4 ms·
I was going to argue with this, but looking into it, it seems the cost of living is only about 50% of the US, so it's really more equivalent to $3/day or so in
by bryondowd 9y ago
I was going to argue with this, but looking into it, it seems the cost of living is only about 50% of the US, so it's really more equivalent to $3/day or so in the US, which would be about $1k/yr. So yeah, I'm a lot less impressed by this now.
It looks like you'd be able to maybe cover basic staple foods in Iran with this income, without anything left for shelter or other necessities. But that said, it means the median income is only about equivalent to $3k/yr US in spending power, which is incredibly depressing, and makes me wonder if I'm doing some math wrong, since surely half the population can't be poor to the point of homelessness. Perhaps the numbers I'm looking at don't factor cost of living in rural vs urban areas, and there is an order of magnitude difference?
- notahacker 9y agoShelter costs very little in poorer countries where the land is worth much less and building regulations and taxes are reduced (and some consumer goods Iranians don't expect to have or don't replace regularly cost more) which is one of the big problems with PPP adjustments trying to assess costs of living in different countries based on a basket of goods. Not that the unconventional method the article uses of scaling median income to suggest it's as high as $16k per year is any more representative. To the extent it's possible to compare the standard of living of an Iranian on UBI with a US standard of living it's probably in between those extremes...
- gorkemyurt 9y agoVery few homeless people in Iran as people can always return back to their 'village' if they don't make it in the city. There will be relatives helping them out and land more or less costs nothing.