If you are conducting a survey, there can be absolutely no doubt that you are a sociologist :-).
I just left you some information about farm workers on the Lucy What Do You See Thread.
1. I have a Dell Dimension 8100 with a 1.4 GHz Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM, 2 Maxtor HDDs: 40GB & 60GB, ATI All in Wonder Radeon 7500 video card, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, DVD/CD drive, Plextor 40-12-40 CDRW drive, and an Iomega 250 MB Zip drive (no longer of much value) I use a Dell 19 inch monitor that came with the computer, 56K modem and ethernet connection to my cable modem.
2. I'm using Windows XP Professional (NTFS) on this system, and it is very stable. I have never had a blue screen crash, and very few lock-ups or freezes. It's also the fastest machine I've ever owned.
It gets heavy use. I'm at the keyboard about 12 hours most days, and I frequently encode video files overnight.
3. I think the original machine cost me about $1400 with monitor, but I then upgraded the video card, added a second HDD, and just this week added a faster CDRW. I estimate the total cost at about $1900.
For me that is a reasonable/affordable price. For someone, like my son who is just about to get married, it would seem expensive. Affordable and reasonable are relative terms.
4. I've never priced LCD monitors.
5. Sorry, I don't know anything about these machines.
In the other thread you mentioned the low wages paid to McDonalds workers. They are about half what a similar worker earns here. I am interested in the comparative cost of living in Hong Kong and the US, particularly for poorer working people.
1. What basic services are provided by the government? I assume you have health care provided, but what else?
2. What are housing costs like. For example, what is the rent for a small one-bedroom apartment, such as a student might occupy? What would be the cost of a small house in a working class neighborhood?