Weekend reading: The American dream

What caught my eye this week.

One big driver of the thousands of young economic migrants who’ve come to Europe and the UK over the past decade is said to be the spread of social media.

Now that the developing world can see – it all its influencer-filtered glory – how the West has been living all these years, many of world’s poorer citizens want a piece of it.

Wouldn’t you?

Of course we might say they should look to pull their own countries up instead. Strive for freer markets, better governance, more education, stronger property rights, and whatnot.

I agree but it’s easier said than done. While globalisation and capitalism have done a decent job of alleviating true poverty since the 1970s, from memory only a dozen or so developing countries have made it to developed status since the 1990s.

Also you don’t need to be an 18-year old student activist at SOAS to see the West still has multiple embedded advantages, which it strives to protect.

It’ll even adopt the role of victim to do so. Just consider the spectacle of the world’s richest nation bemoaning bullies and vowing to be make itself great again.

Get up and go

The point is though that as an individual the situation can look even more hopeless.

You have to rely on your country’s politicians and institutions to do the right thing. We increasingly can’t even rely on ours for that.

Indeed isn’t there an ironic tension that it’s the champions of individualism in the right-wing media who are the ones who most bemoan young men taking it into their own hands to try to better their lives?

Of course understanding their motivations – and even extending our sympathy – doesn’t mean we should let them act against the law.

Illegal immigration is an overblown and politically weaponised issue, but it’s a real one. Not only does it erode trust in our multicultural social fabric in the short-term, it can only scale badly in the long-term, given the disparity in global demographics.

So we have to draw the line somewhere. Much of the nastiness we’re seeing these days is a reflection of the developed world’s struggles to do just that. (Though to be clear plenty of it is stoked by opportunism from a resurgent far-right, too.)

Would you like an extra zero with that?

All that said, perhaps Barry Blimp – or at least his more hard-pressed children – might be finding it a bit easier these days to empathise with economic migrants motivated by unimaginable wealth abroad.

Because the fact is the West is not a homogenous bloc. And it’s becoming ever-clearer that the US and the UK in particular have been on very different trajectories.

Of course there are millions of poor and struggling people in the US as well as here. And at least ours have better healthcare.

But this Tweet that went viral from Monevator contributor Finumus highlights a real contrast:

If you consume US personal finance and investing media, you’ll come across this wealth disparity all the time. Casual references to $1,000 splurged at a casino or $20,000 spent on a jet ski on a whim or $500 concert tickets as part of an everyday Friday night out.

It’s not that we don’t ever spend like this in the UK. It’s that there seems to be a zero tacked onto the end of the typical well-off American’s fun budget.

Their truly disposable income comes across as an order of magnitude higher.

Mickey Mouse budgets

Here’s an interesting example from the past couple of weeks. The writer Aaron Renn bemoans a ‘middle-class squeeze’ that has created Have-VIP-passes at Disney World and Have-Nots:

[…] there are just a lot of people making a lot of money today.

A couple where I live who are both middle managers at Eli Lilly could easily have a household income north of $350,000. The median individual employee at Facebook makes $379,000.

This has produced asymmetric financial competition. It used to be that there were rich people, but the middle class wasn’t really competing with them. Rich people bought mansions or luxury cars, but it didn’t affect the average person. There weren’t enough rich people to affect how long it took you to get through the line at Disney World, for example.

Today, there are so many people with so much money that the middle class is now in direct competition with people who have vastly greater financial resources.

You might argue Aaron’s take undermines my point. Sure there are lots of richer people in America, but that’s because of growing inequality there too?

Well yes, except that here in the UK we don’t even really have much in the way of wage inflation at the top. And on average we have had stagnant real wages since the financial crisis:

That chart is from last year, but it’s too striking not to use – and nothing much has changed since except more of us are paying higher-rate taxes and there’s a bigger tax burden on employers.

Again, I know and appreciate the US has plenty of poor people. But Britain is frequently compared to the poorest State in the US – Mississippi –  and in doing so we’re found to be worse off, per capita.

Not a good look for a nation that still considers itself amongst the leading ranks.

A plague on all your over-priced houses

What’s to be done about? Well plenty that isn’t. But just not shooting ourselves in the foot would help.

You wouldn’t want to make it more expensive to hire people, to overburden development, or choose to depress our wealth creators. And of course as a trading nation you wouldn’t impose permanently higher costs on the economy by deciding to leave the vast and prosperous free market on your doorstep.

At this point you might be hurrying to the comments to post your political point of view. But let’s face it, both sides have done poorly over the past few years.

Team Blue must take the lion’s share of the blame, thanks to their lengthy and shambolic stint in power that left us in this mess. But Team Red has been to the cavalry what Jar Jar Binks was to the war effort on Naboo.

Fortunately it’s still possible in the UK to get ahead financially, if you’re say a well-educated Monevator reader who saves and invests hard, uses tax shelters to the max, and you had the good fortune to be born before 1990.

However you can understand why some people jump on boats in despair at their own political systems.

Just be aware if you are tempted to cut corners that the US is destroying boats it doesn’t like in international waters. (It’s also urging we do the same).

Ho hum.

