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An Aussie in NY

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Re: An Aussie in NY

#21

Post by alex_stoddard »

stevenbedrick wrote: post #16
podperson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

Not that I disagree about SS being a time bomb, but I think you're slightly mistaken about where SS revenue comes from (or I could be mistaken; anybody out there who knows for sure should please correct me). What most Americans think of as "federal tax" is actually several separate taxes, and which ones any given individual actually pays varies depending on their employment situation. There's a specific tax that work…

Again I could be mistaken and would really appreciate correction from someone who knows better by I am much more cynical about the SS trust fund.

As far as I can tell the really scary thing is that that "trust fund" has been largely "invested" in treasury bonds. That is the source of the massive "intragovernmental holdings" portion of the national debt. i.e. the excess income from SS tax has actually been spent on other government needs. http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/retirement/social-security...

Re: An Aussie in NY

#22

Post by weeksie »

mconnors wrote: post #14
weeksie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The outer boroughs are different, not better or worse (except Staten Island, that's worse). I love Brooklyn and Queens, but I am very happy living in Manhattan. It doesn't have to be a pissing contest, NYC is a big place with a whole fuckload of awesome going on; it'd be silly to limit yourself either way.

OK, I see your point, as long as we can all agree new jersey really sucks.

Ha! Agreed :D

Re: An Aussie in NY

#23

Post by endtime »

Lewisham wrote: post #4

I think this article perhaps focuses a little bit too much on the negatives :) I'm an Englishman living in California, and I don't really plan to leave here. I like it here. I like the people, I like the weather, and I like the way things generally work from day-to-day. It's really easy to latch onto things that seem, to my eyes, badly broken, like health care, but forget that otherwise, things are pretty sweet. Some…

>America is a country that constantly wants to, and tries to, reinvent itself. To always move towards betterment, as individuals, and as a country. And yet there are a great many vocal people who succeed in holding it back.

This is kind of a partisan viewpoint. Both sides of the aisle believe that they are working towards the betterment of the country - they just have differing ideas on how to do so.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#24

Post by kijeda »

ry0ohki wrote: post #5

As an American who worked in Australia, I can vouch that you guys (luckily) don't share our same crazy work ethic. I was practically alone in the office of a large corporation once the clock struck 4pm on a Friday. I think you'd fit in well in New York though because they have the same teasing sense of humor that I found everywhere down under.

As an Australian in California, and having lived and worked in two European countries too, I'd say that Australians work less hours but actually are more focused when they do work. I see a lot Americans at work, but not doing work. Long lunches, chatting to colleagues around the office, browsing websites etc. seems to be far more prevalent in American workspaces.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#25

Post by shimi »

I'm a not born Aussie who lives in CA.

The post was fun to read and I can pretty much agree with everything.

One difference that I spotted was the accent barrier. For non English speakers Australia can be painful it doesn't matter how good your English is you find yourself repeating your sentences, or spell out every name in the family including my boys English names (no Aussie could understand the name Dean when it came out out of my mouth). In California no such issues (I felt vindicated when I moved over here) only comments that my English is too British (which is the result of the effort I put to get Aussies to understand me).

Another thing that I miss about Australia is that life aren't serious, every man is with in his right to make an arse of himself any now and then and that's just fine.

One thing that I don't miss is the property obsession, everything in Australia is about the property. We don't build proper highways because we can stuff in a few more units, we don't build a railway because it will generate noise which will hurt the property market in that area. If you want to build a startup it will sense only if it will: speed up building property, help people pay the mortgage on the property, help banks claim the mortgage on the property etc...

All I want to add is that I do wish the Health / Education to be here as in Australia.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#26

Post by shimi »

weeksie wrote: post #2

It's a pretty spot on comparison. I moved here from Sydney about 3 years ago and feel basically the same. Though I don't have the same aversion to tipping that he has, probably because I (having grown up in the US before immigrating to Oz) understand how to work the system—particularly in bars. As for the unicycle/mustache thing, I lived in Newtown in Sydney, and that sort of thing wouldnt have garnered more than a d…

You can pretty much get away with anything in Newtown :-)

Re: An Aussie in NY

#27

Post by stevenbedrick »

alex_stoddard wrote: post #21
stevenbedrick wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I disagree about SS being a time bomb, but I think you're slightly mistaken about where SS revenue comes from (or I could be mistaken; anybody out there who knows for sure should please correct me). What most Americans think of as "federal tax" is actually several separate taxes, and which ones any given individual actually pays varies depending on their employment situation. There's a specific tax that work…

Again I could be mistaken and would really appreciate correction from someone who knows better by I am much more cynical about the SS trust fund. As far as I can tell the really scary thing is that that "trust fund" has been largely "invested" in treasury bonds. That is the source of the massive "intragovernmental holdings" portion of the national debt. i.e. the excess income from SS tax has actually been spent on ot…

Fair enough, but if those treasury bonds don't end up being worth what they're supposed to to be worth, it seems to me that we've got bigger problems than SS going under.

However, I heartily agree with your request for correction by someone who knows better- this is about the full extent of my knowledge on the subject, and I'd love to hear from somebody with expertise in this field.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#28

Post by sigil »

stevenbedrick wrote: post #16
podperson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

Not that I disagree about SS being a time bomb, but I think you're slightly mistaken about where SS revenue comes from (or I could be mistaken; anybody out there who knows for sure should please correct me). What most Americans think of as "federal tax" is actually several separate taxes, and which ones any given individual actually pays varies depending on their employment situation. There's a specific tax that work…

"Social Security taxes are paid into the Social Security Trust Fund maintained by the U.S. Treasury. Current year expenses are paid from current Social Security tax revenues. When revenues exceed expenditures, as they have in most years, the excess is invested in special series, non-marketable U.S. Government bonds, thus the Social Security Trust Fund indirectly finances the federal government's general purpose deficit spending."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)...

Re: An Aussie in NY

#29

Post by mahmud »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #18
podperson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

SS is not a time bomb because we have a rather convoluted accounting scheme for the government. Let me explain by analogy. Essentially, imagine you have a kid. You start socking away money for your children's college, call this the "college trust fund", which has future obligations of $200k. You also have your "general fund", which pays for food, daily expenses, etc. Now your kid says "daddy, I want an X-Box." You po…

that's some stealth, anti social-security rhetoric there :-)

Re: An Aussie in NY

#30

Post by Dylanlacey »

shimi wrote: post #25

I'm a not born Aussie who lives in CA. The post was fun to read and I can pretty much agree with everything. One difference that I spotted was the accent barrier. For non English speakers Australia can be painful it doesn't matter how good your English is you find yourself repeating your sentences, or spell out every name in the family including my boys English names (no Aussie could understand the name Dean when it…

Uh, you might have missed it, but there isn't much usable land in Australia. That's why we're obsessed with property: There's not much for it.

Starting housing prices in the greater Brisbane area are about $400K. You can go down to $300K if you're willing to live an hours drive out of the city (Which means 1.5 --> 2 hour commute when there's traffic).

Sydney is worse, much worse. Housing prices all over the country are insane, and not going to get better any time soon. When I hear about housing prices in America pre-collapse, I just laugh.

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