Hi Aemilianus, As I explained in a separate post to Klaus, I am using wages broadly to mean "household share of national income" which then impacts consumption as a share of GDP, which of course reflects income transfers such as welfare/benefits. As we can see from the savings rates (10% in Germany, 5-7% in the USA) vs consumption's share of GDP (52% in Germany, 68% in the USA), households in the USA broadly capture a far greater share of national income (probably around 75% in the USA versus less than 60% in Germany, with the income transfers accounted for here) .