Quality of Life: It's Better "Over Here?"
UK living standards outstrip US
Living standards outstrip those across the Atlantic for first time in over a century
David Smith, Economics Editor
The Sunday Times
January 6, 2008
LIVING standards in Britain are set to rise above those in America for the first time since the 19th century, according to a report by the respected Oxford Economics consultancy.
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Photography courtesy of edmittance's photostream on Flickr.
1 comment:
Sorry. UK is nice and all, but the claim in the story is untrue, as is clear to any Brit who has spent any time in the US.
GDP-per-capita does NOT equal "living standards", as any student of basic economics would know. The Oxford Economics report does not present GDP per capita adjusted for purchase power parity (PPP), which is absolutely necessary for ANY conclusion about living standards.
Things in the UK are ludicrously expensive by US standards, and so an equivalent average income in the UK -- which is all the Oxford report actually claims -- buys much less stuff in the UK than it would in the U.S. Hence, UK living standards are very clearly lower. This is just a typical case of an ignorant journalist misunderstanding some economics and refusing to retract.
The Oxford Econ analyst was quoted elsewhere (the Observer) explaining a bit about PPP and affirming that Americans have "far stronger purchasing power".
The ORIGNAL posting of this Times article made no mention of PPP at all -- now they've gone back and quietly hedged a bit after getting some abusive comments, but their headline is still bogus.
The idiots at Sunday Times made a complete botch of it and refuse to fess up to their misunderstanding.
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