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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
You guys do realize Seoul is one of the largest cities on our planet right?
Compare it to NY or LA, it's pretty cheap. |
Just because it's big doesn't make it NYC or LA. And that's the rub--they want to charge you like you're in Midtown Manhattan and you're not. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Milk (regular), 1 liter
Loaf of Fresh White Bread (500g)
Rice (1kg)
Eggs (12)
Local Cheese (1kg)
Chicken Breasts (Boneless, Skinless), (1kg)
Apples (1kg)
Oranges (1kg)
Tomato (1kg)
Potato (1kg)
Lettuce (1 head)
Water (1.5 liter bottle)
Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range)
Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle)
Imported Beer (0.33 liter bottle)
Pack of Cigarettes (Marlboro) |
As has been said, half those things just don't apply.
I think if you want to compare cost of living you have to find mutual "staples".
For Example-
Canned Sweet Corn
Mayonnaise
Pickles
Honey Mustard
Ketchup
Thousand Island
Or non/less barf-inducing for their (mis)applications
Canned Tuna
Onions
Rice
Potatoes
Chicken
Shrimp
Salt
Spaghetti
Ham
Sausages
Bacon
Cola
Fruit Cocktail
Carrots
I suspect that Korea will be pricier on a majority of those things, but of course prices are more seasonal here for certain things. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
As for luxury, get off your fuCiiing computer--it's a luxury! Turn off your heat and wrap yourself up in blankets. It's a luxury. Give away that microwave. Handwash those clothes. Burn your shite for cooking, Get your vegetables from the roadside. Collect old newspapers to use for toilet paper when you take a trip to the woods. Luxury, i say, luxury!
Prada! What you talkin' bout, Willis?!? |
That reminds me: luxury items are going up in price in Korea.
| Quote: |
| Luxury labels are continuing to hike their prices in Korea even though foreign exchange rates and tariff cuts are working in their favor. Yet consumers are undeterred despite the recession. |
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/03/13/2013031301203.html
| Quote: |
Last Wednesday, Louis Vuitton raised the prices of some products by 0.8 to 6 percent, only four months after its last price hike. In January, Hermes hiked the price of the signature Kelly 35cm Bag from W9.98 million to W10.53 million (US$1=W1,096).
Gucci also increased the prices of some popular bags by 4 percent and wallets by 5 to 11 percent. Celine, Burberry and Valentino are also likely to follow suit. |
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Anyone who buys a Louis Vuitton, Burberry, etc is a fudging idiot. Even if I were rich, Polo's about expensive as I would go. The rest is shovelling money out the window. Warren Buffet still lives in the same old house he had in the 50's and Bill Gates still wears those nerdy sweaters. What do the real rich do differently than the fake rich? (If only people had of listened to Buffet 10 years ago in his talk of derivitives being "Financial weapons of mass destruction", then we wouldn't be having this never ending downturn.)
Enjoy your status folks!! |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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| My house phone was 5,500 won last month. In the states it would be close to $50 dollars. My cable bill 12,500, In the states it would close to $100 dollars. Granted the programming would be a little better but not $90 dollars better. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| World Traveler wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
As for luxury, get off your fuCiiing computer--it's a luxury! Turn off your heat and wrap yourself up in blankets. It's a luxury. Give away that microwave. Handwash those clothes. Burn your shite for cooking, Get your vegetables from the roadside. Collect old newspapers to use for toilet paper when you take a trip to the woods. Luxury, i say, luxury!
Prada! What you talkin' bout, Willis?!? |
That reminds me: luxury items are going up in price in Korea.
| Quote: |
| Luxury labels are continuing to hike their prices in Korea even though foreign exchange rates and tariff cuts are working in their favor. Yet consumers are undeterred despite the recession. |
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/03/13/2013031301203.html
| Quote: |
Last Wednesday, Louis Vuitton raised the prices of some products by 0.8 to 6 percent, only four months after its last price hike. In January, Hermes hiked the price of the signature Kelly 35cm Bag from W9.98 million to W10.53 million (US$1=W1,096).
Gucci also increased the prices of some popular bags by 4 percent and wallets by 5 to 11 percent. Celine, Burberry and Valentino are also likely to follow suit. |
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Anyone who buys a Louis Vuitton, Burberry, etc is a fudging idiot. Even if I were rich, Polo's about expensive as I would go. The rest is shovelling money out the window. Warren Buffet still lives in the same old house he had in the 50's and Bill Gates still wears those nerdy sweaters. What do the real rich do differently than the fake rich? (If only people had of listened to Buffet 10 years ago in his talk of derivitives being "Financial weapons of mass destruction", then we wouldn't be having this never ending downturn.)
Enjoy your status folks!! |
Buffet lives in a nice house, no matter when he bought it. And I bet those sweaters Gates wears are cashmere. It;s just that anything on him is going to look nerdy.
Buffet invests in derivatives. |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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| Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:36 am Post subject: |
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| Warren Buffet still lives in the same old house he had in the 50's and Bill Gates still wears those nerdy sweaters. |
Buffett lives in Malibu, though BH has significant operations in Omaha. The story that he lives in his same house is a marketing ploy. Buffet is a brand and that brand is carefully managed.
| Quote: |
| My house phone was 5,500 won last month. In the states it would be close to $50 dollars. My cable bill 12,500, In the states it would close to $100 dollars. Granted the programming would be a little better but not $90 dollars better. |
We get fleeced in the USA for cable, phones, healthcare etc. |
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allovertheplace
Joined: 02 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 9:53 am Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| My house phone was 5,500 won last month. In the states it would be close to $50 dollars. My cable bill 12,500, In the states it would close to $100 dollars. Granted the programming would be a little better but not $90 dollars better. |
Not true. I pay $85 for cable, internet, and home phone. And the programming is not 'a little better', it's a lot better. I split that with a roommate. 42.50 a month aint so bad.
