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One other note on the "American Lifestyle". As the American middle class continues to decline, the "average American" really doesn't live a lifestyle as is presented in most American television and movies. More and more, Americans are living in small old houses and apartments that are not beautiful inside.
We own a nice home that probably looks like the American "middle class dream", but the reality is that it takes two parents working full-time jobs that pay way above average salaries to live that way. Although I feel like we live a very middle class life, the reality is that based on salaries, we're "upper middle class". So if there is any envy in other nations, it's probably based off an inaccurate perception of how Americans actually live.
I think Americans, and including myself as an American, have a skewed perception of a certain lifestyle. Many of us use the phrase 'entitlement', the younger generation feels and truly believes that they are 'owed' a certain lifestyle and comfort with their living arrangements. Our house is only 1,688 square feet. To the average American perception in my living locality, that is considered 'small' and 'lower middle class' or even 'upper lower class'.
One can live quite well off if they don't spend their money on 'luxuries'. I take Starbucks here as an example. I know many fellow co-workers, mostly in the younger generation, who feel their morning latte at over $5 a pop or more ($200 a month or more), is necessary for them every single morning and they 'deserve' it. Personally I don't anyone deserves to have a fancy schmancy sugary coffee creation every single day. But, when you start adding the costs of all the luxury items people feel are necessary every single day, their money gets sucked down those holes and they feel lower class and poor when they truly are not. They just are not spending their money wisely. I have a few younger generation co-workers who feel they are poor and not making enough money. But yet they are able to eat out for lunch and dinner almost every single day, not just fast food, but restaurants; they have massive cable packages costing over $150 a month with large internet/bandwith costs on top of it; paying outrageous gouging prices for their Android/iPhones just to be able to use the bandwith whenever/wherever; buying top of the line cars and going into credit card debt due to the American need to constantly buy quantity instead of quality. No one is 'owed' or 'deserves' a weekly visit to the nail salon for a mani/pedi either, which is something I hear constantly from the younger generation.
I guarantee you, with a few lifestyle changes, Americans can buy nicer homes and take pride in them. I know, I was one of those I mentioned above before I met my husband and had kids. Now I realize, and with shame, how much of my pay check I wasted on things in my youth.
I happen to lean conservative in American politics right now, but I was hard core liberal in my youth. So, when I say Americans now expect too many hand outs without the hard work and have first world problems when it comes to items, you can take it from my political beliefs, but even the liberals I know have made the same observations and wonder where they went wrong.
Saritaschihuahua - I don't know where in the world you live, but America is HUGE. I mean MASSIVE. For me, getting in the car and driving 13 hours doesn't even get me close to driving halfway across the US. And trust me, after you've been in a long long car ride, usually heading from one of the coasts to the middle of the country, you'll see a lot of nothing. I take that back - it's something. Usually farmland, forests, trees, mountains. Once you drive out of the suburbs from the city, there is a lot of 'not much going on here'. Take a good look at the satellite pictures of the US. I can drive 45 minutes from city center and find….mountains, a historic battlefield totally preserved, rivers, loads and loads of farmland and some back roads that when you drive you say to yourself 'I hope to god I don't get in an accident because it will take forever for the ambulance to get up here'.
I lived in quite a few different American cities and visited many many others. I can tell you once you leave the urban and suburban sprawl, it's a HUGE vast amount of nothing. Despite living close to the Washington, DC area, I still have deer running across the street into traffic. I have Manassas Battlefield not that far from my suburban area. Middleburg is close by with it's vast preserved lands for hunting and riding (fox and turkey hunting area), we have large amounts of farmland just outside the suburban border and the Appalachian mountains a bit further down the road. We have the Blue Ridge Parkway that is absolutely gorgeous to drive down. I know of many parks and preserved wetlands areas still within the suburbs. We have the W&OD trail, which I highly suggest you look up. I know many people who bike it to get to work. Sure we have some dense residential and business areas, but both Maryland and Virginia suburbs pride themselves of making sure there is still lots of green around. Several brand new suburban developments in the Northern Virginia region - Brambleton and Broadlands, and even Aldie area…they have been focusing on keeping surrounding farmland (those that didn't sell their farms) intact and many are pre-designed with public shopping close by, public transportation, PLENTY of green and park space, and wider roads and walking trails.
But, having lived in a few other American cities - if you just base your experiences on just a few major cities and just a select number of suburban sprawl, then your view of suburban will be biased towards the bad. As dirty as Milwaukee was when I lived in it, just a few miles out is some of the most gorgeous small towns and farms and clean green areas I've come across. Same with Chicago, some suburbs are horrid, and some are very good. Go just a bit further out and you will have a completely different picture of city suburbs. Just outside of Austin, TX is even loads of green space, parks, water conservation, etc.
