Very interesting, but let’s be clear - If you live outside of the North of England and the Midlands then you would have to be pretty middle class to afford a place whilst studying for a PhD. I knew someone who did but again, they had a partner earning good money and a Midlands property market. Compared to Thailand houses are cheap though, a two floor house built of concrete and not to Western standards is about £60,000 without furnishings and when you compare that Northern England, you can see if you get a good job up North you are laughing. Plus in Thailand, even with a PhD, you earn 3-4 times less than a typical lecturer in the UK. Added to that the second-hand car market does not function in the same way - it’s better to buy new. My car cost nearly as much as a small condo (£14,000 to £15,000) paid over many years even with the Thai bank of mum and dad. Things are about 40 to 50% cheaper but internet retailing does not exist outside of Bangkok. Therefore I would argue Western countries, economically, are cheaper to live in than middle income countries when you look relatively and omg, the UK must be the cheapest place to run a car even with our high fuel prices.