Moving back to Australia, been in USA for 29 years

[Battleneter]

Originally Posted by jayway

Also, university quality was discussed in this thread and I thought that was slightly odd that the high global standing of AU unis was not the focus. IMHO AU is exceptionally well "uni'd" especially considering the age and size of the country. But then again AU is the 12th largest economy and #1 in median wealth!

Australia is rich and on top of the world: is it time to pop the champers? | Business | theguardian.com

Hmmm I really struggle with these kinds of crude economic cross country comparison. Aus has done well in the last decade+ but this graph to me is utterly worthless and here is why.

1. Rankings exclude cost of living (out of scope), a $US does not go anywhere near as far in Aus as the US.

2. Housing bubble (Aus still has a large housing bubble mostly formed over the last decade. You have to live somewhere, its questionable if your house is worth double $$ in the SAME market if its any real benefit). I don't have to lecture Americans what happens to personnel wealth when housing bubbles pop.

3. Aus high exchange rate vs $US (US printing money atm), $Aus is still well above long term trends, may drop Assuming the US ever gets its act together. That will effect that graph.

4. Private super savings vs set level of government support.



1-3 is self explanatory but number #4 needs more explaining.

Aus Super is effectively compulsory/privatised 12% paid over ones working life (generally a good scheme but effects the graph). In Aus when you reach 67 the government means tests your government pension. So you may have 600K saved up privately (good on paper now) but you may only receive a portion of the government provided pension.

In other countries in that list the government old age pension is paid regardless of how much private funds you have (excluding arguments about countries being able to afford it), so in other words on paper not as wealthy but higher level of government support.