As for European cities - you forget that most of the major European cities have tripled in size with their own sprawl since the 1920's. My god, how London and Paris have grown substantially with their own suburban sprawl in the last 80 years.
I lived in NY, L.A., and Florida, and traveled around most of the U.S. I've also traveled all of Europe, lived in Spain, lived in Israel, and well, the list goes on.
I'm not saying that the U.S. is small. That's not what I'm saying at all. What I am saying is that unless one lives in a place such as NYC, the residential areas are spread out and sprawled, and move ever outward. But no, the U.S. is not a small country.
However, the unconstrained, endless, and scattered sprawl and spread has created multiple problems for Americans. For example:
Half of all Americans don't even know the name of their neighbor
Jobs move out of the city and are sprawled out to the many suburbs (worsening the sprawl situation)
The cost of sprawl to people (their governments) is prohibitive
It grows like a metastases - over three million acres of rural land in the U.S. are lost each year to sprawl
Its shops consist of a blight of Big Box establishments and fast food drive throughs, drive ins, and drive abouts
It creates even greater dependence on the automobile, more and newer autos are required, as well as additional autos since sprawl is car-dependent.
It increases commute times (not to mention pollutes over sprawled areas, and pollution is something we all end up breathing)
It imposes gigantic costs on others - even those who are not moving to sprawl out. The government (in other words, the people's money) is subsidizing new sprawl at an outrageous cost to us all. Sprawl requires: Provision of public and private services, new local, regional, and highway roads to reach the sprawl, government buildings, delivery of telephone, delivery of mail, delivery of gas, delivery of electric power, new schools, infrastructure, requires paving everywhere, has an expensive impact on water quality by encroaching on natural water sources which is expensive and reduces water quality, and much more
It leads to sprawled traffic congestion
One has to travel further - past endless miles and miles of sprawl - to reach wide, open areas
There's lots more but that's a tiny bit of it.
There's a difference between sprawl and a city growing out. Sprawl is scattered, it jumps and leaps out, and let's not forget that Americans are interested not merely in a residence, but a residence that occupies a huge plot of land versus Europeans. Europeans generally live in towns or cities, compact, surrounded by wide-open spaces. Compact is the key word. Compact is a word Americans detest.
I'm an European living in the US. There are many things here I definitely like and I'm making more money than if I had stayed home and for that I am grateful to the US, but I can tell you I certainly do not envy the American lifestyle, in fact I miss Europe more and more.
I lived in NY, L.A., and Florida, and traveled around most of the U.S. I've also traveled all of Europe, lived in Spain, lived in Israel, and well, the list goes on.
There's a difference between sprawl and a city growing out. Sprawl is scattered, it jumps and leaps out, and let's not forget that Americans are interested not merely in a residence, but a residence that occupies a huge plot of land versus Europeans. Europeans generally live in towns or cities, compact, surrounded by wide-open spaces. Compact is the key word. Compact is a word Americans detest.
I will definitely agree with you on this. A lot of this goes back to our history, especially when it came to Manifest Destiny. I hate to generalize, but to Americans, and some European I know, land equals wealth.
Plus, I'll be honest, my husband wants a larger yard so we can grow our own produce and have a wonderful garden, something that we can barely do on a balcony. Plus our kids enjoy playing in the backyard and helping us plant and grow. My kids are so proud that we now have tomatoes growing that they helped sow and water. That's why we like the outdoors and having more space. Americans also do a LOT more with their yards and get heavy use out of them. Any European who has been to an old fashioned outdoor cookout/backyard bbq, can attest you need the space. Americans like to have guest over and spend time in their backyards. Most of the time, during the warmer months, we spend it outdoors on our deck, or in the backyard - not inside or watching tv.
Lots of dog owners want a bigger back yard for their dogs to run off leash and parents, for their kids to run around in a usually fenced area. Husbands like the grill space, and we have pools, and mini playgrounds in the backyard too. We have family that likes to play croquet in their backyard, and it's a family game. It's not a BIG backyard, but just enough.
I lived in NY, L.A., and Florida, and traveled around most of the U.S. I've also traveled all of Europe, lived in Spain, lived in Israel, and well, the list goes on.
I'm not saying that the U.S. is small. That's not what I'm saying at all. What I am saying is that unless one lives in a place such as NYC, the residential areas are spread out and sprawled, and move ever outward. But no, the U.S. is not a small country.
