Don’t even have to invent anything new here: This is what purchasing power indices describe, and they definitely should play a much larger role in public discourse.
I’m a lay person, too, so I can’t help much with detailed references. My understanding is that PPP is intended for cross-country comparisons (i.e., purchasing power in one region/country compared with that in another). Purchasing power indices more generally measure the (real) value of someone’s wages (after deducting regular expenses like rent, insurance etc.) for purchasing certain goods (e.g., a standardized “basket of goods”).
To find information for your country, you could check your national statistics agencies to see if they provide data on such indices. Real wages are one example that you can probably find, although they don’t adjust for cost of living expenses (but they typically do adjust for inflation).
Don’t even have to invent anything new here: This is what purchasing power indices describe, and they definitely should play a much larger role in public discourse.
I tried looking this up, is this what you’re talking about? https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP?locations=AU
What exactly does this mean?
I’m a lay person, too, so I can’t help much with detailed references. My understanding is that PPP is intended for cross-country comparisons (i.e., purchasing power in one region/country compared with that in another). Purchasing power indices more generally measure the (real) value of someone’s wages (after deducting regular expenses like rent, insurance etc.) for purchasing certain goods (e.g., a standardized “basket of goods”).
To find information for your country, you could check your national statistics agencies to see if they provide data on such indices. Real wages are one example that you can probably find, although they don’t adjust for cost of living expenses (but they typically do adjust for inflation).
Per capita & country:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita