&gt; The top 50% of Americans are better off than the top 50% of people in Sweden<p>So just hope you&#x27;re not in the bottom 50%?<p>We should also think about what &quot;better off&quot; actually means.  Maybe a healthy society cares about more than just individual income and &quot;opportunity for success.&quot;  Sweden, and just about every other modern country has much better health care and public services, and a much saner attitude toward work and leisure, even in spite of attacks on the welfare state in recent decades (the idea that it was some kind of disaster and had to be saved by the capitalists is nonsense).