For the record I am in the US now on a 3 week Business Analysis trip. To my shock and amazement, everything in the USA is far too cheap!! And better quality!! I am just going nuts...
- A cup of Tea/Coffee - USD 1.09 (yes, they will give you exactly 91 cents back if you give them USD 2.00)
- A can of Coke/Pepsi - USD 0.50
- I can have a burger meal for USD 3.00 from any of the major burger joints and if I did Tacos instead I could further shave it down to just 2 bucks (try out the Chicken Burrito meal from Taco Bell's with coke & chips). Yes 2 bucks!
- Clothes & designer wear is dirt cheap
- Anything in Walmart so inexpenisve and great quality (not our K-Mart stuff)
- Walk into Homedepot (Australia's Bunning's equivalent) and I am just amazed at their price & quality
- A 700 ml of Jack Daniels is USD 20 (In Australia, on a good day I can buy it for USD 40 equivalent)
- Cars are 15-25% cheaper - try out any car!! (including the Australian built vehicles)
- And the list goes on and on, in every department!
- And I don't know one thing where we can be cheaper..... no not even in Australian bred lamb - it is cheaper here in the US compared to our Coles/Woolies prices
Are we as a nation getting more & more un-competitive?
Heard the last week the electricians, plumbers & welders (about 100 of them) in a mining project in QLD refused to show up on the weekend inspite of being offered aud 2550 per person for just 8 hours work on Saturday & 5 hours work on Sunday.
In the US, that is more than a months wages for most electricians.
I know our minimum wages of 16.50 (compared to the 7.50 in the US) is giving us a better quality of life. No doubt. But is this sustainable in the long run? Will we protect our jobs at all costs, and then let the unions run amuck squeezing every corporate, and we inturn keep getting protectionist, until our children's generation one day have to pay for it when the bubble explodes.
Are we just plain lucky (like the Saudis) that we have the resources of coal and iron-ore under our feet?
P.S: there are larger deposits of these very same resources being found in Mongolia, on the door-step of China.
Wake up now mate & God bless Australia.
- A cup of Tea/Coffee - USD 1.09 (yes, they will give you exactly 91 cents back if you give them USD 2.00)
- A can of Coke/Pepsi - USD 0.50
- I can have a burger meal for USD 3.00 from any of the major burger joints and if I did Tacos instead I could further shave it down to just 2 bucks (try out the Chicken Burrito meal from Taco Bell's with coke & chips). Yes 2 bucks!
- Clothes & designer wear is dirt cheap
- Anything in Walmart so inexpenisve and great quality (not our K-Mart stuff)
- Walk into Homedepot (Australia's Bunning's equivalent) and I am just amazed at their price & quality
- A 700 ml of Jack Daniels is USD 20 (In Australia, on a good day I can buy it for USD 40 equivalent)
- Cars are 15-25% cheaper - try out any car!! (including the Australian built vehicles)
- And the list goes on and on, in every department!
- And I don't know one thing where we can be cheaper..... no not even in Australian bred lamb - it is cheaper here in the US compared to our Coles/Woolies prices
Are we as a nation getting more & more un-competitive?
Heard the last week the electricians, plumbers & welders (about 100 of them) in a mining project in QLD refused to show up on the weekend inspite of being offered aud 2550 per person for just 8 hours work on Saturday & 5 hours work on Sunday.
In the US, that is more than a months wages for most electricians.
I know our minimum wages of 16.50 (compared to the 7.50 in the US) is giving us a better quality of life. No doubt. But is this sustainable in the long run? Will we protect our jobs at all costs, and then let the unions run amuck squeezing every corporate, and we inturn keep getting protectionist, until our children's generation one day have to pay for it when the bubble explodes.
Are we just plain lucky (like the Saudis) that we have the resources of coal and iron-ore under our feet?
P.S: there are larger deposits of these very same resources being found in Mongolia, on the door-step of China.
Wake up now mate & God bless Australia.