Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Population 23 million (300M)
Language: English (English)
Constitutional monarchy. (Constitutional republic)
Unemployment: 5.7% (6.7%)
Murder rate: 1.0 (3.99)
Infant mortality rate: 4.66 (5.4)
Minimum wage: $16 AUS ($7.25 USD)
Australia just raised its minimum wage to $16. It has a 5.7% unemployment (USA has 6.7), public health system and it's murder rate is almost four times lower than ours. (1.0 vs. 3.99), infant mortality rate about 0.7% lower. All seems peachy down under.
Could we repeat this social phenomenon in America? Please elaborate.
Last edited by risotto11; 02-05-2014 at 08:03 PM..
For God's sake......you're comparing a country like the US -- with 320 million people -- to a country like Australia?
The problem with that argument is that we can compare individual states, though. The average population of a US state (plus DC/Puerto Rico) is slightly over 6 million.
The problem with that argument is that we can compare individual states, though. The average population of a US state (plus DC/Puerto Rico) is slightly over 6 million.
How does that relate to the OP's question? He's asking if the US -- a country -- can be more like Australia-- another country.
Well, I'll just head off the inevitable tired arguments before this topic gets flooded with BS. In the US, nothing from abroad works (unless if it's anarchism) because:
1. Too many non-whites (aka we don't have a 'homogenous' population)
2. Too many illegals
3. Too many non-Christians
4. Not enough monolingual English speakers
5. Debt too high
There I headed off the 5 most popular regurgitated talking points from the Right. According to them, the US can never change because of the 5 above factors. Now, can we move this discussion in a more productive direction?
I plugged in about 20 different major cities in the US and for almost all, the cost of living is anywhere between 37% and 48% less in the US. The only one I found was New York City where the COL is 10% more than it is in Sydney.
Australia just raised its minimum wage to $16. It has a 5.7% unemployment, public health system and it's murder rates is almost four times lower than ours. Could we repeat this phenomenon in America. Please elaborate.
Australia losing one manufacturing job every 19 minutes
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
