Survey Finds Tokyo Residents Are Tops in Purchasing Power

The global average to buy a Big Mac is 35 minutes of work, the survey reports. "But the disparities are huge: in Nairobi, 1.5 hours' work is needed to buy the burger with the net hourly wage there. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes' labor is needed," the report said. In Tokyo, it takes a mere 10 minutes. Bogota, Colombia, came in last among the 70 cities surveyed at 97 minutes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115515827172931380.html?mod=economy_lead_story_lsc

They must get paid a LOT in Tokyo. I've heard that some fresh fruits, like melons, for example, can cost over $35 US in the Ginza area. I've heard that rent is outrageous there, too, so the average incomes in Tokyo must be very high.

They had huge public spending projects where they built the world's best train system that they run either off the nuclear power grid or off of batteries. They're the champions of enviro-friendly automobiles. They're the inventors of video games and IPods and Walkamans and all the other cool shit that fat ass Big Mac chomping soda guzzling gas guzzling SUV riding Midde-Americans consume on a daily basis.

They have some of the best income distribution of all developed nations - unlike here where 5% of the population controls 85% of the wealth. They have a more viable middle-class. And not to mention their seafood and vegetable oriented diets. They live longer and are healthy longer so they can work into their 80s as if it were their 60s because they don't clog their arteries so early with grease.

Not to mention you can make a 300 mile trip from Tokyo to the Kyoto/Kobe metro area in just 1 hour on board a Shinkansen bullet train.

They're public services including public education, tax breaks for families, good roads, that are all efficiently funded.

And the fact they have used-panty vending machines makes Americans wander what's so awesome about those little Japanese people.