351–360 of 445 posts
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It's really not the same thing. America always feels like America. Travelling in the US is no substitute to travelling abroad.
Believe me, there are plenty of places in the US you could go where you'll say "holy shit, this is AMERICA???"
As a European (used to free healthcare, statutory maternity leave, and 25 days paid leave per year) it shocked me on first visiting America how third-world it actually feels regarding what people consider a "normal" work/life balance. People work incredibly hard, long hours and often with very little to show for it. It's surreal.
And remember, a lot of people came to the cities in the first place because the work there was favorable compared to farm work. The outcome of your factory work was generally more predictable as well.
All this to say that, in light of historical perspective:
1) The notion of calling the United States of today "third world" strikes me as extremely hyperbolic. The average human in 2017 (at least in the OECD) probably works way less than the average worker at any point in human history, and probably lives better.
2) The notion of "working to excess" is probably overstated.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressed_Steel_Car_strike_of_19...
As a European (used to free healthcare, statutory maternity leave, and 25 days paid leave per year) it shocked me on first visiting America how third-world it actually feels regarding what people consider a "normal" work/life balance. People work incredibly hard, long hours and often with very little to show for it. It's surreal.
I don't know anyone who works more than 40 hours a week, in tech or elsewhere. Those of us in the corporate world have 15-25 days of paid time off (not including holidays, to be clear), based on time with a company. As an employee, I would love to see this increase. As an employer, I would see it as a recruiting opportunity that many job candidates would value.
Most people I know own a home, and others rent houses or apartments at relatively low cost. And probably significantly larger and nicer than European expectations. And they all have plenty to show for their hard work, though much of it may not be enriching our lives substantially.
On the healthcare side, maternity leave is usually only 30 days (not very much, I know, but much better than none). While our healthcare is not "free", I feel like the higher compensation, lower taxes, and lower cost of living in the area enables my family to afford paying higher premiums for better insurance.
Having said that, I still feel anxiety about the future. Losing my job doesn't just mean I lose my income, I also lose my health insurance coverage. I'm not sure how quickly I could switch to an ACA plan with an income-based discount, and I wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise if I had no job.
Unfortunately, I don't think switching to a single payer system alone will address the deep issues in the US healthcare system. People are quick to blame the insurers, but much of the blame also needs to be placed on the providers who charge astronomical fees. The source of the problem, in my opinion, is lack of transparency in pricing resulting from the presence of a middleman (the insurer) and the inability to shop around for many medical services that could be commoditized.
So while I agree that in many ways Europeans have it better (but not without cost in terms of lower wages, higher cost of living, or high unemployment), I don't think painting such a dismal view of the US is warranted. Based on my experiences traveling in Central and South America, a comparison to the third-world, even if limited to work/life balance, is highly inaccurate.
Disclaimer: others' experiences will absolutely vary.
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A software engineer in a startup in berlin earns maybe a median salary of 60k euros ayear at a 40% tax rate. Thats less of what interns make in the us at a 30% tax rate. An experienced engineer at google or facebook make 200k with a sizable signup bonus. As far as I know, theres no comparison between what a soft dev makes in the us and what he makes in europe. This is from someone that lives in south america, and is…
As a former Googler who was involved in comparing pay across Google sites, Zurich was on par with Mountain View in gross pay (and ahead of New York), and after-tax pay was markedly higher in Zurich. While Berlin is a great city, it is very far from being a top-pay city in Europe.
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And many of them think that people in Europe have it worse. That the economy would just collapse into African-levels of poverty if there was mandatory paid holidays. This is a danger of American TV shows and movie studios remaking shows for the American audiences. They don't get to see that Europe is mostly a developed place.
It surprises me that Americans don't even get Christmas (or the “holidays”) off. Would the religious right not support that?
Can't speak for whole of Canada but Toronto is definitely on track to become a city where it is impossible to buy a house and rents are so high that for a family - both husband and wife need to work and one of the spouse has to have a side gig for making the money to feed and clothe the family along with some meagre savings. Canadian government keeps stating that inflation rate is less than 2% but reality is, in Toro…
Houses are commonly being bought ~25% over asking price at the moment apparently. And it's because Agents are using it as a tactic to drive up offers. Also, a lot of people here are agents nowadays.
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AFAIK protestant work ethics are rooted in Calvinism, which heavily influenced many sects in the U.S., but not or to a lesser degree the northern european countries.
Can you guys expand on this? It's something I'm usually interested in but being raised in a Roman Catholic country doesn't make it obvious what differences might exist between Calvinism and Protestantism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_S...
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I live in the South Shore near the commuter rail. It's pretty affordable for someone making $80k.
Do you not have student loans? A few people in my social circle managed to get out of college without them through parents paying/scholarships and they have a much different calculus than the majority of us