At 13:16 29-04-2002 -0700, Chad Cooper wrote: >Our standard of living is not much more, if any than Western Europe
I would argue that the standard of living is noticably higher in the US than in Europe. I will give you a table with income and prices of some goods and services over here (in Euros and the equivalent in US dollars (USD 1 is approx. EUR 1.15)); you add the income and prices in the US. Minimum wage (gross): EUR 1,206 (USD 1,048) Joe Average's annual income (gross): EUR 17,200 (USD 15,000) Multimedia PC (desktop): EUR 1,500 (USD 1,300) Laptop computer: EUR 2,300 (USD 2,000) Cup of coffee in a restaurant: EUR 1.25-1.50 (USD 1.10-1.30) Ticket to a movie theatre: EUR 7.50 (USD 3.40) Lawyer's fee (low end of the scale): EUR 125-150 (USD 56-68) per hour (Note that the amounts in USD are only the equivalent of the prices in Euros, not the actual prices of those goods and services in the US.) The prices might seem to be in the same range, but look at what these (and other) goods and services cost as a percentage of income. That will also explain why Europe is such a popular holiday destination for Americans... Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
