Huh. The UK has a lower median income than Mississippi

[Recursion]

Not sure what to make of that.

Mississippi's median income is $36K. The UK median income is $33K by exchange rate or $34K by PPP (with all the caveats that come with PPP calculations).

Not sure what to make of that.

[jaysunb]

1. Mississippi 36k ? I don't think so....n/t

[Recursion]

2. Household, not personal, in both cases (nt)

[elleng]

3. Dunno, but they have health care in UK.

[Recursion]

4. True; it's a trade I'd be happy to make

It just surprised me.

[elleng]

5. Does sound surprising.

You're better situated to make comparisons, prolly.

When you coming 'home?'

[Recursion]

6. 42 days

Not that I'm counting or anything

[elleng]

7. Remind me to check weather when you're closer!

Now: RAIN RAIN RAIN!

[uponit7771]

8. +1

[DavidDvorkin]

9. One of those places has a bit more of a social safety net than the other.

[JackRiddler]

10. What exchange rate is employed under the PPP?

Some questions I'd wonder about:

Is this the damned hamburger again? Cos that burger's always going to be cheaper in the U.S.

Does it account for housing costs, taxes, insurance premiums, total health care? What's the net disposable for each after those? Cost of education?

[Recursion]

11. Hence "all the caveats"

It's whatever OECD uses internally. But I'm not even sure you can compare the purchasing power of money between a country with free-at-delivery healthcare and one without.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. The UK has the NHS and functional public transit

it's very possible for someone to not own a car and still get to and from work/school/shops/etc and people don't go bankrupt from medical expenses (or have to allocate part of their income to health insurance expenditures). Also even with higher energy costs someone in the UK probably has a lower electric bill--houses in the UK are generally smaller than in the US and pretty much no-one has air conditioning because you don't need it in a country where it rarely gets above 75F in summertime; try living without A/C in a Mississippi summer and see how long you last.