Cindi - HappyMamatoThree wrote:
>
> "Goomba38" > wrote in message
> ...
> > PeterLucas wrote:
> >> "kilikini" > wrote in
> >> :
> >>> My hubby makes about $14K a year and supports the both of us as best
> >>> he can. It can be done!
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> Excuse the French but.......... ***** me*!!!
> >>
> >> Even with the exchange rate (it comes out to AUD$15,140.00) that is
> >> pathetic for the "supposed" #1 country in the world!!
> >>
> >> Our 23yo daughter is working for the State electricity Board. Just doing
> >> office work.
> >>
> >> She earns AUD$52,000.
> >>
> >>
> >> My advice.......... give the 'greatest country in the world' the flick
> >> and come to the "Lucky Country".
> >>
> >>
> >> (Although they pay their ex-soldiers jack-shit........ it's just on 4
> >> times what TFM is making)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> No wonder so many people in the US turn to crime.
> >>
> > I think you're getting a distorted or inaccurate impression of the US
> > society on the whole based on this family's unusual situation?
> >
> >
> I would have to agree. Each situation is so different in the US. The cost of
> living can differ from county to county, state to state, region to region.
> What we make in Northern California would be a fortune in Mississippi where
> we moved from. A cookie cutter house on a zero lot is still about the same
> price as a larger house on several acres in the area we transferred here
> from. It's so hard to make a judgement on a single person's experience.
> Though I have to agree, there is a huge gap in pay from job to job here in
> the U.S. Some fields pay an exorbitant amount for the job done, while those
> who are toiling every day in physical jobs make pennies.
>
> We learn to live with what we have though. Even if we do need a little help
> from outside sometimes. Being a single mom with a deadbeat ex was vary hard
> because I had to either work a job that my schedule met that of my children,
> or pay for childcare which saps a paycheck. Just saying, every situation is
> so different, it's like comparing apples and turnips.

Exactly.

This is the problem when folks outside the US, particularly those in
Europe look at any sort of blanket statistics for the US. They really
don't grasp how large and diverse the US is and how any given statistic
presents a very distorted appearance when you try to apply it to the
whole US.

Some of their countries would fit into our larger states. If they were
to compare the US statistics to the same statistic applied to the whole
of Europe, including their problem areas, they would get a better
comparison. It just isn't really possible to get the true picture of the
US by looking at a statistic for the whole US.

Looking state by state gives a more accurate picture. Even then, for the
larger US states you have to go by city since a large state may have one
really bad city that distorts the statistics, while the rest of the
state is great.

Things like murder stats get really distorted since the stats may make a
state look dangerous when the reality is a 4 block area in one city in
that state accounts for most of the murders and the rest of the state
has virtually none.

Recently one person from France was in Dallas, TX visiting and wanted to
visit Carlsbad Caverns just over the border into New Mexico... until he
was told that it was a 10 hour drive (and that's on 70-80 Mph highways).