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greyUK: I'm so glad you started this thread and I hope a lot more people contribute to it. I'm going through the US immigration process right now and should there by the end of the year. While reading through this forum I have often been struck by similar questions to you.
For me personally, I only have two major concerns about life in the USA. Firstly, understanding the health care/insurance system. It is just so different to anything I am use to, there is a lot to learn. I can understand how it can work if your job is with a large company that provides a group health insurance plan as part of your employment package. But how do small businesses do it? What about self employed people?
The health care/insurance issue is a big deal. Many Ameicans, alas the vast majority are employed by small businesses. With insurance rates rising, many small companies have had to cut back insurance to their employees, oftentimes they will offer insurance, but the employee still has to pay a pretty decent chunk (say $200 to $400 per month) just for individual coverage, not including deductibles, co-pays, etc. Invidual coverage outside of an employer is another option, but most of the time, it would not be more cost effiective than the employer subsidized option.
What a growing number of people in this country do (and I am certainly not recommending this) is have no coverage at all, AND go to the ER for every ailment, and then just not pay it. Hospitals end up charging insurance companies and individuals who do pay even more for the services (to compensate for those who do not pay). So, although many in our country have bemoaned "Universal Health Care" as socialist, we already have a socialist system in place (we just can't CALL it that).
My only other concern is the number of annual vacation days. Many jobs I have seen advertised only offer two weeks vacation per year. The legal minimum where I'm from is 4 weeks per year, and even that doesn't usually feel like enough, so that will be a bit of an adjustment.
WoW! 2 whole weeks! It is true that Americans work more days than all of our Industrialized World Competitors. Very few days are guaranteed as a given day off. Of course, depending on the type of employment you can establish this will vary greatly. Federal employees tend to have more guaranteed days off, yet some public employers have Flex-time schedules, where you can actually work more hours to save up more days off (for example if you wanted a longer vacation).
Despite these two concerns though, I am looking forward to the move. I believe the advantages far outweigh disadvantages. No country is perfect, but the USA has a lot more going for it than I think many people give it credit for.
There is good and bad everywhere. I truly believe in the power to receive what you seek. If you come to this country with a positive attitude seeking good things, it is only up to you, your hardwork and commitment to find those things. Good luck.
Why don't you just get a job and attend a public university? Millions of college students have done it, and they don't wind up in the hole when they graduate. Heck, I managed to do it attending a private college by cobbling together a partial scholarship, student grants, and a job. It wasn't exactly easy, but I never thought somebody was going to pay my freight, either.
I don't expect anything from anyone, but it sure is helpful if you can get something and I believe a good education should be available, practical, and affordable to everyone who seeks one. It's not that easy to "just get a job" either, particularly under the current economic conditions. Under ideal conditions, working part time at a sh*tty college student job while going to school and full time when not at school for four years, I'd still end up about $47,744 "in the hole" after graduating from the cheapest state school here. I suppose that's "not that bad." But honestly, I think it is. Mine is an exceptional circumstance, but like I said, I will find a way to do it, even though it's going to be difficult. I just think in a society like ours, this is a ridiculous situation that people have to go into such debt in order to get a decent education.
He might be talking about their pop music. Mediocre is the only way to describe it.
No genius, it's actually fact. Using real life numbers and methodology.
Facts are so...inconvenient.... aren't they?
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality of life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries. The index was calculated in 2005 and includes data from 111 countries and territories.
The survey uses nine quality of life factors to determine a nation's score[1]. They are listed below including the indicators used to represent these factors:
Health: Life expectancy at birth (in years). Source: US Census Bureau
Family life: Divorce rate (per 1,000 population), converted into index of 1 (lowest divorce rates) to 5 (highest). Sources: UN; Euromonitor
Community life: Dummy variable taking value 1 if country has either high rate of church attendance or trade-union membership; zero otherwise. Source: World Values Survey
Material well being: GDP per person, at PPP in $. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Political stability and security: Political stability and security ratings. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Climate and geography: Latitude, to distinguish between warmer and colder climates. Source: CIA World Factbook
Job security: Unemployment rate (%.) Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Political freedom: Average of indexes of political and civil liberties. Scale of 1 (completely free) to 7 (unfree). Source: Freedom House
Gender equality: measured using ratio of average male and female earnings. Source: UNDP Human Development Report
[edit]
Rank Country or territory Quality of Life Score
(out of 10)
1 Ireland 8.333
2 Switzerland 8.068
3 Norway 8.051
4 Luxembourg 8.015
5 Sweden 7.937
6 Australia 7.925
7 Iceland 7.911
8 Italy 7.810
9 Denmark 7.797
10 Spain 7.727
11 Singapore 7.719
12 Finland 7.618
13 United States 7.615
14 Canada 7.599
15 New Zealand 7.436
16 Netherlands 7.433
17 Japan 7.392
18 Hong Kong 7.347
19 Portugal 7.307
20 Austria 7.268
21 Taiwan 7.259
22 Greece 7.163
23 Cyprus 7.097
24 Belgium 7.095
25 France 7.084
Of the 30 richest countries comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. has the greatest proportion of children living in poverty. Despite spending more money per capita on health care than any other country on the planet, the U.S. ranks 42nd globally in life expectancy.
U.S. infant mortality ranks 34th globally, according to the OECD report. If the U.S. were able to achieve an infant mortality rate as low as top-ranked Sweden, 20,000 more babies would survive here each year.
We have different standards for our country and don't accept anything less than superb. That is what distinguishes America from all other nations and certainly mediocre Europe.
Man, stop drinking the Kool-Aid...seriously. We don't accept anything less than superb?
Do you know what "No child left behind" has done to our educational system? The public school system for the most part has been abandoned to those unable to afford private schools. Our "all military all the time" federal budget has forced teachers to purchase supplies for classrooms because there is no funding. We have fundamentally illiterate kids being passed through grade school. Over 60% of US high schools have no access to the internet/computers.
The majority of European public schools require at least three years of each of the following academic subjects: native language and literature, mathematics, two foreign languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry, and biology. Subjects such as logic and psychology, art, music, physical education, and vocational training are also mandatory for graduation,
All third world countries in my opinion. They get taxed at incredible levels and they all live in houses the size of my refrigerator.
Wow, so in your parallel universe, the bigger the house...the better the quality of life? No wonder other countries laugh at us.
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Answer to some Q's GreyUK
