Is US a good country to become rich?
07-22-2012, 02:23 PM
It really depends on how you plan to become rich.
The basic economics of the U.S. are not really great for entrepreneurs, but certain cultural factors make it so that certain paths to getting rich are really only "doable" in the U.S. This runs counter to the commonsense about the U.S. economy, but the numbers seem to back it up.
Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. economy is not a low-tax small-government business-above-all-else oligarchy. In fact, it is about as "socialist" as any other developed country. Government spending in the U.S. is quite high (as a percentage of GDP, government spending is MUCH higher in the U.S. than in China), and corporate taxes are among the highest in the developed world. Further, the majority of government spending in the U.S. goes to the military, and there is relatively little in the way of business grants and other support programs like you find in, say, Australia.
So the U.S. is not really a good environment, fiscally, for starting a business in. If you want to do it as a corporation, you're facing the highest corporate tax rate in the OECD. If you want to be a solopreneur or freelancer, you're getting double taxed as a business AND an earner of personal income. As far as I can tell, the tax penalty for being self employed is higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries. In many countries, self employed people actually pay lower taxes than employees, after tax deductions are factored in. From what I gather, the opposite is true in the U.S.
And, there is the simple fact that U.S. citizens are just statistically less likely to rise in economic class compared to citizens of Western European countries. I'm too lazy to look like up right now, but it's well documented and highly publicized, so you can Google it and find it.
In spite of all that though, there are still some "soft" factors that make the U.S. one of the best countries for getting rich.
For one, the culture just generally values innovation, novelty and "ballsiness" more than any other country. As a rule, nobody will really give a shit if you're an entrepreneur in Canada or Western Europe, and you won't get much encouragement for it. In the U.S., it's generally thought that being an entrepreneur is something to aim for, which can create certain social incentives to do so.
For another, if you live in the U.S., you're just closer to trends that have started and have yet to crest. You're more exposed to the zeitgeist in tech, business, media, etc. This creates opportunities to invest early. The internet may have mitigated this somewhat, but it's still true to an extent.
Finally, there are just certain paths to wealth that exist in the U.S. that don't exist anywhere else. Take entertainment for example. Outside the U.S., movies just aren't that profitable of a business, and TV is often government-subsidized. In the U.S., this industry is actually a pretty decent path to making a living and even getting rich. The startup scene, too, is better in the U.S. than anywhere else. What countries other than the U.S. have web startups that anyone can name off the top of their head? Finland had Skype, Sweden had Spotify, but other than that? Nowhere else in the world is there a startup scene on the same level as the U.S.
So, in sum, the U.S. is not the best place in the world for any joe to seek his fortune, but it does have certain advantages and is furthermore basically the only real arena for becoming successful in certain areas.