Reddit Copypasta

1)

When these threads come up, folks often "If only we could compare" or "But you can't compare"

Well...indeed we can.
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Purchaing Power Parity is designed to buy the same basket of goods and services, and includes things like education and healthcare.

It isn't perfect; folks in the US may end preferring to weight their spending towards larger cars and houses. Europeans may put more weight on spending on vacations (particularly since they usually have a few more weeks a year off to use the vacation time).

But it helps to get a relative idea what lifestyle a particular salary in a given country can afford compared to another.

It also doesn't show the often significant differences within a single European nation or an American state. I would expect your money to go much further in Buffalo, NY than in Brooklyn, NY.

Purchasing Power Parity:
Between OECD nations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity#OECD_comparative_price_levels
Between US states: https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series

To compare a salary to the overall median wage:
Between OECD nations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage
Between US States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_median_wage_and_mean_wage

So in this case:
Spain PPP 84 PPP
$40,000 / .84 = Live like someone earning $47,619 in the US in general (like Florida which is close to average)

In the very best case (money wise):
Mississippi
$47,619 / .83 = Live like someone earning $57,372 in the US in general.

2)

>is ocean waste one of those things like the ozone layer that once we started paying attention to we were able to mitigate the worst causes of, or is it just a shitshow free-for-all like global CO2 emissions?

If you want the sad history...CO2 got out of control partly (mostly?) due to political fatigue over sulfur dioxide (acid rain) and ozone cap-and-trade.

First you have to remember that George H. W. Bush was CIA Director when climate change first made it on to CIA assessments as a national security threat in the mid-70s. Curbing global warming was a Republican campaign plank in 1988. Democrats were still pro-coal and hadn't swung around on the issue yet (WV voted Democrat in the '76, '88, and '96 Presidential elections so they and other rural coal mining places were still a state in play for the Democrats)

But the more immediate threats were things like acid rain and the ozone layer which they tackled via Cap-and-Trade.

By the time CO2 came up, John H. Sununu (President Bush's Chief-of-Staff) was basically sick and tired of the political arm twisting he had been doing on those and a few other environmental issues and didn't want to pursue CO2 regulation further.

His son John E. would co-sponsor a bipartisan bill implementing cap-and-trade on CO2 among other things in 2007, though it didn't pass.

(And if fairness, all three Sununus including the son Chris who is the New Hampshire Governor) have vacillated over the years on climate change depending on the audience.)

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/rest-story-cap-and-trade

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-political-history-of-cap-and-trade-34711212/

http://outsideinradio.org/transcript-the-family-business

https://www.fosters.com/story/news/local/2007/04/21/sununu-throws-support-behind-democrat/63084886007/