Also, "Bubba" might have more cars but that's because his two teenage daughters need a car each to get to school since there is no subway, no busses and no sidewalks. Bubba's land might be 50,000 sq feet 40 miles from DC , but many people might prefer Francois' 5,000 sq feet plot in the outskirts of Paris. American cities are more sprawling, European usually compact - so it's really difficult to compare even simple things like land.
Bubba's McMansion is large, indeed, but it's built with a light frame construction with outer walls of plywood or composite and asphalt shingles as a roof. These American carton box houses just don't convince European home buyers. Francois lives in a brick house with clay tiles on the roof.
Bubba has little or no insulation against winter cold or summer heat. So his eight ACs are running on electricity all year around to heat up or cool down the home. Francois generally only turns up his radiators 5 months of the year and the district heating is very efficient. He only has AC in the three rooms facing South and there is rarely a need to turn them on. What is better?
And how about the quality and integrity of staple foods available to them. What if Bubba's kid grows up and decides she wants an education? Suddenly Bubba needs to pony up $30,000 a year for university or ask his daughter to take on a large debt.
You're absolutely wrong. Even for residents at the well-off University of Texas in the well-off state of Texas pay $5,000 per semester for tuition only (tons of fees added to this). That's $40,000 for four years. In Germany you'd be hard pressed to find tuition higher than 500 euros per semester.
And don't get me started on graduate and professional degrees. In Europe you study medicine, law, dentistry etc as an undergraduate in a 5-6 year program. In the US you need to do an undergraduate degree for four-years plus four more years of graduate school to become a physician. The cost of the graduate degree itself is anywhere from $150,000-$300,000.
"To compare incomes across countries, the researchers applied a common adjustment known as purchasing power parity".
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/about-the-data.html
Also, "Bubba" might have more cars but that's because his two teenage daughters need a car each to get to school since there is no subway, no busses and no sidewalks. Bubba's land might be 50,000 sq feet 40 miles from DC , but many people might prefer Francois' 5,000 sq feet plot in the outskirts of Paris. American cities are more sprawling, European usually compact - so it's really difficult to compare even simple things like land.
Bubba's McMansion is large, indeed, but it's built with a light frame construction with outer walls of plywood or composite and asphalt shingles as a roof. These American carton box houses just don't convince European home buyers. Francois lives in a brick house with clay tiles on the roof.
Bubba has little or no insulation against winter cold or summer heat. So his eight ACs are running on electricity all year around to heat up or cool down the home. Francois generally only turns up his radiators 5 months of the year and the district heating is very efficient. He only has AC in the three rooms facing South and there is rarely a need to turn them on. What is better?