I thought that the US would be a somewhat expensive country to live in (and was going to mention it here, until I remembered that RyanCarey was explicitly talking about PPP-adjusted values), but it turns out that it’s actually as cheap as Greece, (and, conversely, Israel as expensive as France).
(I guess it’s that most things I’ve heard in the past while about prices in the US is from LWers in the Bay Area; I knew it was more expensive than the rest of the US, but I guess I underestimated that. As for Israel, I guess I was extrapolating geographically: if south-eastern Europe is cheaper than north-western Europe, then Israel, which is south-east of south-eastern Europe, must be even cheaper.)
In retrospect, it makes sense that the US is cheap, given that petrol comprises (directly or indirectly) a large fraction of first-worlders’ expenditures, and it is a hell of a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe.
I thought that the US would be a somewhat expensive country to live in (and was going to mention it here, until I remembered that RyanCarey was explicitly talking about PPP-adjusted values), but it turns out that it’s actually as cheap as Greece, (and, conversely, Israel as expensive as France).
(I guess it’s that most things I’ve heard in the past while about prices in the US is from LWers in the Bay Area; I knew it was more expensive than the rest of the US, but I guess I underestimated that. As for Israel, I guess I was extrapolating geographically: if south-eastern Europe is cheaper than north-western Europe, then Israel, which is south-east of south-eastern Europe, must be even cheaper.)
In retrospect, it makes sense that the US is cheap, given that petrol comprises (directly or indirectly) a large fraction of first-worlders’ expenditures, and it is a hell of a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe.