The Reality of Living Here

Despite the recent surge in economic factors as well as the Dow-Jones Industrial Average eclipsing its highest figure in four years, many people still think money is in relative short supply. Nobody seems to have enough, and the lottery seems to be the only way to get more. I've often said things like, 'I should just move to a developing country where my money would go a lot farther. Heck, I could even be king in some of those places!" All of that, of course, was more bluster and naiveté than anything else. With the monetary exchange rate abroad and the dollar wasting away, it was a sucker bet to think that would work (except maybe in a place like Greece where NOBODY seems to have any money and the food is still great!). And I knew it. But now, some news comes from the International Labour Organization (an arm of the United Nations) that I might be better off staying right here. For the first time ever, this organization has released its figures that show in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) where the most lucrative places are to live in the world. Not that this was an easy task, mind you. The organization chose to, first of all, limit its study to the top 72 countries in the world in terms of employment numbers. Some countries are so poor that almost nobody works so it would be unfair to include them in the study. Next came the hard part: discovering how much money was paid out in wages in each country as well as the number of people employed in each country. I should note that self-employed individuals were not counted, nor were those people unfortunate enough to be receiving social welfare aid. Having somehow ascertained the total wage and numbers of earners, the ILO added the money all together and divided by the number of wage earners to come up with an "average" wage earned throughout the world. Since the PPP reflected the cost of living, each country had to be weighed somewhat differently. Thus, the money earned in China would be weighted differently that the wage earned in, say, Australia where there are far fewer wage earners. The BBC website allowed readers to calculate their place on the world's economic stage via a simple mathematical calculation based on the country in which one lived and the monthly wage. Want some fun? Find out where YOU are on the scale by accessing the website listed below. While not nearly at the top, I am definitely ahead of most of the world and happy to be where I am! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17543356