21–30 of 52 posts
Better read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_...
and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP...
and make your own conclusions.
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I was waiting for someone to debunk this, but I have to ask --- everyone in Jackson has a Wal-Mart within a 5 minute drive, and the average home purchase price is $129,000. It isn't possible that people in Jackson have approximately the same standard of living as Germans, at a much lower price?
I guess that depends on what you mean by "standard of living". I can give you a triple gold plated guarantee, though, that the Germans would not consider living in Jackson in your $129k house next to Wal-Mart a "high standard of living". So, in summary, no, it's not possible. You should travel a bit. The whole idea is a complete joke. I mean seriously, would you rather live in Berlin or Jackson? Seriously? Berlin has…
You and I are not the right control group for this experiment. I'm not going to move to Jackson because my favorite bands will never play there, and because I like high-end and ethnic restaurants. But a 44-year-old schoolteacher might not care about those things. The decision between Jackson and Chicago might not be cut-and-dry for him.
(Also, have you been to Jackson? I have. It's not squalid. It's not hickish. It's just a small city. It has several large colleges, and is the headquarters for a couple large companies.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was waiting for someone to debunk this, but I have to ask --- everyone in Jackson has a Wal-Mart within a 5 minute drive, and the average home purchase price is $129,000. It isn't possible that people in Jackson have approximately the same standard of living as Germans, at a much lower price?
Let's not blithely discount the judgment of all the people who pay twice as much for the same house elsewhere.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was waiting for someone to debunk this, but I have to ask --- everyone in Jackson has a Wal-Mart within a 5 minute drive, and the average home purchase price is $129,000. It isn't possible that people in Jackson have approximately the same standard of living as Germans, at a much lower price?
I guess that depends on what you mean by "standard of living". I can give you a triple gold plated guarantee, though, that the Germans would not consider living in Jackson in your $129k house next to Wal-Mart a "high standard of living". So, in summary, no, it's not possible. You should travel a bit. The whole idea is a complete joke. I mean seriously, would you rather live in Berlin or Jackson? Seriously? Berlin has…
Exactly! I, for example, wouldn't want to live in Germany as you describe it. I could care less about trams and nightclubs -- my idea of a great night out is lying in the grass in the dark with my wife, sharing a bottle of wine while listening to the howl of coyotes in the distance. But I prefer to live in a rural area; someone with more urban sensibilities would probably think I'm nuts!!
One thing to remember is that a country where one person makes $120,000 and nine others make $20,000 has the same per-capita GDP as a country where ten people make $30,000 each. Also, as m_eiman points out, PPP does not account for social costs such as increased greenhouse emissions or declining infrastructure.
It's not obvious to me that the infrastructure in Mississipi would be declining faster than the infrastructure in, say, Italy. At the very least, Mississipi is bound to have a much better road system.
Which brings us to "increasing greenhouse gas emissions". Also, there's rather more to both infrastructure and living standard than the number, size and quality of roads.
When did HN become a forum for country dickwaving?
What a weird response. It is, to say the least, counterintuitive that, when PPP-adjusted, Mississipeans have greater buying power than Germans. It either suggests that something is wrong with the author's naive methodology of ranking countries, or that something weird is going on in Germany.
Speaking as one, we're most likely to see their wealthy, urban, tourist-friendly areas. We're most likely to interact with foreign elites who travel here or work in international businesses.
We only pay their internal higher prices -- from their smaller and often more-oligopolistic domestic markets, and higher taxes -- on brief trips where we are price-insensitive, as tourists or corporate travelers.
That most people in admirable, 'rich', developed countries live simple, frugal lives -- by American standards -- can thus be surprising, even though it shouldn't be.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was waiting for someone to debunk this, but I have to ask --- everyone in Jackson has a Wal-Mart within a 5 minute drive, and the average home purchase price is $129,000. It isn't possible that people in Jackson have approximately the same standard of living as Germans, at a much lower price?
I guess that depends on what you mean by "standard of living". I can give you a triple gold plated guarantee, though, that the Germans would not consider living in Jackson in your $129k house next to Wal-Mart a "high standard of living". So, in summary, no, it's not possible. You should travel a bit. The whole idea is a complete joke. I mean seriously, would you rather live in Berlin or Jackson? Seriously? Berlin has…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not obvious to me that the infrastructure in Mississipi would be declining faster than the infrastructure in, say, Italy. At the very least, Mississipi is bound to have a much better road system.
> Mississipi is bound to have a much better road system Which brings us to "increasing greenhouse gas emissions". Also, there's rather more to both infrastructure and living standard than the number, size and quality of roads.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not obvious to me that the infrastructure in Mississipi would be declining faster than the infrastructure in, say, Italy. At the very least, Mississipi is bound to have a much better road system.
Italy's roads aren't that bad, actually (at least in the north). The problem is that they are covered with Italian drivers, and there are an awful lot of them: 60 million in an area a bit smaller than California. (Well, 60 million inhabitants - not all of them drive, but more drive than they ought to)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a weird response. It is, to say the least, counterintuitive that, when PPP-adjusted, Mississipeans have greater buying power than Germans. It either suggests that something is wrong with the author's naive methodology of ranking countries, or that something weird is going on in Germany.
Hm, the problem with PPP is that it's very unclear what it's measuring. Someone with a wal-mart nearby has a higher "PPP" than someone without it. Definitely Americans have access to a lot of cheap crap; it would not surprise me if an average income earner in the Mississippi could indeed buy more random junk each year than your average German. Purchasing power and quality of life, though, are two very different thing…