Have a great weekend.

p.s. We were a bit too imprecise about passwords in The Realist’s excellent debut article on preparing your paperwork ahead of your death. So please note it may be against the T&Cs – and even the law – to access some accounts after your loved one has died, if they were held in their own name. See this commentary from the Bereavement Advice Centre.

From Monevator

Expected return estimates for your financial planning – Monevator

When I die: financial affairs fit for the afterlife – Monevator

From the archive-ator: Optimising the All-Weather Portfolio – Monevator [Members]

News

Bank of England holds base rate at 4%… – Which

…with UK inflation stuck at 3.8% as food prices surge – BBC

Reeves mulls staggered stamp duty payments to boost housing market – City AM

Bank of England eases quantitative tightening to avoid massive losses – Sky

Households put a record £103bn into cash ISAs – Guardian

US tech firms pledge £150bn of investment in UK… – BBC

… and the US and UK have also signed a big nuclear power deal – Guardian

Half-a-million house sales collapse a year due to ‘antiquated’ process [Paywall] – FT

Taxpayers have lost £400m on Rishi Sunak’s Covid-era Future Fund – Guardian

Rolling Stone owner sues Google over AI summaries – Tech Crunch

The problem with taxing the rich [Paywall] – FT

Products and services

Nationwide Switch offer (3 x £175) – Be Clever With Your Cash

Valour debuts Bitcoin staking ETP on London Stock Exchange – Parameter

Get up to £200 cashback when you open or switch to an Interactive Investor SIPP. Terms and fees apply, affiliate link. – Interactive Investor

How do the free childcare hours work? – This Is Money

Nationwide cuts mortgage rates despite BoE keeping rates on hold – This Is Money

Get up to £100 as a welcome bonus when you open a new account with InvestEngine via our link. (Minimum deposit of £100, T&Cs apply, affiliate link. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine

How to collect and spend Boots advantage points – Be Clever With Your Cash

Are you owed a pension tax refund? – Which

Homes for sale for first-time buyers, in pictures – Guardian

Comment and opinion

Global trackers could make investors nothing over next ten years [Managers talking their book, but compelling graphs] – Trustnet

Investing long term is great. It also means you’ll see a crash – Chart Kid Matt

What’s going on with the stock market? – Darius Foroux

Assessing gold’s portfolio value [Good but nerdy] – DE Shaw

How to invest like it’s 1725: the revival of Lloyds ‘names’ [Paywall] – FT

Does financial success come at a social price? – Life After The Daily Grind

Tax strategies property investors should be using [Podcast] – The Property Podcast

Does it still pay to go to university? It’s complex – Guardian

Stress-testing the [US] 60/40 portfolio over 150 years – Morningstar

Navigating the unknowns of financial decisions – Humble Dollar

Compounding versus capacity – Arcadian

Thinking big as you approach retirement [Podcast/transcript] – Morningstar

Naughty corner: Active antics

A long interview with out-of-favour fund manager Nick Train [Podcast] – B.T.B.S.

Investigating tight credit spreads – Behavioural Investment

The risks of extreme concentration… – Verdad

…albeit some “have always been paranoid about size” – Harvey Sawikin

Starting a hedge fund: one year in – Bristlemoon Capital

(Properly) comparing bond yields across markets – FT Alphaville

The ins and outs of distressed investing [Podcast] – My First Million

Kindle book bargains

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis – £0.99 on Kindle

Alchemy by Rory Sutherland – £0.99 on Kindle

The Green Budget Guide by Nancy Birtwhistle – £0.99 on Kindle

Techno Feudalism by Yanis Varoufakis – £0.99 on Kindle

Browse our all-time favourite investing books – Monevator shop

Environmental factors

Can we feed 10 billion people without destroying the planet? – Mother Jones

UK could raise £2bn by taxing SUVs in line with Europe – Guardian

How will Peak District carbon capture plan work? – BBC

China is quietly saving the world from climate change – Noahpinion

How the UK’s largest lake became an ecological disaster – Guardian

Climate scientists saw the future before it arrived – Quanta

Robot overlord roundup

Google DeepMind claims ‘historic’ breakthrough in problem solving – Guardian

How people actually use ChatGPT… – Forked Lightning

…such as to get advice about personal finance and investing – NYT

Perplexity: an untidy history of AI across four books – Hedgehog Review

AI skepticism and Oracle’s big risk – Eagle Point Capital

Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China – Guardian

AI will change jobs before the data shows it – Kate Capital

This fairytale may shed light on how AI will change humanity – Guardian

Not at the dinner table

All the sad young terminally online men – Derek Thompson

Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet – Vox

Political violence and the role of public leaders – Strength in Numbers

Not since WW2 has the fight for liberalism been this urgent – Big Think

Less wrong – The Pursuit of Happiness

From Colombo to Kathmandu, youth movements topple elites – Guardian

Off our beat

Inside the [physical] Bank of England – BBC

Happier families: new ways of living – The Observer

The British war on slavery – Marginal Revolution

When Britain seized tiny island Rockall to foil the USSR – Guardian

If nothing changes, nothing changes – We’re Gonna Get Those Bastards

How Joseph Wright of Derby put science at the centre of his radical art – Aeon

And finally…

“Remember, things are never clear until it’s too late.”
– Peter Lynch, One Up On Wall Street

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