Re: CHAT: The [+foreign] attribute

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

>  The only true way of comparing countries' wealth is
> the richness per inhabitant, a relative notion that really allows to make
> meaningful comparisons.
Indeed.  This leads to the Heinlein Index, which I believe we discussed
some years ago.  It is the answer to the question:

        For how many minutes must a journeyman carpenter [that is,
        neither an apprentice nor a master] labor in order to be
        able to buy one additional kilogram of the local standard bread?

2000 data, the most recent I can easily find, shows the median hourly wage of a
journeyman carpenter as USD 17.28, and a loaf of bread (approx. 1 lb = 1/2.2 kg)
costing USD 2.50.  That leads to a current HI of about 19.

The neat thing about the HI is that it represents the *marginal* relative
value of labor, and thus neatly compensates for not only the varying cost
of living, but the varying *standard* of living.  We all have to eat,
though some of us live in caves and others in high-rises.

--
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        jcowan@reutershealth.com
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There are
no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that
they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful. --The Hobbit