eli5: Why is the US commonly called the “wealthiest country” if we have 30T in debt?

Question

eli5: Why is the US commonly called the “wealthiest country” if we have 30T in debt?

In: 5

Answer 1

That’s referring to the people in the country, not to the government of the country. Actually, probably the people and/or the corporations of the country.

Looking at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult) the US is second to Switzerland in *mean* wealth per adult and 26th in *median* wealth.

There’s probably a bit of American exceptionalism mixed in, too.