This book required so…much…research. I could have written a whole book about each topic: water, languages, immigration, dangerous places and more. So, alas, some material I originally wrote had to go. Here are a couple of examples.
Who can afford to live there?
That yummy sandwich is going to eat into your savings if you chow down in Tokyo. A loaf of bread costs about nine bucks there.
Tokyo is considered one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in because nearly everything from clothing to groceries costs more. Australian cities are also making the lists and so is Caracas in Venezuela. The money in these countries is tied to currency in other bigger nations like China and the United States. The result? Big dips and swings for the little guys.
Want to save money? Stay away from these other cities that cost a mint:
- Geneva
- Paris
- Osaka
- Oslo
- Zurich
- Singapore
And…
China is changing
City person or a rural person? In 1958, China came up with a system called hukou that split people into these two segments. Country folks had to have a permit to move to town. It was one way to keep cities from getting too big too fast.
But times have changed and in 2013 leaders looked at scrapping the program and replacing it with a new one that would make rural and urban dwellers equal. Here’s the thinking: if they let more people into cities, they’ll get better jobs and buy more stuff. That creates more jobs and even more money. China’s population is already on the move. One report says that 100 million farmers will move to cities by 2020. 你好