Something I picked up on in last nights news and looked into a little bit today

[PraiseBacon]

Just as a counter to some of the doom and gloom he left leaners want us to believe about how sh!te it is living in UK under the Tory austerity, how bad wages are, how are all live like POV’s now etc

Let’s throw a few facts into the mix…

Below is a table of minimum wages in Europe (source = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe_by_minimum_wage ) – a subject there has been much debate on, and calls for living wages to be paid, and how horrible UK is to not pay everyone a fortune etc.. Turns out the truth is the UK already has the second highest minimum wage in Europe! (who knew!). I get that some of the EU countries are poverty stricken – by countries we have a comparable living cost with , that pay less than us include – France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium,

Ah, but I can almost hearing our resident Trotsky’s sating is everyone in on minimum wage – then the country will have little wealth. So let’s look at the average take home pay for sovereign countries in Europe (after taxes etc) Source = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
Turns out, when looking at facts – UK has one of the highest net pay levels in Europe, beaten by Switzerland, Monaco, Leichtenstem (ie tax havens, or ultra high living costs) – but ahead of most of our peers

Which begs the question, do we really have it so bad? or have we degenerated into a bunch of whiners with unrealistic expectations that don’t know when things are actually going OK?

Do people in hotter countries feel better despite lower wages?.

 

[Sniffer]

None of that seems to factor in the cost of living however.

 

[busby1971]

None of that seems to factor in the cost of living however.

You're right some of these European countries can be very expensive places to live, and we get free health care.

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[needsabiggerfuse]

We had a short break in Poland last year. The exchange rate I got was around £1 to 5.60 zloty. I honestly thought that I'd slipped back 40 years when I saw the price of things, e.g. we caught a regular bus (brand new Mercedes) from Krakow to Zakopane, about 60 miles or so, a single ticket cost 14 zloty (£2.50), an enormous 'snack' called Zapiekanka from a street vendor is 5 zloty, and a shot of vodka will set you back 4 zloty.

 

[4everAD]

Plus Johnny foreigner isn't paying £800 a month mortgage to live in a 2 bed box just south of Lincoln.

 

[justintime129]

Have a look at this
And play around with the various indices
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2016&region=150&displayColumn=0
We are consistently in the top 6.
The list shown puts us 6th behind Switzerland Norway Iceland Denmark Luxembourg. The nordic countries have always been expensive.

 

[Talk Wrench]

None of that seems to factor in the cost of living however.

Nor does it factor in the variations of income tax, social security regimes and indirect taxations. These are three of the biggest factors that make make the euro a pretend, political currency.

 

[busby1971]

Nor does it factor in the variations of income tax, social security regimes and indirect taxations. These are three of the biggest factors that make make the euro a pretend, political currency.

It does cover income taxes as it displays net income not gross.

We are currently one of the richest countries in the world so we're not going to be near the bottom, also compared to the € the £ is quite strong so this will distort the results a little bit.

 

[vim_fuego]

I worked/flew out of Constantia Airport in Romania for a while back in 08/09. We were given £23 a day for allowances. As long as you got out of the hotel you struggled to spend that much on lunch and dinner with wine/beers included. That was great obviously as we lived like Kings...what wasn't so great was watching the family of normal Romanians going the restaurant slop bins for their tea!

Great place to work if you;re on UK wages though...the t1tty bars represented great value if you were drunk enough to look beyond the questionable beauty of the staff.

 

[PraiseBacon]

I get that there will be cost of living variations - but against compatible countries (Germany, France etc) - we come out slightly ahead . Which is counter to the mantra's from the doom merchants and life's so unfair brigade.

Another item is raises though - following on from Vim's point. If I was unskilled and could land a min wage job in UK, stay in as cheap a place as possible - then sent 20-50% back to my family - They would live comparability well.

in fact, I'd work my backside off - and hard enough to keep the paychecks coming - so it's not a surprise 170K came looking for work, I would in their place as well..

Would I take the **** on benefits if my family would be better off - potentially. But not to the point where the ability to provide would be endangered..

 

[muttywhitedog]

Looking at those figures, perhaps we should export 200,000 of our pensioners to all those countries from Poland downwards. True, we'd still be paying their state pension, but over there it would allow them to live like kings, with the added bonus of their ever-increasing health care being borne by those countries who have exported hundreds of thousands of walking baby factories to the UK!

 

[Witty_Banter]

Looking at those figures, perhaps we should export 200,000 of our pensioners to all those countries from Poland downwards. True, we'd still be paying their state pension, but over there it would allow them to live like kings, with the added bonus of their ever-increasing health care being borne by those countries who have exported hundreds of thousands of walking baby factories to the UK!

Hmm, automatic relocation of OAPs to Euro residential areas - would save money here, their money would be worth more over there, sounds like WIN:WIN to me!

Plus, if they were relocated to the Mediterranean areas, there'd be no issue about them getting cold in the winter!

 

[busby1971]

My mother retired to Bulgaria, bought her own place and lives very well on her State Pension plus the rental from her UK, live like a local and life is cheap.

Nothing much to do out there though

 

[Talk Wrench]

It does cover income taxes as it displays net income not gross.

We are currently one of the richest countries in the world so we're not going to be near the bottom, also compared to the € the £ is quite strong so this will distort the results a little bit.

It's still a false indicator nevertheless.

 

[Sniffer]

Hmm, automatic relocation of OAPs to Euro residential areas - would save money here, their money would be worth more over there, sounds like WIN:WIN to me!

Plus, if they were relocated to the Mediterranean areas, there'd be no issue about them getting cold in the winter!

And they would still get their winter fuel allowance..... or have they finally seen sense and stopped that?

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[terence]

and they would still get their winter fuel allowance..... Or have they finally seen sense and stopped that?

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how would i afford my christmas whiskey ration without the fuel allowance?

 

[needsabiggerfuse]

And they would still get their winter fuel allowance..... or have they finally seen sense and stopped that?

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You can take my fuel allowance from my cold, lifeless fireplace. DT_Xtremez_15:

 

[Barch]

I want to know where they got a 'Monthly Minimum Wage' from because we have a 'Minimum Hourly Rate' !!