Bret Devereaux

In terms of home value, the issue frankly is that housing values are too high, not too low. That's part of what is keeping millennials out of home-buying and why I think we need policies that lead to building a lot more houses, even if it means that per-unit values stagnate.

Nevertheless, it is just statistically true that even among the younger generations, actually owning a house on both a per-unit and per-square-foot basis is more affordable in the United States than in most - nearly all - countries.

That's not really the point. The point is, how many millions of people don't enjoy the life McArdle describes at all, and are they able to provide education and health care for their children?

I mean, the point really is what percentage of people don't, otherwise all you've proved is that the United States is the largest rich country, which is true but besides the point.

Which, to be clear, you ought to do. I get really frustrated seeing 'poverty rates' compared across countries that have substantially different definitions of what constitutes poverty (e.g. different poverty lines).

Anyway, my own sense, fwiw, is that the United States does fairly well, on average, by both the rich (of course) and the bulk of the middle class, which together represent a majority, but not all of American society, but it does somewhat badly by the rest of folks.

The middle class is being pretty heavily squeezed out of being middle class