However, the unconstrained, endless, and scattered sprawl and spread has created multiple problems for Americans. For example:
Half of all Americans don't even know the name of their neighbor
Jobs move out of the city and are sprawled out to the many suburbs (worsening the sprawl situation)
The cost of sprawl to people (their governments) is prohibitive
It grows like a metastases - over three million acres of rural land in the U.S. are lost each year to sprawl
Its shops consist of a blight of Big Box establishments and fast food drive throughs, drive ins, and drive abouts
It creates even greater dependence on the automobile, more and newer autos are required, as well as additional autos since sprawl is car-dependent.
It increases commute times (not to mention pollutes over sprawled areas, and pollution is something we all end up breathing)
It imposes gigantic costs on others - even those who are not moving to sprawl out. The government (in other words, the people's money) is subsidizing new sprawl at an outrageous cost to us all. Sprawl requires: Provision of public and private services, new local, regional, and highway roads to reach the sprawl, government buildings, delivery of telephone, delivery of mail, delivery of gas, delivery of electric power, new schools, infrastructure, requires paving everywhere, has an expensive impact on water quality by encroaching on natural water sources which is expensive and reduces water quality, and much more
It leads to sprawled traffic congestion
One has to travel further - past endless miles and miles of sprawl - to reach wide, open areas
There's lots more but that's a tiny bit of it.
There's a difference between sprawl and a city growing out. Sprawl is scattered, it jumps and leaps out, and let's not forget that Americans are interested not merely in a residence, but a residence that occupies a huge plot of land versus Europeans. Europeans generally live in towns or cities, compact, surrounded by wide-open spaces. Compact is the key word. Compact is a word Americans detest.
Saritaschihuahua's post is spot on. The suburban sprawl is one of the things I hate the most about the US for all the reasons stated and more, it's just soul killing. I like city environments much more and yes, in Europe things are more "compact", which is not a bad thing in my opinion.
Interesting. I always figured Americans used more ice because it gets so damn hot here
From what I've seen on "Househunters International", regrigerators are getting bigger in Europe. But it's true that Europeans tend to shop for less, more often, and have grocery stores closer to their homes. It was much easier for me to walk three blocks to a small market and pick up a couple items for dinner, rather than in the U.S where most people probably live over a mile from the nearest grocery store.
Why do people lump all Europeans together? Do you know how many countries are in Europe and how diverse they are. Saying 'Europeans do this or that' is totally misleading. You're comparing rural Scotland with Paris with London with a French village, etc etc. as though they are all the same.
As for fridges. I've been in Scotland for 14 years and when I arrived the appliance stores had what they advertised as 'American-sized' fridges, which they were.
Saritaschihuahua's post is spot on. The suburban sprawl is one of the things I hate the most about the US for all the reasons stated and more, it's just soul killing. I like city environments much more and yes, in Europe things are more "compact", which is not a bad thing in my opinion.
I personally prefer compact, and live in an urban "infill" development where the houses are quite close together with very small yards (gardens) similar to what I recall in Germany. Denver is different than many U.S. cities in that it's purposely filling in the actual city to create walkable neighborhoods and more urban spaces.
I will definitely agree with you on this. A lot of this goes back to our history, especially when it came to Manifest Destiny. I hate to generalize, but to Americans, and some European I know, land equals wealth.
Plus, I'll be honest, my husband wants a larger yard so we can grow our own produce and have a wonderful garden, something that we can barely do on a balcony. Plus our kids enjoy playing in the backyard and helping us plant and grow. My kids are so proud that we now have tomatoes growing that they helped sow and water. That's why we like the outdoors and having more space. Americans also do a LOT more with their yards and get heavy use out of them. Any European who has been to an old fashioned outdoor cookout/backyard bbq, can attest you need the space. Americans like to have guest over and spend time in their backyards. Most of the time, during the warmer months, we spend it outdoors on our deck, or in the backyard - not inside or watching tv.
Lots of dog owners want a bigger back yard for their dogs to run off leash and parents, for their kids to run around in a usually fenced area. Husbands like the grill space, and we have pools, and mini playgrounds in the backyard too. We have family that likes to play croquet in their backyard, and it's a family game. It's not a BIG backyard, but just enough.
