home here is also about that. 
  
  The average price for a detached home in the UK is 575k USD. It is 350k in the USA. 
  
  The average mortgage or rent in CA is over $2k for a 1bd
  
  No, it is 1600 - a lot more to California than LA, one of my brothers is in China Lake, his mortgage is 450 a month. 
  Now, average rent in London is 2250 USD a month
context: There is literally a global social mobility index and the US is number 27. >
  
  See my previously made edit above. Does not at all apply here >
  
  Just so you know, that is by the WEF. Which the WEF bases on:
  Overall health
  Education access
  Education quality and equity
  Lifelong learning
  Technology access
  Work opportunities
  Fair wage distribution
  Working conditions
  Social protection
  Inclusive institutions
  I own a masonry company, I made just under a million dollars this year, and according to the WEF if everyone was like me the USA would rank below most of subsaharan Africa. >
  
  lmao imagine trusting the WEF to do anything right >
  
  Live in the pod, eat the bugs... >
  
  You'll own nothing and you'll be happy ~~or else~~ >
  
  I tend to agree. There’s no guarantee for sure — but most Americans don’t understand how hard it is to have any opportunity at all in other places where your country decides who gets the opportunities or who can even go to college.
  At least in America, you have a shot if you want to put in the work. >
  
  
  If you start life in the middle class, with hard work you can get into a good college, secure decent scholarships, get good grades in a useful major, get a high paying job out of college, and job hop your way to wealth (+$5MM).
  
  Not everyone is able to get decent scholarships for a variety of reasons. Meaning, lots of people are forced to take loans, and if for whatever reason their professional plans don't go as planned, they will have a hard time paying them back.
  Also, if you have any health emergency and your insuramce ends up not covering, that can put you in big debt and doesn't help much on your journey to become rich 😅 >
  
  What’s an example of an emergency insurance would not cover? >
  
  Instead of listing examples, maybe just consider this for a moment. Not only does the US have the highest rate of medical bankruptcies in the WORLD, but 62% of those people had insurance. >
  
  Because less than half a dozen other countries let you discharge debt through bankruptcy. The rest only allow debt restructuring, and even then in those half dozen other countries you are marked for life. Declare bankruptcy in the US and your debt goes away as well as the bankruptcy being meaningless only ~4 years later. 
  In Finland for instance, insolvency means you lose all access to welfare programs and are a defacto indentured servant until your debts are paid in full with interest
  Do you understand that bankruptcy is an absurdly generous privilege? The alternative was literally debt slavery - you didn't pay your debt back, as such I own you.
  And as far as business bankruptcy law goes, the USA is by far the best with no one else even coming close >
  
  I don't really understand this comment at all. My post had nothing to do with the benefits and drawbacks of bankruptcy. It points out that, in the US (and pretty much only in the US), people find themselves owing a shitload of money in medical expenses despite having medical insurance. It directly refutes the OPs suggestion that having medical insurance is enough to provide financial security (and therefore the claim that the US is an easy country to move from middle class to upper class). >
  
  People declare bankruptcy in the US and that is a good thing because it is literally letting people start over in a way that isn't allowed in any other country. 
  The alternative isn't that you don't owe money, the alternative is that you have no ability to get your debt forgiven and are permanently rendered lower class. Trump has had what, six bankruptcies? He is rich >
  
  Having insurance for something means you should not then have a large expense for that very same thing. Insurance should cover it.
  Also, you act as if bankruptcy is some minor annoyance - as if everyone has a team of lawyers at their disposal making sure everything is in perfect order. How many middle class people have you watched go through bankrupty?  How many of them would tell you that 4 years later they felt like it never even happened? >
  
  
  Having insurance for something means you should not then have a large expense for that very same thing. Insurance should cover it.
  
  A lot of that shit is cutting edge cancer treatments insurance doesn't cover due to the risk of the treatment, or you were a moron and didn't have helicopter insurance
  
  Also, you act as if bankruptcy is some minor annoyance
  
  It is about two weeks wages, yes, that is a minor inconvenience
  
  How many middle class people have you watched go through bankrupty? How many of them would tell you that 4 years later they felt like it never even happened?
  
  Dozens. 
  Medical bankruptcies? They do fine. Not fun but they do fine. Same with business bankruptcies. 
  Personal debt bankruptcies? They dig the same hole that got them into the first bankruptcy with personal spending. Not because the bankruptcy proceeding was all that horrible but because of their spending habits. especially because these are combined with student loans generally, and those don't get discharged without meeting the Brunner test (which is about the standard to actually declare bankruptcy at all in Canada or the UK, and get your debt discharged) >
  
  What data should we look for to prove that the US is the best place to get rich? You’ve mentions some hypotheticals and asserted some facts. If we were going to look at this as genuine researchers, what facts would we need to sufficiently indicate or prove this? >
  
  What middle class? >
  
  Basically if you were born in the US/ Canada, Western Europe, Japan, or Australia and a few more places you have already won the lottery. I've talked to people from Mexico and they talk about the struggle to move up there. >
  
  
  I’ve seen this happen many many times across my peer group before and in a top college.
  
  How many times have you seen this? What degrees and colleges? Were social connections involved in job placement? How much did the parents pay for?
  Trying to quantify how much of this is actually applicable to the "middle class". >
  
  Good questions, out of my HS friend group at least 5/7 individuals are either rich or on the path. Parental support carried from nothing to a couple how had their parents pay for everything. I think some middle class families can afford to pay for college (e.g. with scholarships, priorities in place, high ranking state college)
  It’s anecdotal, but represents the possibility is very much there >
  
  Universities / degrees / jobs? >
  
  Yep, this is exactly my plan, and I’m grateful every day I was born in a country that lets me think of a better future like that. >
  
  COL adjustment and Canada ends up worse and you get the lower rate of business failure because less people are able to start up businesses to begin with due to it requiring more resources. Not to mention the fact that businesses failing within 3 years isn't necessarily a bad thing, often businesses are intended to be temporary  and Canada is prohibiting that >
  
  There's a temporary need for a single product business, and then there's the 1and 3 year survival rates. That's business failure, for sure. And what do you mean? Canada is slightly lower col. >
  
  3 years is a long time. The north Dakota oil boom was only for a decade, and a lot of the highly successful service companies (300-600k a year jobs) were there from companies that were only there two or three years >
  
  Then look at 1yr US fail rate, which is similar to Canada's 3. >
  
  4 million new businesses start each year in the USA, 95,000 start each year in Canada.  1250 new businesses in the USA each year per 100k people, 250 new businesses in Canada each year per 100k people >
  
  Let me throw out Canada. You can get an education there and then emigrate south really easily if you have a job offer and a good education, as well as a chance at the opportunities in Canada.
  You've seen it happen many times in what industry exactly that would include Canadians?
  Also it's really easy to become a millionaire in Zimbabwe, Lebanon, and Venezuela where the inflation is ridiculously high. >
  
  
  Also it's really easy to become a millionaire in Zimbabwe, Lebanon, and Venezuela where the inflation is ridiculously high.
  
  Yeah but he said get rich. Not have a bunch of worthless $ that can't buy anything. >
  
  Are those scholarships full ride? If not, don’t forget about the ridiculous cost of education here. >
  
  Same cost as the UK with wages being triple >
  
  Wages triple but the average home here is also about that. The average mortgage or rent in CA is over $2k for a 1bd apt or small house in a not great area. But every state and country are going to have their own financial struggles.