You can share a house in a big city and live cheap. You can live without a car. Your job can pay for your transit. You can bring lunch to work. You can make your own coffee. You can go out for happy hours and get $3 beers. Lots of ways to save money. The only reason Korea is viewed as cheaper is because people chose to live cheaper whilst in Korea. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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| allovertheplace wrote: |
| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| My house phone was 5,500 won last month. In the states it would be close to $50 dollars. My cable bill 12,500, In the states it would close to $100 dollars. Granted the programming would be a little better but not $90 dollars better. |
Not true. I pay $85 for cable, internet, and home phone. And the programming is not 'a little better', it's a lot better. I split that with a roommate. 42.50 a month aint so bad.
You can share a house in a big city and live cheap. You can live without a car. Your job can pay for your transit. You can bring lunch to work. You can make your own coffee. You can go out for happy hours and get $3 beers. Lots of ways to save money. The only reason Korea is viewed as cheaper is because people chose to live cheaper whilst in Korea. |
Best post in this thread. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
You guys do realize Seoul is one of the largest cities on our planet right?
Compare it to NY or LA, it's pretty cheap. |
Just because it's big doesn't make it NYC or LA. |
Exactly, the fact that it is cheaper differentiates it. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
You guys do realize Seoul is one of the largest cities on our planet right?
Compare it to NY or LA, it's pretty cheap. |
Just because it's big doesn't make it NYC or LA. |
Exactly, the fact that it is cheaper differentiates it. |
You're still wrong:
| Quote: |
| Cost of living in Los Angeles (United States) is about the same as in Seoul (South Korea) |
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/seoul/los-angeles |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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One thing - does cost of living change with swings in exchange rate?
If 1000 won = $1 today, but drops to 700 won to the dollar tomorrow, is your cost of living now different? what about if it goes to 1500, is your purchasing power that drastically changed?
Comparing cost of living at today's exchange rate seems odd to me. I'm paid in Korean won, but it's fluctuated lots over the years I've been here. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
You guys do realize Seoul is one of the largest cities on our planet right?
Compare it to NY or LA, it's pretty cheap. |
Just because it's big doesn't make it NYC or LA. |
Exactly, the fact that it is cheaper differentiates it. |
You're still wrong:
| Quote: |
| Cost of living in Los Angeles (United States) is about the same as in Seoul (South Korea) |
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/seoul/los-angeles |
Okay, so it's the same a other mondo-cities, but there are more hot chicks here. 
Although I'm skeptical of all these sorts of studies...most of the people doing them didn't pass economics 101. |
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augustine
Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Location: México
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Okay, so it's the same a other mondo-cities, but there are more hot chicks here. |
I went to college in southern California, and I'd say that's very debatable. There are loads of fine women in LA, it's a bit of a mecca for hot women. Just as it's a mecca for douche bags, ego-driven morons, wannabe retards, crappy movies, and greedy J's. But, hey. 
I have a theory about how LA became full of so many insane people. More tempered people were usually alright with staying put in their little pockets in the US. It was only the crazy people who could never stop moving, and then they found LA, and there was no where to go but north from there.
One of my roommates introduced me to some of his HS friends and we were hanging out at their place getting crunk before catching a Dodgers game. They seemed like normal guys... then they started going over how they were going to rob the bank one of them worked at. 
Last edited by augustine on Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
One thing - does cost of living change with swings in exchange rate?
If 1000 won = $1 today, but drops to 700 won to the dollar tomorrow, is your cost of living now different? what about if it goes to 1500, is your purchasing power that drastically changed?
Comparing cost of living at today's exchange rate seems odd to me. I'm paid in Korean won, but it's fluctuated lots over the years I've been here. |
A stronger won would affect the cost of oil which is priced in dollars. So oil and all its byproducts would be less. Imported goods would be less. Overseas travel would be less.
The government's weak won policy has definitely contributed to the inflation over the last five years and has driven the cost of living up. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| Captain Corea wrote: |
One thing - does cost of living change with swings in exchange rate?
If 1000 won = $1 today, but drops to 700 won to the dollar tomorrow, is your cost of living now different? what about if it goes to 1500, is your purchasing power that drastically changed?
Comparing cost of living at today's exchange rate seems odd to me. I'm paid in Korean won, but it's fluctuated lots over the years I've been here. |
A stronger won would affect the cost of oil which is priced in dollars. So oil and all its byproducts would be less. Imported goods would be less. Overseas travel would be less.
The government's weak won policy has definitely contributed to the inflation over the last five years and has driven the cost of living up. |
While over time I have no doubt that it makes an impact - it wouldn't really make things "cheaper" or "more expensive" on the day of the fluctuation.
If it's 7000 won for a bowl of soup today, it'll probably be 7000 won for a bowl of soup next week - regardless of whether the won is 600 to the dollar, or 1500.
Thus, a direct comparison, without factoring in purchasing power parity and the like, seems off to me - unless you're a tourist and exchanging money to shop. |
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