I didn’t know that. Americans seem to adore Aussie accent but Aussies adore English accent. xD
Everyone seems to be in love with British accents…My favourite British accent happens when a die hard scotsman is convinced that every word from his mouth is the purest English…which actually makes him sound more scottish!
Scottish is cute. Royal English accent sounds a bit cold and distant 
The irony is that during the time of the immortal bard (shakespeare) the English language was closer to modern American English than modern British English…how strange is that ?
Fun fact of the day : the word titbit became tidbit because puritans who migrated to the US were unconfortable with ‘tit’
Sydney living expenses are much higher than NY?! I did a random search, NYC real estate rent is higher, which makes up the bulk of expenses no?
Indexes Difference 
Consumer Prices in New York, NY are 32.22% lower than in Sydney Consumer Prices Including Rent in New York, NY are 20.42% lower than in Sydney Rent Prices in New York, NY are 12.96% higher than in Sydney Restaurant Prices in New York, NY are 13.86% lower than in Sydney Groceries Prices in New York, NY are 20.70% lower than in Sydney Local Purchasing Power in New York, NY is 15.47% higher than in Sydney
so…why is sydney so expensive?
Construction doesn’t keep up with demand.
Rich Chinese investors buy houses in Sydney and push prices up.
Low density in Australia, small economy, low economies of scale.
Labour cost for blue collar workers is very high, which makes commodity price high. Minimum wage and income tax is quite high.
(Mining boom in Perth Western Australia also makes Perth very expensive. Melbourne is also expensive.)
I don’t know, but it pisses me off >=[
Australia survived the 2008-2009 crisis quite well only because China wasn’t really affected that time. But right now it’s a whole new story.
The average per capita pre-tax salary across Australia is $64,000+ 9% super (full time base salary, excluding overtime). In New South Wales the average is $67,000 + super. They don’t publish the individual median data here.
I went to a classy club to celebrate my friend’s birthday on Thursday night in Sydney downtown, and tequila sunrise cost me $9.5 each (and they were being dodgy and put less than a full shot of tequila in. Lots of orange juice.)
you are very knowledgable!
Still, it’s better than living in Beijing/Shanghai without powerful/super rich parents.
but isn’t Shanghai/Beijing still quite cheap?
Reminds me of Vancouver.
Look at Beijing on rawraw’s chart.
The ratio of the median salary and the living cost / housing price in China is the most ridiculous
On the “most livable cities in the world” list though, major cities in Australia and Canada usually top the ranking, and US cities are nowhere to be seen despite more affordable
I have to wonder about subjective rankings like this.
People who live in US cities are either really rich or really poor. Most of the middle class lives around the city, in the suburbs. What with excellent schools, shopping malls, open spaces for kids etc, I’d venture that most US suburbs are far more livable than Australian/Canadian cities (and US cities.)
The ranking was for “cities” though. Which includes suburbs inside a city (e.g. Sydney city has 12000 square kilometers in area and consists of millions of different suburbs. The “city” within the city is only a small central area with businesses and Sydney opera house and such - like a downtown area). Open spaces for kids are certainly everywhere in Australian cities. I think the ranking takes consideration of transportation, medical, facilities, education, safety, environment, greens, weather etc. (definitely not housing or food price) i remember Vienna, Vancouver and Melbourne often topped the ranking. I have a feeling the cities / countries with the highest rankings do not have a massive difference in rich and poor. That ranking was done by a UK organisation I think.
I have never made it to the US yet. But judging by friends who have been both there and here, my personal conclusion in that Australia is better for living and retirement and US is better for career, excitement and traveling xD Australia offers a nicer and prettier scenery in everyday life but US has more impressive mountains and natures. 
90% Australians live on the coast. My first ever stay in this country was 5 minutes walk to the Pacific Ocean. My university was 10 minutes from the ocean and I sky dived above the coast to conclude my undergrad life.
Regarding living costs in Australia, you’re forgetting a pretty crucial factor which is the currency rates. 1 USD just a few years ago (2009) got you about AUD$1.60. Today you’ll get about AUD$0.95. The cost of living hasn’t really changed that much for an Australian in the last 3 years, but when you look at it from an outsiders perspective it has drastically.
Life is expensive in Australia, but the salaries are also reasonably high. School teachers start on about $65K a year. I think grad program banking jobs start around $65-$80K. If you have a $600K mortgage and a couple of kids though, be prepared to spend about $6000 a month (on what’s left of your wage after taxes) on mortgage and food alone.
Regarding quality of life, I don’t think you can beat Australia though. And I don’t just say that not having lived anywhere else. I lived 5 years in France, 10 years in LA, 8 years in London, and have been here for 6 years. For me it’s about the combination of lifestyles you can have all in 1 place. Surfing in the morning, job in financial hub (yeah it’s not NYC or London, but still not bad), good restaurants and nightlife in the evening, decent enough arts and culture scene, very diverse group of people, national parks within 45 minutes drive. Something probably not factored in rankings though is being able to not feel like a foreigner living here. That’s huge for me and something I never got anywhere else.
I have a cousin who moved to Australia/Perth some time ago…he wasn’t doing too well in highschool (pretty bad actually ) at that time but Perth changed his life around…he studied finance/accounting at Curtis university (don’t know if it is good or bad…Mojo can tell us! ), found a lovely wife, has a baby girl and another one on the way, he is a CPA and works in an accounting firm now…not too bad at all.