| .jayderyu said: Can I make an addendum. This type of comparison isn't equal as it stand. Other factors Dollar difference Average income per month Living expenses per month(I hear some countries rent is 2/3 your monthly pay and food is cheap) You never know the effect cost per person could be roughly the same across many countries based on income levels and such factors. |
The BIGGEST difference is taxes. Period. Many countries, including all European and most Latin American countries have either a VAT or an import tax that adds HUUUUUUGE amounts of money to everything they buy. The VAT is a HIDDEN tax that makes everything in Europe 15 to 25 percent more expensive than it is in the US.
Thanks to Obama and his crazy healthcare bill, we will now need a VAT in America too. It'll crush jobs, kill growth, destroy the entire retail sector, millions will lose their jobs, their houses, their dignity, but oh hey, look, at least we can look forward to RIOTS and bankers (like my wife) being murdered, as we're seeing in Greece right now, when the shit really hits the fan for spending all this dough we don't have.
All of those European countries passed VAT taxes a couple decades ago to pay for their universal health care, and look where it got them. They are the most in debt, out of control countries, with much worse health care than we have, and now the crap is really goin to hit the fan with the massive debts they can no longer afford thanks to all of those health benefits/pensions etc... Look at California, with its 10% sales tax, massive public pensions, medical liabilities, and you see Barack Obama's vision for America as a whole. Broke. In debt. Headed for disaster. The VAT only feeds that hungry mouth more money, and so it spends more. Again, the most in debt countries in the world are the countries that have VAT taxes. The countries with the lowest economic growth are the countries with VAT taxes. Obama has traded our healthy economy, the best health system in the world, and solid economic growth (historically compared to Europe) all so that 5% of the population could get free health insurance. What a great deal!
