&gt; Americans seem to think about these things A LOT.<p>In my experience that&#x27;s because Americans only talk about personal wealth&#x2F;income by proxy. They won&#x27;t talk about how much they earn, but they will talk about how much they pay for rent, or talk about taxes, etc.<p>It&#x27;s a way to gauge how much the people you know are making in a system where the concept of pay grade doesn&#x27;t exist across companies.