A good buddy of mine lived over there for a year and a half working as a fruit picker making $18 an hour. That sounds great 'til you realize a 12 pack of beer is 30 bucks. He saod you couldn’t go out and get some grub and a few drinks for less than a hundo. Point is, who gives a fuck if minimum wage is double the average here if standard living expenses are almost triple.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
A good buddy of mine lived over there for a year and a half working as a fruit picker making $18 an hour. That sounds great 'til you realize a 12 pack of beer is 30 bucks. He saod you couldn’t go out and get some grub and a few drinks for less than a hundo. Point is, who gives a fuck if minimum wage is double the average here if standard living expenses are almost triple.
[/quote]
Zep gives a fuck. He doesn’t care how much stuff costs. He cares about how much he makes.
Kinda like being king shit of turd mountain.
Singapore has no minimum wage, they are a rich country and they also dodged the recession. What Singapore and Australia have in common is extremely free economies (2nd and 3rd freest respectively, the US is 10th).
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
You gotta watch that price thresh hold. $50.00/hour? Out of the question!
But compared to that $48.00 sounds like you’re saving a couple bucks an hour.
Lets do it!
[/quote]
Yep, and it shows that I’m not out to hurt business, only to help people. Look here, employers, my new proposal saves you $2/employee/hour. Is anyone willing to step up and tell me they are AGAINST reducing expenses?
$16 an hour here means you share rental costs (rent, internet, power, water, phone, sometimes gas) with upwards of 3 people (usually strangers).
[quote]Makavali wrote:
$16 an hour here means you share rental costs (rent, internet, power, water, phone, sometimes gas) with upwards of 3 people (usually strangers).[/quote]
I believe the proper response here is: You’re blinded by your right-wing ideology.
Beans should love this
[quote]NickViar wrote:
[quote]Makavali wrote:
$16 an hour here means you share rental costs (rent, internet, power, water, phone, sometimes gas) with upwards of 3 people (usually strangers).[/quote]
I believe the proper response here is: You’re blinded by your right-wing ideology.[/quote]
Anyone who calls me right-wing hasn’t been on this site very long.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
$16 an hour here means you share rental costs (rent, internet, power, water, phone, sometimes gas) with upwards of 3 people (usually strangers).[/quote]
That’s exactly what my buddy did, though I assume he assumed he was doing so due to circumstance as an American on a work visa living in cottages with other travelers.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
A good buddy of mine lived over there for a year and a half working as a fruit picker making $18 an hour. That sounds great 'til you realize a 12 pack of beer is 30 bucks. He saod you couldn’t go out and get some grub and a few drinks for less than a hundo. Point is, who gives a fuck if minimum wage is double the average here if standard living expenses are almost triple.
[/quote]
Zep gives a fuck. He doesn’t care how much stuff costs. He cares about how much he makes.
Kinda like being king shit of turd mountain.
[/quote]
Haha. Not sure I’ve ever posted in this section of the site, but saw the headline on the sidebar and clicked. Making blanket statements without having done any legwork to support said claims is a boneheaded move.
I am not an economist, but I am an Aussie, so here’s my 2c.
The cost of living is definitely higher in AS than in the US. The cost of housing is extremely high (we have 5 of the top 10 least affordable cities in the world to buy a house in). But what we do have is a massive welfare system. We simply dont have the poverty and homelessness in AS that I have seen in the US (I lived in Virginia for a couple years). While it does exist its generally isolated (Aboriginal Communites have much higher rates of poverty, and much lower life expectancy than the rest of AS). The AS government provides a wage to the unemployed (called the Dole) and provides Government housing to the poor. We have a health system called Medicare which provides subsidised or free (depending on what you earn) health care to all Australians. We have free education through to High School and a University system that allows you to pay your tuition after you start earning a decent wage (called the Higher Education Scheme). We also have an excellent trade training schemes and apprenticeships. So our Government does make it easy to for all Australians to grow, get educated and get a decent job, buy a house and have children. We also have mandatory superannuation, which means that all Australians must contribute to their retirement.
All of this is paid for by our Taxation system, which is bloody complex let me assure you. As much as I hate paying as much tax as I do, I would still prefer to live in AS than any other county in the world. We have a good economy (despite the Labor governments ham fisted efforts), low levels of violent crime, no real threat (in terms of defense of AS), great weather, a fantastic multicultural society, good healthcare and education. I have lived in the US, the UK, the UAE, Canada and visited many other countries in he world, but as the song says, I still call Australia home.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
[quote]NickViar wrote:
[quote]Makavali wrote:
$16 an hour here means you share rental costs (rent, internet, power, water, phone, sometimes gas) with upwards of 3 people (usually strangers).[/quote]
I believe the proper response here is: You’re blinded by your right-wing ideology.[/quote]
Anyone who calls me right-wing hasn’t been on this site very long.[/quote]
If you don’t back Zeppelin795, then you’re right-wing and blinded by your ideology. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from speaking to him. He has definitely converted me. Hell, I fall asleep to the sweet sounds of therealnews.com interviews now, you know?
