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> Is there any country where everyone lives comfortably working full time at any job? Every developed country except one. I can't believe you don't know that.
by grecy 7y ago
> Is there any country where everyone lives comfortably working full time at any job?
Every developed country except one. I can't believe you don't know that.
Last time I was in Australia I met a guy and his wife - they both work stacking shelves at Safeway (the very definition of minimum wage job). Not only are they paying for a house and have three kids, he has enough money for a project car (V8 something Australian) AND they fly to Bali every year for a holiday.
Yes, when you work a minimum wage full time job in a developed country you can have a very good life.
- kuzimoto 7y agoInterestingly, Australia currently has the highest minimum wage (in the world) but similar levels of poverty to the United States. In addition, Australia has much higher taxes overall than US, but lower taxes for low-income earners. I'm not an expert on economics by any means, but the population of the US is about 13x that of Australia and I don't know if it's possible to make a direct comparison between the two.
- grecy 7y agoThat's why we do comparisons per capita.
- kuzimoto 7y agoI think these issues are a lot more nuanced than that. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but it seems like diseconomies of scale could have an impact on how well the US operates and maybe requires a lot more tax dollars per capita than does Australia for the same things.