Pete C. wrote:
> 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).
LOL! Reminds me of the New Yorker who stopped at a service station I
worked at in Orange, Texas. After I filled up his car he asked if he
could get to El Paso by lunch. You should have seen his jaw drop when I
told him it was 830 miles to El Paso and he had better pack a lunch.
This was in pre-interstate highway days and the route was old US Highway 90.

It's not just people from outside the US, lots of folks in the eastern
states have no idea how large some western states are.