Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes • Hacker News Board

Re: Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes

#61

Post by onraglanroad » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

librasteve wrote: post #56

onraglanroad wrote: post #23

To give context on my other comments, where I live in Scotland, median full time wage is around $55k. You can live a perfectly comfortable life on that; you don't have to worry about bills or medical expenses, and you can afford to get a mortgage and buy a house (probably costing around $300k or so) That's why I'm surprised about people from a richer nation saying they can't afford things.

The median income in Southern England is comparable, but house prices are 2-3x higher. Not surprising that we moan about tax subsidies getting paid to folk with a better lifestyle.

If it helps, think of it less as Subsidy and more as Tribute!

Re: Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes

#62

Post by binary132 » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 12:38 PM UTC

Concepts based on this take no account whatsoever of the differences in currencies and local/national economies that lead to incredibly different costs of normal life in different towns within a state, let alone between different countries around the world. If it were somehow possible to magically level USD incomes of all families depicted in this chart, perhaps to an arbitrary median of $2500/mo, many of the poorest families would be very wealthy — or at least very well-off — by their local standards, while many of the high-income families would lose their homes, healthcare, and means of income due to their local costs of living. It’s always so strange to me that people seem unable to comprehend this simple fact that nearly all of our international economics today are predicated on exploiting.

Re: Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes

#63

Post by close04 » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 1:01 PM UTC

qurren wrote: post #55

close04 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re playing with words here. Mortgages are considered ownership around the world. It’s only fair I throw a creative wrench in your idea of ownership then: eminent domain. You can never own something if it can just be taken away even if you are compensated.

> Mortgages are considered ownership around the world. Only because the people in power have successfully brainwashed everyone into thinking so. I don't care what brainwashed people consider it to be. I only consider it what it actually is. From first principles, it is objectively not ownership, if the bank has rights on it.

> I don't care

Then don’t worry your pretty little fingers informing us of your uninformed opinion. You get what you give.

You also cowardly avoided my last remark, or just have no idea what that is. Eminent domain says that your government can decide to take something you think you own, thus proving you don’t own it no matter where you put your name on it or how you paid for it.

Re: Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes

#64

Post by em-bee » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

binary132 wrote: post #62

Concepts based on this take no account whatsoever of the differences in currencies and local/national economies that lead to incredibly different costs of normal life in different towns within a state, let alone between different countries around the world. If it were somehow possible to magically level USD incomes of all families depicted in this chart, perhaps to an arbitrary median of $2500/mo, many of the poorest…

what is your point? as far as i can tell the pictures only show the reality. they don't explain why. the interpretation is up to the reader.

my personal experience suggests that cost of living vs living standards is pretty uniform globally if compared on a national level. (at least in the places i have been to. higher cost of living in a country always also meant higher living standards, and vice versa. differences only mattered within a country with popular locations being more expensive, and there mostly it affects the cost for homes.). so your idea that raising poor families to $2500/mo would make them wealthy is only true if they don't try to change their living standards.

and what does that have to do with international economics being based on exploitation? again, that's an interpretation of the things we can see here. i don't disagree with the interpretation, it's just that the photos do not themselves make the interpretation, they only observe.