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7 things that cost less in the US than they do abroad
7 things that cost less in the US than they do abroad
Steven JohnApr 12, 2019, 21:16 IST
Shoppers wait in line while shopping during a Black Friday sales event.Tom Pennington/Getty Images
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Americans might pay more for college and healthcare than people in other countries, but there are plenty of things that are cheaper in the United States, too.
If you live outside the US, expect to pay more for running shoes, blue jeans, and the newest iPhone, for example.
Here are seven commodities that are cheaper in America than they are in other countries.
When it comes to higher education, prescription medications, or daycare for the kids, Americans are paying many times more than citizens of other nations around the world.
But if you want to grab a pair of blue jeans, a gallon of gas, or an iPhone, you're in the right place for savings if you call the USA your home.
Ironically, with the exception of domestically produced gas and oil, most products that Americans get relatively cheaply are imported from overseas. Buying affordable goods in America rarely means buying American-made. This is largely the case due to much cheaper labor and manufacturing costs in a plethora of foreign nations, costs that undercut domestic production even with shipping expenses factored in.
Place of origin notwithstanding, here are seven commodities that are priced better in the USA than in the rest of the world.
Say you want a pair of new Nikes. In America, at present you'll pay about $70 for decent athletic footwear.
Such shoes are cheaper in only a handful of countries. In most nations for which data is available, you'll pay dozens of dollars more for your new kicks. In Iran, for example, you will lay out a hundred dollars more than you would in the US.
Gasoline
It's a good time to be a motorist in the United States of America.
Thanks to robust local production, a liter of gas in the US costs an average of $0.72, or $2.69 per gallon. Many Europeans pay up to $1.81 per liter, which is a staggering $6.84 per gallon. And in Hong Kong, at last check, fuel was priced at $7.60.
Milk
Last year, Americans paid an average of $0.99 for a liter of milk, or about $3.75 for a gallon.
That ranks at No. 149 out of more than 180 countries for which data was available. And while a liter of milk cost half as much in Nepal as in the US, in 34 nations, it cost at least twice as much, and in a few, three times as much.
In Barbados and Papua New Guinea, for example, milk costs well over $3 a gallon.
A car
Cars are one of the most expensive purchases you'll ever make.
But believe it or not, cars are cheaper in the US than most other countries.
Using an affordable, compact car as the model (think a VW Golf), the Unites States ranks all the way down at No. 117 on the list of the most expensive places to buy a car.
You'll pay about $20,000 for an economy car in the US, while the same ride would run you several thousand more across most of Europe, double that in parts of Africa and Asia, and more than $100,000 in Singapore, according to the most recent data available.
The base model iPhone X has a starting price of $999 here, while it sold for $1,200 in China, and well over $1,300 in the UK, Italy, and other European nations. (Ironically, China pays more for a product produced in its own territory.)
Land
You might not believe it if you live in the Bay Area, near New York City, or inside the Beltway, but land is actually quite affordable in America, so long as you're willing to stake your claim well outside of major metro areas.
In the days before the fall of the Soviet Union, wearing blue jeans in the USSR was both a statement and a status symbol — the former because they were seen as quintessentially Western, the latter because they were rare and expensive.
Today, a Russian will pay an average of $67.94 for a pair. In the United Kingdom, they go for about $10 more than that. And in Iceland, you'll pay about $114.50. In the States, however, they cost just over $43 per pair on average. A number of nations sell blue jeans for less, but America ranks much closer to the cheaper end of the list than the most expensive.
