Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to "Living wage"

ok, you tell me then
Daniel — (archived)

is $5 an hour - or $10 an hour - enough to live on in your country? You would obviously know better than me, and I only ask for a genuine and honest answer. I'm talking about rent, utilities, health, transportation and other essential costs. Let's leave out education or child-rearing - I accept your remark about the demographic. (I need to accept it on faith - do you really expect me to wade through a dozen pages of stats??)

I can tell you that even $10 an hour would be BARELY sufficient for a single person in this country, on a 40 week - it would have to be 50 hours minimum, given the essential costs mentioned above. But then, it's possible rents would be cheaper in the US, at least in the non-major towns and cities, where work would still be available. Here as you know, half a dozen cities have most of the population, and most of the work. And house prices (thus rents too) are apparently the highest in the OECD (I posted the official link to that here, a few months ago). Also, consumer products are probably dearer here too. Don't know about utility costs though - and health costs would definitely be less than in the US.

So, honestly, how many hours does a single person need to work on, let's say, $7 or $8 an hour to be able to get by, in say, one of the cheaper towns in the US? What do you personally call, the 'poverty line'?

No coercive definitions here - just asking.

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