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I had a friend I used to work with get a job in Perth. He got a nice raise from his US salary in the same line of work and he rented a decent sized house like the one he lived in Houston. He soon found out that almost all his normal expenses were higher than expected and he didn't have enough left over for any fun in the monthly budget. As soon as the lease expired he moved into a much smaller cheaper house. Recently he just left the job at the minimum period to leave the contract. He did really love Perth and W. Australia to live in ... just wasn't worth it .
I've been to Perth twice (on expense account though) and really loved it. I think it's just that coming from one of the world's cheapest big modern cities the contrast is just huge. Some people just aren't enough into the beach lifestyle and no-humidity to suffer the disposable income decline.
I think Sydney is comparable from what I've heard and now even some of the secondary non-glam cities are getting expensive with the energy and mining boom driving up the cost of everything.
Across the board they are higher in Australia. If Australia were a US state it would be on an a median household income basis one of the richest states in the country, with a median household income above Washington D.C and just below Connecticut's.
Using the same principle Western Australia is actually richer than any state in the USA, if the median household income stats on the the front page of city data are correct.
Of course all that is totally irrelevant once costs are taken into account, but high incomes do help us support high costs.
Were did you find this data? I was looking best I could find were if ACT were part of the US it would rank #8, same as NH. ACT had the highest median hh income.
Were did you find this data? I was looking best I could find were if ACT were part of the US it would rank #8, same as NH. ACT had the highest median hh income.
Hi mate, I assume for the aussie data, like i said, the US data is obtined from the front page map on this web site.
The aussie data is from the 2011 census, I assume you can access this from the USA, here is a link to the ACT.
You need to click on the people section and scroll towards the bottom, It records a median houseshold income of $1,920 per week, about 100k per year. The NT acutally has the second highest median household income in Australia at about $1674 per week, as you would know neither the NT or ACT are actually "states" as such, hence my statement that WA is actually the richest "state".
Of coure all this is unadjusted income, if you calculate income on PPP's its going to be a bit of a different story.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 03-16-2013 at 05:42 PM..
You need to click on the people section and scroll towards the bottom, It records a median houseshold income of $1,920 per week, about 100k per year. The NT acutally has the second highest median household income in Australia at about $1674 per week, as you would know neither the NT or ACT are actually "states" as such, hence my statement that WA is actually the richest "state".
Of coure all this is unadjusted income, if you calculate income on PPP's its going to be a bit of a different story.
Are you comparing median gross household income for Australia with median equivalised household income for the US?
Are you comparing median gross household income for Australia with median equivalised household income for the US?
Here is the definition of Median household income from the US census bureau, it pretty much seems to be the standard (un adjusted) definition of median Household income from my perspective (although I might be missing something).
By this method it gives Maryland (which i believe is per captia the richest state in the US) a median house hold income of $72,419 p/a, which is slightly out of scope with the maps on the front page of C/D, but not by a large amount.
Here is the definition of Median household income from the US census bureau, it pretty much seems to be the standard (un adjusted) definition of median Household income from my perspective (although I might be missing something).
By this method it gives Maryland (which i believe is per captia the richest state in the US) a median house hold income of $72,419 p/a, which is slightly out of scope with the maps on the front page of C/D, but not by a large amount.
But the question is "Why do people who are born poor, die poor?". There isn't one single answer. But a lot of what I see in the U.S. is that poor people teach their kids the habits of poverty (short term thinking, lack of planning). The big thing I see in the U.S. is having kids too young and without being married. That pretty much kills your chances of entering the middle class, especially if you have more than one kid out of wedlock.
Even liberal academic types are now admitting (belatedly) that having kids out of wedlock tends to keep people trapped in poverty.
I’ve been studying single mothers since long before “Murphy Brown” was on the air. In a study I co-authored with Adam Thomas, I put them into hypothetical households with demographically similar unmarried men who, in principle, would be good marriage partners. Through this virtual matchmaking, we showed that child poverty rates would fall by as much as 20 percent in an America with more two-parent households.
^^^^^That is if both parents are earning a living, what happens if only one is earning a living?
I think if you did up a household budget of the US vs Aus everything in Aus would be more expensive.
Currency is partly to do with it, but so is the fact that Aussie consumers are happy to pay higher prices as they get a lot higher wages than most places, excessive regulation doesnt help either
I love Aus and am glad i was born here, but unfortunately it is becoming an expensive nation of whingers and do-gooders rather than building on the can-do having a go attitude that we used to have back in the 90's and back. Maybe us Gen Y'ers are to blame...
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