Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Average in the US is $0.16/kWh, so that fact is wrong. I accept most of the others though, unless someone wants to bring evidence to make me doubt it.
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I didn't spend a terrible amount of time scrutinizing the individual sources, so some may be off. The way they're collected may also not be apples to apples.
As an example, let's say I order an item on a menu here for "$20" NZ, and one in the US for "$10" USD. When I get to the register in NZ, I hand them a crisp 20 and there's no change. In the US, I'd leave $2 on the table and pay $10.60 for the meal. Plus you have a floating exchange rate, and there's never an exact equivalency. Between the NZ meal and the US meal, which one cost more?
The NZ tax system also does not generally measure household income, and there's no such thing as being taxed jointly - what you make is taxed solely on your own circumstances, regardless of whom you live with. Meanwhile, household is the easiest figure to find for US stuff.
I couldn't tell you if the quoted US or NZ electricity rates were the flat kwh cost, or with taxes and fees averaged in at each location that are actually paid. When I needed to do conversions in that list, I used today's exchange rate, for which a US dollar gives 5 nz cents less than it did last month, and 5 cents more than 4 months ago.
What I can say is that I pay $480nz per week (290US) for a 2 bedroom flat with parking and a panoramic harbor view in the heart of the capital city, I spend an average of $70nz per week (42.50US) on food between myself and my partner, and our utilities (2x cell, gigabit fiber, electricity, gas) run around $170nz (103US) per month. There's a low KM ND MX-5 for sale in town right now for under 20k NZ (12US) and I could pick up a running and inspectable car for less than 1500 dollars (900US).
EDIT: Hopped on Facebook Marketplace to check what I could find for under a grand US. $665usd buys you a freshly inspected 1998 Accent, $800US buys a 2002 Corolla with 200k miles, $1200 buys a Mitsubishi L200 5 speed pickup.