Maybe we should ask in stuff. What can you buy for one year's income (after taxes) in your region: A new laptop, a used car, a new car, a 1-room flat, a 3-room flat, a little house, or a big house with a swimming pool?
Also, household income is easier. Without a wife I'd pay higher taxes.
The obnoxious irony is that in a lot of poor countries, a decent laptop actually costs more than it does in a rich country, due to inefficient distribution, tariffs, etc.
An addition to this obnoxious irony would be the fact that a luxury like a car (yes, in developing countries, it's a luxury) costs relatively less than it does in a rich country. [One can get a decent enough hatchback for 350K INR which is like 8K USD]
Heck; in my place, education loans come at 12% and car loans at 8%.
That's not really a fair comparison; the same car costs more in India (I believe) than in the US, if you are comparing say a 2011 BMW 335i Coupe. India does have much lower end cars available, so "a" car can be cheaper, but Indians pay a premium to buy imported cars. It's nowhere near as bad as in Singapore or Malaysia where cars are marked up 200-300% though.
There's some argument that a secured loan like a mortgage or car loan should be cheaper than an unsecured personal loan. Education loans in the US are often federally subsidized, but if they were treated as regular unsecured loans, they would be higher than car loans, and much higher than mortgages. There's a good argument for government subsidy to education, but it would have to be a subsidy to make it cheaper.
You would be wrong. Here in Uruguay, cars are considered "luxury" items, so they carry more than 100% tax.
Example: Nissan Tiida - US price $9900, Uruguay Price $22000.
That makes even old clunkers very valuable. And there's a ban on importing used cars, or doing your own imports (I have campaigned against it, but I'm in the smallest political party in the country, Partido Independiente).
