Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
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Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#2I largely agree with the author, but why isn't the ire directed at the companies that offshores everything in the first place? We'd be in a much better position if we hadn't outsourced the manufacturing of all our most most needed items to china I'm the past 30 years
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#3That title is a non-starter for so many Americans. Any such shifts need to be sold without reference to foreign lands.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#4I largely agree with the author, but why isn't the ire directed at the companies that offshores everything in the first place? We'd be in a much better position if we hadn't outsourced the manufacturing of all our most most needed items to china I'm the past 30 years
Why companies and not the govt though? I understand that these companies have the choice to not do it in China, but they're incentivized to do so by the existing economic structures.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#5I've thought a lot lately about how American's don't have the benefit of living somewhere that has been continuously inhabited (by non-nomadic people) for thousands of years. I can't go have fun in a local town center because I literally have no local town center. Living in the middle of suburbia as a youngster means everything within walking/driving distance is paved and closed by 9:00pm. There isn't much to do except spend time inside and to make it enjoyable we buy things to spend time with.
I would have loved to live European-ish but I wish it was more practical than it seems.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#6One of the wonderful things about America is that anyone is free to up and move to Europe whenever they want.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#7The data should also take into account average income or something similar. A quick search in Wikipiedia[1] shows that average wage in the USA is $65k, and the UK is $47k, a ratio of ~1.38. Before the pandemic, the consumption per capita ratio for these 2 countries was ~1.33. Basically, people who earn more tend to spend more but not disproportionately so. So the actual trend is not as extreme as that plot makes it out to be.
This is not to say that there isn't an underlying problem.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_w...
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#8One of the wonderful things about America is that anyone is free to up and move to Europe whenever they want.
...and carry on paying taxes in the US in many cases. Even choosing to renounce citizenship can land you with a hefty tax on any capital gains, etc.
In this regard, US citizens are less free than citizens of most other countries in terms of leaving.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#9I've thought a lot lately about how American's don't have the benefit of living somewhere that has been continuously inhabited (by non-nomadic people) for thousands of years. I can't go have fun in a local town center because I literally have no local town center. Living in the middle of suburbia as a youngster means everything within walking/driving distance is paved and closed by 9:00pm. There isn't much to do exce…
> I literally have no local town center. Living in the middle of suburbia as a youngster means everything within walking/driving distance is paved and closed by 9:00pm.
Modern neighborhoods went a long way to rob youth of most opportunities to learn self-sufficiency and interpersonal skills.
Whatever heavy traffic and no trespassing signs didn't take away - that gets ruined by the endless and pervasive lies about stranger kidnapping risk.
Re: Americans Need to Learn to Live More Like Europeans
#10One of the wonderful things about America is that anyone is free to up and move to Europe whenever they want.
Sure, so long as they have the requisite wealth to uproot their entire life, travel to a foreign nation, and acquire citizenship. No big deal really.