that's spot on. minimum wage in australia is double what it is in the states. a few months back i did a comparison on how much it costs to buy things in australia vs US based of minimum wage. rather than just comparing dollar values, i put it into how many hours you would have to work to pay for it. generally worked out that someone on minimum wage in australia had to work noticably less hours to be able to afford goods.
and with cars, etc, other countries have different spec to us, and different safety regulations, so you can't directly compare prices.