This is pretty much it:
Quote: (01-22-2016 10:52 PM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:
The poor are better off in those countries ofcourse, but anyone from lower-middle class and up is better off in the US.
I also lived in both continents. I snipped the rest but this pretty much sums it up.
If you want to be safe in case of unfortunate life events, and willing to settle for an average life, Europe is the place to be.
Although it's not as expensive as you claim, decent gym memberships cost $20-25, and the 8 ounce steak I eat pretty much every day at lunch, with fries and Coke Zero goes for $12, which is OK considering tax is included and there's no service charge or tip added to this price.
Food is subsidized in Germany so I'm guessing the same meal can be had for $7-8 there.
Driving licenses are expensive, I don't know about Germany but mine costed like $600 which is the absolute minimum of what a Swedish driving license costs.
$15 for an eye exam
$20 for the learner's permit
$85 for a mandatory 3-hour lecture on why driving drunk, tired and/or distracted is dangerous (I slept through the entire thing)
$230 for a mandatory winter driving safety course. First there is a 1.5 hour lecture. The course I took was for a class of 25. It was held in both Arabic and Swedish simultaneously, because I was there. (I was the only one in the entire driving school, including the staff, that didn't speak Arabic.) Then you go on a closed course with the instructor, accelerate to 45 mph and apply the brakes, repeat this 4 times, on dry asphalt and on ice, also with and without ABS.
$80 for the written test, $100 for the driving test, $50 to rent the car for the driving test (The car has to have duplicate pedals and extra side/rear view mirrors for the passenger seat so you can't bring your own car) and $30 to print out the license.
Although most people end up failing horribly because the driving tests are extremely strict, so they end up spending $2-3k in private driving lessons and retake fees.
Even though I had been driving since I was 16 when I was about to take the test, I took a 3 hour driving lesson from a friend's wife (who was a licensed driving instructor) and had I not taken the test I wouldn't have passed because she told me everything the examiners look for. (Even though I have a Swedish DL, I'm pretty sure I'd fail if I took it again right now) For example there's a protocol for changing lanes, which goes like "check rearview mirror - check side mirror - check blind spot - put turn signal on - check rear view mirror again - change lane - check rearview mirror - turn off signal" and if you don't do this in this exact order you fail. Basically if you have any prior driving experience and seem confident behind the wheel you can assume you'll fail because the examiners want to see someone who had just learned driving and doesn't take risks, not a veteran driver who's able to read the traffic and act accordingly.
Why I don't like Europe isn't because we're slumming it, which we absolutely are not, it's more of a question of how the government treats you. Just look at the example I gave you about the driving test. The same mentality applies to every single aspect of life. The welfare state basically plans your entire life, you proceed as planned to age 65, if you get sick along the way you're treated for free, if you lose your job along the way you keep getting paid (almost) the same salary by the state until you find a new one, when you have a kid your previous salary is paid by the state until the kid is old enough for daycare, and at the end you retire and you're paid a decent benefit check every month until the day you die in a state hospital.
You got pregnant at age 15, then chose to have the kid and promptly developed a heroin addiction and don't want to work because you feel like you're a unique snowflake that everyone has to put on a pedestal? Still no biggie, here's a free studio apartment for you to live in, here's a monthly benefit so you can support yourself and your baby, and here's a free rehabilitation program that you can take at your own pace. Just tell us when you're ready to join the workforce.
There's no entrepreneurial spirit because there's nothing that rewards excellence, in fact you're expected to be average and never excel at anything. This is heavily reflected in day-to-day living, having a pair of pants altered takes 2 days, the waitress takes your order at a relaxed pace, nobody tries to be better at their job because there's no reason to.
There's also this:
http://www.rooshv.com/the-biggest-cockbl...om-denmark
Being better than someone is a huge sin here, you should be average, you should fit in.
This is why I don't like Europe, otherwise it's pretty much the same thing save for a few K in your annual salary.