Kevin Gowen wrote:
> cc cc wrote:
> 
>>"Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>>
>>>>Well, I can say with authority that living in Kobe, Japan requires
>>>>much more money than in my current Nashville, Tennessee, US. Of
>>>>course, so does living in San Francisco.
>>>>
>>>>I like the Big Mac theory myself.
>>>
>>>Me too. I have to go against straight monetary comparisons in favor
>>>of PPP comparisons such as the Big Mac theory.
>>
>>That evalutes the cost of a cheap American life.
>>
>>My father takes the price of 12 oysters and a bottle of white wine in
>>a restaurant.
> 
> 
> I think that is a bit of apples and oranges, given that the labor and beef
> content of a Big Mac are domestic, while the bottle of wine will imported in
> all but one case, and the oysters may be as well. There is only one kind of
> Big Mac (well, there is the double Big Mac), but many varities of white wine
> and oysters.
> 


Don't you think that the wine-and-oysters "light dinner" would take into account
factors the Big Mac ignores?  I am thinking of tariffs (if the wine/oysters are
imported) and the level of taxes (liquor being heavily taxed in most places).

A fully domestic Big Mac will only factor in farm subsidies, transportation
subsidies and so on.  Shouldn't the barriers to free trade (import tariffs) and
the local tax burden (booze tax) be factored in as well?

Perhaps a Big Mac with oysters on the half shell, washed down with a bottle of fine
white wine would cover more bases, and give a better  PPP number.

-Jim