hi,
What does it mean 'It's all relative'?
I heard this quite often on TV.
Thanks
Basically, it means that things can only be considered in relation to other things that exist in the same sort of situation.
For example:
There is a house for sale for £500,000. Three people see the advert. One of them is unemployed, has no savings and no chance of getting a mortgage. For him, the chance of buying that house is almost zero. The second person has a well-paid job, some stocks and shares that he could cash in but if he bought the house, he would be stretched financially. However, it's not entirely impossible. The third person is a millionaire who already owns five houses and he could buy the £500,000 house in seconds, in cash, without worrying about it at all.
So for person 1, the house is just an impossible dream. For the person 2, it's a possibility but not likely. For person 3, it's really easy and the house probably seems quite cheap.
The chances of buying the house, and whether it's thought of as cheap, reasonable or incredibly expensive totally depends on the viewpoint of the person who's looking at it.
The "cost" of the house is
relative to the wealth of the person trying to buy it.
So - it's all relative!
