On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 16:42:08 +1300, Tom wrote:


Alright Ed, next time someone offers you a raise, shoot for 3%,
cos that's better than 9...:-)


OK...I'll take 3% of my pay against 9% of yours and be reasonably sure
that I'll get at least as cash improvement in my per hour compensation
as you will...maybe more...even if you are getting three times the
percentage raise...

here's a Clew, Tom...Just like you can not compare absolute numbers of
deaths per year between the US and NZ...you have to compare numbers of
deaths per unit population...say per 100 000 folks...otherwise, I
could say of a year where two people in Auckland died of gunshots as
opposed to the previous year when only one died of a gunshot, that it
was horrible because NZ had a *50%* increase in gunshot deaths...

By the same token, unless you accept some sort of normalization (like
the per capita income under discussion here), you can not compare
percentage improvements in gross product/gross production. While China
has made major strides in getting money down to the workers...they are
still *far* behind what even NZ would consider as a living wage...much
less here in the States....

ck


--
country doc in louisiana
(no fancy sayings right now)