I was making 75k (63 with bonuses), he was making about 38k (depending on how the exchange rate was going). Wages aren't the only cost of doing business. The cost of actually hiring an employee in Germany is immense, it takes approximately 6 months to a year to hire someone and longer to let someone go.
I live in New England where I am strictly middle class, if I lived in LA I'd be poor if I lived in Arkansas I'd be rich. Currently I'm unemployed, and well I'm broke. I've been broke before. By the way I see broke as a temporary situation, poor is forever and both are a stare of mind.
Graywolf wrote:
Somehow I doubt you are in the median income bracket. Being somewhat socialized most European countries tax higher incomes reletively more than the US does. Blue collar workers in Europe make quit a bit more than they do in the US. BMW built a plant in South Carolina because wages were far cheaper than in Europe. To keep the unions out they pay slightly more than the UAW payscale, which is more than twice that area's normal wages. Blue collar wages in the US have hardly gone up 10% in the last 25 years while cost of living is up about 100%.
This points up one of the problems with folks on this list. Almost all of you are in the upper 50 percentile income bracket. At least 1/2 the people in the US are nowhere near as well off as you are. Also realize that most Europeans get free medical care and a free education while that lower 50% or more in the US get to start their work life with many thousands of dollars owed on student loans and many receive no medical benifits at all. Fully 25% of us are trying to live off of the kinds jobs you guys worked at while in college for pocket change.
The few Europeans whom I have known who work blue collar or semi-blue collar jobs, and have told me their income, make 30-100% more then the equivalent jobs in the US pay. Just the other day I was reading an article which claimed that the income of the 20% highest income families in the US has gone up 4+ times as much as the income of the reamaining 80% in the past 20 years. To me that pretty much lays the idea that it is the poor's own fault that they are poor to rest.
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Peter J. Alling wrote:
Sorry but that depends on the country. A friend of mine who was living and working in Germany doing about the same job I was doing. When we compared wages, he was making about half what I was making. I was paying an effective tax rate of approximately 45% which included Social Social Security, Federal, State and Medicaid, (that doesn't include the employer match on SS which is actually a tax on the employee). He was paying approximately 55%. The costs are actually much higher after taxes.
Graywolf wrote:
It is a matter of reletive wages. For the average American things cost about the same in hours/worked as they do for the average European. It is only when you cross borders that things are cheaper, or more expensive. Also our tax bases are different. I believe our governments taxes income and real property higher than European governments do, and have lower import duties and transfer fees (value added/sales tax).
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John Whittingham wrote:
Wouldn't that depend on your defination of "cheaper"?
I meant better value for my money, did I offend someone?
John
---------- Original Message ----------- From: "Peter J. Alling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:53:55 -0400 Subject: Re: FA 35mm f/2 European prices please
Wouldn't that depend on your defination of "cheaper"?
Cotty wrote:
On 18/10/04, John Whittingham, discombobulated, unleashed:
Is everything cheaper in the US?
Everything but the girls ;-)
Cheers, Cotty
___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com _____________________________
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I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime. --P.J. O'Rourke
------- End of Original Message -------
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I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war.
During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings
and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime.
--P.J. O'Rourke