Exactly!! It's Manifest Destiny, still alive here with us - the greed for land. But it creates terrible problems. And you're right, it's not something that is being imposed upon Americans. In fact, Americans want more land and to be further and further away from the cities and for their houses to be distant from those of other people. Also that there's a bizarre belief (which may come from that time of Manifest Destiny) that any land is wealth, but we sure know that's not true. You can lose your shirt on land and house. I love it when Suzi Orman talks to people salivating with desire to buy a house and land, and she tells them, "You can't afford it." or "It's really not a good investment." Americans truly have land-and-house lust.
Here's one thing I notice daily. By Americans having chosen the sprawl type of lifestyle, there are no longer neighborhoods in most of the U.S. Contact with our friends and family requires displacement by car, as does everything else. Kids don't have real neighborhoods, just sprawled houses, all too distant from one another to do any good. I wasn't born here, so I had the benefit of a population-dense area, a neighborhood, where throngs of kids were outside playing and we could literally walk to the market, to the drugstore, to the hair salon, to just about everything. Then we moved to NY and it was similar there, everything within walking reach. In sprawl, to gather the number of kids I saw, talked to, and played with outside as a child during the week, would require parents traveling about with a car and picking up kids from an area encompassing a huge amount of square miles to deliver them to one spot where they could see one another. The last bastion of socialization is the churches (and work, which I definitely don't consider real socialization - I consider it work).
And yet Americans want that. Two significant studies I saw were that 1/2 of Americans don't know the names of their neighbors, and another from the General Survey (I think it might also be reported in a book titled Bowling Alone (Robert Putnam) reflects that over 2/3 of Americans don't trust other Americans.
Why do people lump all Europeans together? Do you know how many countries are in Europe and how diverse they are. Saying 'Europeans do this or that' is totally misleading. You're comparing rural Scotland with Paris with London with a French village, etc etc. as though they are all the same.
As for fridges. I've been in Scotland for 14 years and when I arrived the appliance stores had what they advertised as 'American-sized' fridges, which they were.
OK then, my bad. Maybe people in rural areas drive to a grocery store once a week and haul back 20 bags of groceries. My experience was in the 90s, in Germany.
And I mentioned that I've see the larger refrigerators on "Househunters", and referred to as "American sized" as well. That tells me that people are wanting more space to keep more food cool/frozen.
I think Americans, and including myself as an American, have a skewed perception of a certain lifestyle. Many of us use the phrase 'entitlement', the younger generation feels and truly believes that they are 'owed' a certain lifestyle and comfort with their living arrangements. Our house is only 1,688 square feet. To the average American perception in my living locality, that is considered 'small' and 'lower middle class' or even 'upper lower class'.
One can live quite well off if they don't spend their money on 'luxuries'. I take Starbucks here as an example. I know many fellow co-workers, mostly in the younger generation, who feel their morning latte at over $5 a pop or more ($200 a month or more), is necessary for them every single morning and they 'deserve' it. Personally I don't anyone deserves to have a fancy schmancy sugary coffee creation every single day. But, when you start adding the costs of all the luxury items people feel are necessary every single day, their money gets sucked down those holes and they feel lower class and poor when they truly are not. They just are not spending their money wisely. I have a few younger generation co-workers who feel they are poor and not making enough money. But yet they are able to eat out for lunch and dinner almost every single day, not just fast food, but restaurants; they have massive cable packages costing over $150 a month with large internet/bandwith costs on top of it; paying outrageous gouging prices for their Android/iPhones just to be able to use the bandwith whenever/wherever; buying top of the line cars and going into credit card debt due to the American need to constantly buy quantity instead of quality. No one is 'owed' or 'deserves' a weekly visit to the nail salon for a mani/pedi either, which is something I hear constantly from the younger generation.
I guarantee you, with a few lifestyle changes, Americans can buy nicer homes and take pride in them. I know, I was one of those I mentioned above before I met my husband and had kids. Now I realize, and with shame, how much of my pay check I wasted on things in my youth.
I happen to lean conservative in American politics right now, but I was hard core liberal in my youth. So, when I say Americans now expect too many hand outs without the hard work and have first world problems when it comes to items, you can take it from my political beliefs, but even the liberals I know have made the same observations and wonder where they went wrong.
Well, yes, there certainly are many ways to waste your money! I don't get the Starbucks fascination. I grind/brew my own coffee every morning, so I don't even spend $10 a month on coffee.
What you HAVE to spend in the U.S. also varies greatly based on the real estate market in your particular city/area. Our house isn't huge - 2100 sq. feet plus finished basement. But where we live, 2100 square feet costs well over a half million. If we moved to someplace like suburban Dallas or Atlanta, the same square footage would cost less than half. But I have no desire to live in those cities or states.
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