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http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-...

The price of electricity is falling in Germany owing to renewable energy. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/... They like wind power.

And if you compare the cost of electricity in Germany versus the cost of electricity in France? This comparison on average cost of living between the two countries show that electricity is, on average 26% cheaper in France versus Germany. Just because its going down in Germany doesn't mean that electricity rates in Germany were ever reasonable to begin with.

There's no need to speculate about this, just look at countries where the minimum wage is more generous.

Long story short: prices are higher. It's not rocket science. But it's not catastrophic to the economy, either.

Well, when the person driving the economy is who we have in the US, you are bound to see things like this. Margret Thatcher I think said it best, âoeWhat the honorable member is saying is that he would rather that the poor were poorer, provided that the rich were less rich,â She explained âoeSo long as the gap is smaller, they would rather have the poor poorer. You do not create wealth and opportunity that way. You do not create a property-owning democracy that way.â

Anyways, is the middle class actually the same in both nations? I mean it appears they pay more for almost everything and on average earn less.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-...

But it is not too late to do anything. It just takes enough people concerned about it. Congress will gladly do anything to limit themselves if it means continuing their election- they just have to understand that is what is necessary for them to be reelected.

Pardon my reading comprehension problems, but I don't see that in the referenced article. I see a reference to the "proportion of armed robberies involving firearms has declined", but not that violent crimes has an overall trend down.

Mostly I was trying to address the blanket "the second Australia did [remove easy access to guns], violent crime statistics went up" idea that there is a strong causal connection between lack of easy access to guns and increased violent crime. Snopes rightly said "it ain't that clear" and that statements of that nature are intellectually dishonest. One should be clear about what one is stating, and when using statistics one should have an understanding about what expected variations (for example is 12.8% actually a "marked increase" or just noise?) are likely.

Drawing any strong conclusions between the US and Australia, which have vastly different demographics and cultures, is not an easy task. The US murder rate is about eight times that of Australia, and scores about 10 points worse on crime rates and safety scores that Australia. Australia also has less than 7.5% of the USA population, so the statistics are going to be a lot noisier for the smaller population. Then again, the variation in the USA from state-to-state and region-to-region are quite large making country-wide comparisons less valid in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.numbeo.com/crime/ra...

Senior professors make $75k and above and it goes a long way in Israel.

I call BS. Cost of living in Israel is substantially higher than in the USA.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Israel&country2=United+States

Additionally senior professors make $150k in the USA, so the wage difference is 3-4x in favor of the USA.

Sorry, I should have left a source - http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=United+States

A lot of the time in the US the tax is included in the final price, especially at the big franchise like best buy or walmart. It's not enough of a factor to alter the point.

Consumer protection in the US varies by state I believe, and I don't think it would be 90 days. My friend just bought a $300 TV and got a 5 year warranty for $75...but that was unnecessary. It comes with a 1 year warranty, possibly as a requirement.

I don't think the shipping is that much of a cost increase, given how little shipping impacts the price when buying from Amazon or the like.

Anyway, my point was mainly that the cost increase in Australia isn't illegal, and that I don't know that the government should get involved.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Canada&country2=United+States
The nearest oil well is 1 mile away. The nearest gas well is 1/2 miles away. The closest chicken farm is 2 miles away. The closest beef farm is 1 1/2 miles away. And almost all land is gain farms. So why does that stuff cost more?

Cost of living in Australia is between 2 and 1.5 times that of the US .. so i think the comparison is not quite so binary.

That ( the tone and intention of your post ) is paternalizing at best. It is NOT. $ 1 per hour, in Morocco, is a hunger wage : http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Morocco This is sheer exploitation of poverty. I was in Morocco, several times. The country is full of young people desperately looking for a job,

That's not 2k € a year in SAVINGS, but the budget for: Health care, clothing, misc expenses, furnishing your apt, hobbies etc etc.
That was for higher mid wage income level, quite few gets to enjoy that level of income. I know a lot of people who gross half of that, and even those who consider to having an OK income are getting in some 70% of that only.

2k € a year is *NOTHING*, unless you live very frugally, forget smart phones, forget high quality clothes, forget health care, forget hobbies.

450€ a month of actual buying power is NADA, ZILCH.
It might sound like much, but you don't have the high prices we do.
A meal at McDonalds costs 11-12€, cheapeast jeans you can find costs 40€, fuel is 1.6€/l. Hell, even a pint of beer costs some 4-5€!

450€ a month is a fortune for someone living in Africa, but in one of the most expensive countries in the world it's nothing.
And it's not the cost alone, but the damn taxes which are very high.

See: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp

vs 200$/m2 in USA.

Uh, you're aware that the page you link to in the graph for the US says: Purchase-only House Price Index, Seasonally Adjusted (Q1 1991=100). It's an index, not dollars. For example this listed in dollars says $2000/m^2 in city center, $1300/m^2 outside. And that will vary greatly inside the US, they're almost as big as Europe so low/highs there are pretty much like low/highs in Europe - much bigger spread.

This will help you: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp

It shows various statistics relating to the cost of goods in a country and the average salaries. Note that while there are some developing countries on this list, none of the *really* poor countries are on here. You can see that many of these countries have very low Consumer Price Indeces. If we factor in rent (see the Consumer Price + Rent column) we can see that goods plus rent for India is only 20% of the baseline (New York City). Sounds, great doesn't it? But when we compare that to the average salary (Local Purchase Power), we see that Indians can still only buy 44% of the baseline.

The thing to take away from this is that in countries like India, most of the wealth is concentrated with the wealthy. So while on average people can afford 44% of what someone in NYC can afford, poor people in India are really, really screwed even though their costs are 1/5 of what you might expect.

But it gets worse. We look at "rent" and "local purchase power", but the fact of the matter is rent for the average person in the world gives a hell of a lot less than rent for your average New York City dweller. There are lots and lots and lots of people without electricity. Not to mention running water. Not to mention sewage. So, maybe your rent is is much lower, but then so is what you get.

No access to clean water. No access to medicine. No access to education. You can't save money because your banks don't do savings ac