Monday, April 2, 2012
Consumer Budgeting Around the World
This article gives a graph that compares the spending habits of consumers in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Japan. Consumers in the United States spend a higher percent on housing than those in the other countries, but a lower percent on food at home. Another interesting thing that the article points out is that Americans spend more on health care than those of the other countries. It says that it may seem that the percent is only greater since Americans pay more out of pocket for healthcare. However, the article then presents a graph of the total expenditure of health care per capita in many different countries. The United States spends more than $1500 more than the next highest of the countries presented, which is Norway.
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3 comments:
The high level of obesity and other health issues in the United States probably to the exorbitant price of health care system.
I'm not surprised that U.S. consumers spend a higher percent on their housing than people in other countries. We have always spent a higher percent of our dollar earned than most countries. I did find it interesting that we pay less on food, and is this only for developed countries? It would make more sense if this was for all countries because our average income is much higher.
Certainly the income in US is higher, but it is also because of the culture difference. Many people in US lives in houses while some other people in other countries lives in apartments. Likewise, consumer spending pattern is very different from countries to countries. Usually, as far as I know, yes many developed countries spend a lot of their money on food. But in US, many food corporations offer foods in cheaper prices. Maybe that is why the spending on food in US is so low.
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