(August 5, 2012 at 10:32 pm)jonb Wrote:(August 5, 2012 at 9:35 pm)Justtristo Wrote: To give an example of where I am coming from, I keep an eye on the media in the United States and Australia is hardly ever mentioned. However the United Kingdom and even the Netherlands get mentioned more than Australia does. Although Australia does get more mention in the United Kingdom media, however that is not suprising since there are over 1 million UK born Australians and around 100,000 Australian born people in the UK.
Ah, but there are motivations the media like to show our country is doing quite well, so American media is not going to show and awful lot of Australia which is not suffering so much in the world recession. Thus most Americans do not realize how badly paid they are.
I would estimate that average US (before the recession) and Australian living standards are roughly equal. Although there is a lot more income inequality in the United States than in Australia. That figure is adjusted for a higher cost of living in Australia compared to the United States.
Although a case can be made that compared to the countries of Western Europe, living standards for median American is lower than of a median person say in France, Germany or the Netherlands. Even factoring in the recent severe recession in both Europe and North America.
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