You may not believe it but other than housing, Australia is pretty inexpensive. There are plenty of ways by which immigrants keep costs down. I go to a very famous wet market every Saturday to do my shopping where fresh food prices are incredibly low. I live in Melbourne and I suspect Melbourne housing prices are similar to NYC. NYC also offers the immigrant shopping alternative. I have lived in Copenhagen, which is also similar housing price-wise. There was also an immigrant option (just go behind the Central station, where Copenhagen's immigrants gather to shop their wares). Add to this, both the Australian and Danish governments have pretty generous welfare, and socialized medicine at virtually zero costs, thus raising real income on the assumption that Australia is expensive. I also live in Seattle on the east side where professional immigrants congregate. But in the last few years prices have gone up in the US, especially for food not to mention people of decent means unable to keep living in Seattle downtown area. PPP might show US to have higher incomes but the proportion of households below poverty is likely to be higher than in Australia or Denmark. And what fluctuating currencies do to the PPP metrics? So in the end such cross-national observations over time are pretty robust to make the point, which was the US lags behind what it really pays the worker compared to other similarly placed places. To catch up will require a herculean effort, given that tax increases is virtually out of the question. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies Australia India Institute and School of Social & Political Sciences University of Melbourne, 147-149 Barry Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 3 9035 6161, http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/ <https://owa.unimelb.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=KGdpeyp6YEyjUaiENKoAtx8nOn9uStAIlCVtCNE3uLxqkGIwkWdEYjJXILfPlddrM0Q1713syQQ.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.aii.unimelb.edu.au%2f>
Podcast: https://theconversation.com/speaking-with-anthony-dcosta-on-the-challenges-facing-indias-economy-43913 CONFERENCE: http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Instruments-of-Intervention_prog_abstract_final.pdf <http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Instruments-of-Intervention_prog_abstract_final.pd> *Just Out Book: **https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415564953 <https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415564953>* *New Book: *After-Development Dynamics (on South Korea) http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198729433.do *New Book Series (Dynamics of Asian Development)* *http://www.springer.com/series/13342 <http://www.springer.com/series/13342>* xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx On Fri, Mar 4, 2016 at 3:26 PM, Fernando Cassia <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/4/16, Anthony D'Costa <[email protected]> wrote: > > So late in the game we talk about $15 hourly wage that > > too gradual increase over a few years, a good beginning no doubt but what > > will it take to get it to 18-20 dollars an hour? Australia (not > > Scandinavia) already has it and they pay for it with taxes > > As you are surely aware, (and specially with this being an economics > list) you can't just compare salaries between different countries in > absolute numbers but you should rather convert them to purchasing > power parity (PPP). > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity > > The cost of living in Australia, Scandinavia and the US are not alike. > Even in the US cost of living (housing, energy/utilities, etc) varies > widely between states. So Australia having salary of $20 US dollars an > hours means essentially nothing in the context of your comparison > without added context or PPP conversion. > > Just my $.02 > FC > > -- > During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary > act > Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto > Revolucionario > - George Orwell > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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