The world is riven with disparity in the various standards of living, and with it the economic ‘wealth’ and ‘power’ of each nation.  I wonder what the world would resemble if this were not the case…

Of course, trying to equalise the standard of living between economies of varying sizes and populations (not to mention natural resources) can appear very difficult if not impossible, with those is smaller economies not being able to compete in light of the purchasing power of larger nations.  But there may just be a way…

The proposition of purchasing a litre of mile for €2 for someone who earns a salary of €40,000 is clearly not the same as asking someone to do the same when they only earn €15,000 – the pint of milk represents a much greater percentage of their income.  This of course, is where the difficulty lies, the average annual salary for someone in France is approximately €39,000 – whereas in Brazil the average salary is equivalent to €19,000.  Automatically ‘doubling’ the salary of Brazilians may not be the answer, hence this would have a dramatic impact on the local economy… however there may be another way.

A €2 litre of milk represents 0.005% of the average French salary… so what if we implemented a system which meant that a litre of milk in Brazil cost the same – 0.005% of THEIR average salary?  Extended across all purchases, this would effectively grant the people in Brazil the same purchasing power as the people in France – with goods all over the world having a common, local % value.  There would no longer be a need to compare the price of the Euro against the Brazilian Réal, since purchases are made in % values and not empirical values.  People migrating or visiting another country could simply take their % account with them, and pay for goods in another country as they would anywhere else.  In fact, we would no longer need currency, we would need only to measure percentages.

Exploitation of low-paid workers could be eradicated almost overnight, with no advantage in producing goods in a low-paid economy and exporting to a higher-paid economy… there would be no gain.  Likewise, this may have an impact on economic migration, by equalising the standard or living and removing the economic pull between countries – leaving only the cultural pull.