Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewJ
We are also one of the most expensive to live in,
so it balances out ( a bit )
Also is that true when net "personal debt" is taken into account?
From what i have understood, the recent rise in housing prices and penchant for putting stuff on the plastic has moved a lot more debt to the private sector vs the Govt.
A lot of people may live in expensive houses, but we dont own em.
Andrew
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Hi Andrew,
Well, everyone keeps saying we're one of the most expensive countries to live in, but I go on vacation to Europe every two years, and I'm darned if I think that it's cheaper to live over there. Yes, it's cheaper in the old eastern bloc countries, but not in the rest of the place. Good value meals in Berlin, but in London and Madrid and Rome I felt I was burning money just to eat. Melbourne is much cheaper.
In places like Italy where they are all mad on designer stuff - there are hardly any discounts like we get over here. They think a sale is 10% off, whereas I think a sale is 60% off.
If one doesn't make the calculation about assets per adult without taking the debt into account, the figure would be meaningless, as the most indebted people would be the most wealthy, and no comparison between countries could be done validly.
The fact that we are the richest country in the world on a median basis becomes pretty self evident when one travels overseas. You run across Australians literally everywhere, far out of all proportion to other nationalities.
Regards,
Renato