[GoNative]

Something is certainly wrong when you are the richest country on the planet and you have so many people living in poverty. I just can't understand it. What is going wrong when you have a very low minimum wage and companies still struggle to be competitive? Australia's minimum wage is double that of the US and we receive a whole range of better work conditions and benefits and yet we have an unemployment rate of only 4.9% compared to over 9% in the US. Both countries are large and resource rich enabling them to take full advantage of the commodities boom in recent years and yet our economies couldn't be more different. Australia's property market although also incredibly inflated has only had a little softening of the market rather than a massive crash like in the US. In Australia we have universal healthcare and a comprehensive welfare/pension system that allows unemployed, elderly and disabled people to still live with some dignity, the US has neither. How can America be getting it all so wrong? I know bugger all about economics so I just don't get it.