Number munching

Soon, when I speak to a credit card rep over the phone and he or she asks me for my home address, I’ll actually be able to answer truthfully. That’s right, in a month I will no longer be homeless.

After a fitful search we finally found a place a couple metro stops away from downtown Warsaw. The price is about the same as we’d be paying in Vernon and a few hundred less than in a city of considerable size and influence in Canada.

Indeed our search here revealed just how much more affluent Canadians are than Poles, at least when it boils down to comparing dollars to zloty. In Lodz, the second largest city in Poland, you can rent a three-bedroom apartment for around $450. Go to the grocery store and a chicken breast will cost you the equivalent of $1.50 CDN.

The reason is simple. Poles can’t afford to pay the prices most Canadians are used to. When it comes to purchasing power, Canadians can, on average, buy nearly two and a half times more of your basic cart of goods than Poles. Canadians’ GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is more than twice as much as Poles’.  Canada’s was $38,600 compared to Poland’s $16,200. But, Warsaw’s PPP is around $23,000, making it much more expensive, although still comparable to a smaller city in Canada like Vernon.

I guess we’ll put this uninspiring post down as one to consult later for my own purposes.