Absolutely! That's why I wasn't criticizing the missing country-wide tabulation of such data, but trying to reconcile its absence with the praise of the researcher at the beginning, and how she collects another kind of data on the ground.
Of course, that could just be stuff getting scrambled by the PR machine.
My main criticism was this: if you're going to calculate a living wage, wouldn't the number one question be "How are people currently living on their wages?" Even knowing how one family pulls it off would be tremendously informative, and from that point you could figure the cost of the missing amenities. In contrast, the researcher's approach is to assume they buy everything from some model budget (probably based indirectly on her team's own lives), but less of it.
Of course, that could just be stuff getting scrambled by the PR machine.
My main criticism was this: if you're going to calculate a living wage, wouldn't the number one question be "How are people currently living on their wages?" Even knowing how one family pulls it off would be tremendously informative, and from that point you could figure the cost of the missing amenities. In contrast, the researcher's approach is to assume they buy everything from some model budget (probably based indirectly on her team's own lives), but less of it.