[tfourb]

For consumer spending and disposable income, as for gdp per capita, averages are irrelevant as they can (and are) skewed by high earners/spenders and tell us little about the experience of the other 70% of the population.

Air conditioning is simply not necessary in many places in Europe. Either because of climate or building standards (ie proper insulation and/or traditional building styles with a lot of thermal mass).

The size of housing is more due to limitations on development permits designed to limit urban sprawl, as well as differing traditions and preferences.

Having top universities is nice, but won’t help you if the rest of your education system sucks, because 99% of people do not visit the top universities.

Same with wealth and quality of life: the strength of a society is probably measured best by asking where you’d rather be poor, than where you’d rather be rich.

[yes_really]

> Air conditioning is simply not necessary in many places in Europe.

67 thousand people are dying each year in Europe from extreme heat, compared to 3k in the US. I'm sure AC "is not necessary in some places in Europe", but this lack of AC is a real material difference and has real, obviously negative consequences.

[flohofwoe]

Maybe climate change just doesn't affect most parts of the US as hard as parts of Europe?

E.g. see: https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/09/23/more-than-62000-di...

    "Europe is the continent that is warming most quickly, at twice the global average,” says Tomáš Janoš, ISGlobal and Recetox researcher and first author of the study.

Historically you didn't need air conditioning in Europe to survive the summer, but that seems to change very quickly.