"UK living standards outstrip US"

[Capitalism Forever]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle3137506.ece

LIVING standards in Britain are set to rise above those in America for the first time since the 19th century

[...]

With an adjustment made for this “purchasing power parity”, the average American has more spending power than his UK counterpart and pays lower taxes.

(emphasis mine)

It is a sad--but accurate--reflection on the intellectual state of the U.K. that such blatant spin can make it as an article into a supposedly "respectable" and "conservative" newspaper. Your living standard refers to how much you can afford--in other words, purchase--so a comparison based on daily exchange rates, made without regard to purchasing power, is definitely not a measure of your living standard. Pretending that it is is a pathetically obvious attempt at making your poor British readers believe that they are better off than Americans. (For a much more realistic assessment of today's Britain from the same paper, see "Flushed with shame at Britain.") Unfortunately, there are many Britons who hate America enough to be eager to go along with the evasion.

Edited January 6, 2008 by Capitalism Forever

[DavidOdden]

Your living standard refers to how much you can afford--in other words, purchase--so a comparison based on daily exchange rates, made without regard to purchasing power, is definitely not a measure of your living standard.

There is a similar little-used evasion in Norway, reflecting the high level of wages that people are paid. But when a pint costs $9 at a cheapo bar, a city bus ride is $3.50, and gas is around $8/gallon, nobody really pays much attention to high wages. There's talk of purchasing indices, taking bread as the standard, or the Big Mac index, or the ipod index. Well, if you want a good index of standard of living, go for the Pathfinder index. If you can't afford a new one financed over 5 years, you don't have enough purchasing power.

[Capitalism Forever]

Well, if you want a good index of standard of living, go for the Pathfinder index. If you can't afford a new one financed over 5 years, you don't have enough purchasing power.

I guess in London there are many people who could afford to buy one, but then couldn't afford the extortionate "congestion" charge (£25 = $50 per day for non-PC vehicles) and various other viro taxes that Red Ken and his comrades have been coming up with.