[quote]Zeppelin795 wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
Wow! Double your minimum wage? And no negative economic consequences? That’s amazing!
Oh wait, Americans have >30% more purchasing power than Aussies…
Oops.
[/quote]
I did not see any adjustment for currency standards
[/quote]
What?
Everything there is in AUD, if that’s what you mean. You can change the default currency to USD, but it doesn’t change any of the percentage gaps. [/quote]
Curious as to why education and healthcare are not indexed?[/quote]
Clearly a conspiracy.
For the record, education is more expensive in Australia >> Cost of Education - Cost of Education in USA, Cost of Education in Canada And Cost of Education in Australia
I don’t even have to look it up to know that healthcare in the U.S. is more expensive, but that has more to do with just how few doctors there are in the U.S. compared to Australia (2.4 vs 3.9, respectively). EDIT: Those numbers are /1000 people – if it wasn’t obvious. >> Physicians (per 1,000 people) | Data
The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country I can name off the top of my head, but it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at the problem demand-side if the issue is supply-side.
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
[quote]Zeppelin795 wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
Wow! Double your minimum wage? And no negative economic consequences? That’s amazing!
Oh wait, Americans have >30% more purchasing power than Aussies…
Oops.
[/quote]
I did not see any adjustment for currency standards
[/quote]
What?
Everything there is in AUD, if that’s what you mean. You can change the default currency to USD, but it doesn’t change any of the percentage gaps. [/quote]
Curious as to why education and healthcare are not indexed?[/quote]
Clearly a conspiracy.
For the record, education is more expensive in Australia >> Cost of Education - Cost of Education in USA, Cost of Education in Canada And Cost of Education in Australia
I don’t even have to look it up to know that healthcare in the U.S. is more expensive, but that has more to do with just how few doctors there are in the U.S. compared to Australia (2.4 vs 3.9, respectively).
The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country I can name off the top of my head, but it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at the problem demand-side if the issue is supply-side. [/quote]
Stop stating facts and making sense. You are destroying his argument!
[quote]Bauber wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
[quote]Zeppelin795 wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
Wow! Double your minimum wage? And no negative economic consequences? That’s amazing!
Oh wait, Americans have >30% more purchasing power than Aussies…
Oops.
[/quote]
I did not see any adjustment for currency standards
[/quote]
What?
Everything there is in AUD, if that’s what you mean. You can change the default currency to USD, but it doesn’t change any of the percentage gaps. [/quote]
Curious as to why education and healthcare are not indexed?[/quote]
Clearly a conspiracy.
For the record, education is more expensive in Australia >> Cost of Education - Cost of Education in USA, Cost of Education in Canada And Cost of Education in Australia
I don’t even have to look it up to know that healthcare in the U.S. is more expensive, but that has more to do with just how few doctors there are in the U.S. compared to Australia (2.4 vs 3.9, respectively).
The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country I can name off the top of my head, but it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at the problem demand-side if the issue is supply-side. [/quote]
Stop stating facts and making sense. You are destroying his argument!
[/quote]
Here is the exchange rate. Curious when living standards are applied how much the difference in pay comes out to? Of course education and medical needs to be taken into account. Also their unemployment is much lower. Then why do economists in the U.S. say if you raise minimum wage you loose jobs?
[quote]Karado wrote:
Brother Chris typed: “Because they are very good capitalist. They buy stuff from third party sellers for less than what distributers and manufactures will sell it for and undercut retail price but with a fat margin over what they bought it for basically they buy low sell high, but lower than everyone else = capitalismmmmmmm deliious. You can be liberal all you want, doesn’t change how to run a company.”
Yeah but that’s not the WHOLE story, because tens of thousands of “good capitalist” businesses have closed their doors anyway in this economy while COSTCO has thrived all the way around.
Details are extremely important as opposed to just saying they are “capitalist”, and here are the details that make a
company successful in a shitty economy or ANY economy other than just broad brushing the “capitalist” label on them.
[/quote]
Sorry, the reason they are able to make money is because they are capitalist.
[quote]Zeppelin795 wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
[quote]RyuuKyuzo wrote:
Wow! Double your minimum wage? And no negative economic consequences? That’s amazing!
Oh wait, Americans have >30% more purchasing power than Aussies…
Oops.
[/quote]
I did not see any adjustment for currency standards
[/quote]
1.09*
http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index[/quote]
The adjustment for inflation to the U.S. is $12/hr. but the Aussie’s have benefits packages so it needs to be adjusted up.[/quote]
That has nothing to do with adjustment for currency standards. You suck at economics.
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
Beans should love this [/quote]
Half that stuff has already been debunked on this forum. Southern Strategy = biggest lie on there.