In theory, GDP PPP per capita should be the prime unit used to measure living standards across different countries by equalizing the prices of the same products across different countries.
In practice, there's a serious problem with what goods and services actually enter into the basket of goods, how important they are to the people in the different countries, and so on. Though, in general, it's still useful.
GDP ( PPP ) figures of some EE countries are quite high. But the countries still remain relatively poor and many people live in poverty.
Maybe these figures are inflated?
It seems that economy grows fast in some EE countries despite their corruption and shrinking population.
Btw dude, if you think the GDP PPP tables showing some rich EE countries approaching some poorer WE countries are crazy, have you seen the EU's measurements of severe material deprivation
? They completely left money and salaries out of the equation and asked purely how many people in a given country
can't afford three or more of a bunch of luxuries (replacing old furniture, leisure activities, covering unexpected expenses and so on.) and according to those, Czechia, Poland and Slovenia have consistently been found to have a smaller percentage of poor people than Germany and other WE countries.
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/zjsum2/rate_of_severe_material_deprivation_in_europe/
Living conditions in Europe is an online Eurostat publication that analyses income and living conditions across the EU. This article covers material and social deprivation and economic strain.
ec.europa.eu
Though it still finds that the Balkans are the worst, as would be expected, while Scandinavia is very good, as would also be expected, so it's overall not
that wacky.
