Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would say that it's a highly personal question ...
Personally, I could see myself living in Japan or western Europe. Their governments all have issues of course, but overall, their more socialistic lifestyles tend to make life easier for people. Sometimes I feel life in the USA is just a needless struggle against all sorts of things: stupid people (and there are a LOT of stupid people in the USA), stupid government operations (for my own money, I'd rather fund a parliamentary type of system where things get done by virtue of coalitions and legally binding agreements, rather than the mosh pit that is Amurricuhn sideshows ... er, politics).
On the other hand ...
There's one thing that attracts people to the USA. Job opportunities and the ability to "buy" your way into safe environments. Europe has woefully bad unemployment for the under-30 crowd, and Japan has an extremely paternalistic and ethno-centric job market. If you're not Japanese or a world-reknowned person in your field, good luck finding jobs which are NOT English teachers or the like.
That said, if you want to be upwardly mobile, stay out of the Deep South. Recent studies have proven that if you're poor in the South East USA, you will STAY poor, and so will your children, etc. The story changes when you go basically anywhere else.
For all its foibles, the USA is one of the technologically advanced countries as well. So if you want a high tech job that you will be able to take home excellent pay (relatively speaking) to Europe and Japan, the USA is best.
But if you're a mechanic or other low-skill laborer, I wouldn't want to uproot to the USA unless like, I was being hunted down by a militia or starved.
I don't know about "the best place". But it may be the best place where I can live. The entire world isn't exactly hoping I'll change my citizenship. Being an honest citizen isn't enough. I'd be better as a member of a refugee class. Many, many governments would open their doors. As it is, I'm just one more American lacking critical technical skills and not having millions. So the only places open are probably places I wouldn't want to go.
I've lived overseas for six years, and I can tell you, there is no place like home.
The "great" free medical care in other countries is not free. It is paid for by crippling levels of taxation. It isn't "great" either. People die in Britain, sitting on waiting lists to get in to see specialist doctors. It is not just a few people, either, it is a very large percentage.
Unless an American has exceptional job skills, he is not going to get a visa to live in any of the first world countries and work legally. So, you have to be independently wealthy to move to those countries.
Unless an American has exceptional job skills, he probably can't get a visa to work in an emerging country, either, not that anyone would want to try to live on the local wages.
And if your and your company's healthcare cost was converted to a tax rate, how much would that be?
I love America and believe it is the best place to live but there are things I really love about other places. I've lived in Asia and Europe and I loved that Europe there were no guns. In Asia I really appreciated the focus on families as a unit. But there is no place like America, In fact I just turned down a job in Europe that paid twice as much to stay in the States.
Europe has many countries, and many countries, if not all, have a significant amount of guns owned by the population.
Well I have been to twenty different countries in Latin America and Europe and I would say that while the quality of life in the US is better than Latin America, it is worse than in Europe or in Canada due to crime and lack of a social safety net, plus the infrastructure here tends to be poor compared with other developed countries and the food tends to be more processed/unhealthy and we don't get as much time off as well which compounds things. Also I noticed that many Americans seem to be way more addicted to technology (staring at their smartphones 24/7) then elsewhere which is a bad thing to be.
That being said due to the difficulties of relocating to another country dealing with immigration/work visas, learning a different language, being accepted by the natives, finding a job, etc I think I will have to stay in the US at least until I retire.
Like I stated earlier, the US is a great place to live if you are (relatively) wealthy. If you aren't fortunate enough to earn a middle class or higher wage with an employer paying for the majority of your health care in the US, that "inferior" health care they get overseas sounds pretty damn good.
I earn a good wage for an employer who contributes 75% of my health care costs. Things are good regarding medical care in my little white collar world. Ask the guy stocking shelves in retail for 30 hours a week (never 40 hours, so he will never be classified "full time" and eligible for benefits) how he feels about health care in the good ol' U.S. of A. Again, the US is great...if you can afford it. Unfortunately, the number of people who can't afford it are growing ever higher.
I really think this sums it up. USA is a great place to live and life is easy here if you are relatively well off. Otherwise I think Europe is better if you are working class.
Every place is a tradeoff of some sort. No place is perfect. US is no longer the "land of opportunity", but is becoming "the land of the rich and privileged and connected".
"America" is a big place. Rather hard to categorize. I'm sure the people living in Beverly Hills think America is a fine place. But what about the people living in a shack somewhere in the rural South?
Anyway, if I had to live in Monte Carlo, I wouldn't feel too bad about it.
Your question is based on health care from an individual perspective - how/why it benefits ME and how much it'll cost ME, not from a societal perspective.
What many Europeans find appalling about the US health care system is our tolerance for allowing so many people to have no health care or very substandard health care. Health care in Germany or Denmark or Austria or France or the UK is a benefit that everyone enjoys equally.
I'm generally conservative but I do agree that there's something peculiar about how in the US we allow so many people to enjoy high quality health care, whereas others, due to accident of employment or circumstances, suffer very badly from a lack of health care or access to limited health care.
Let's look at it from another angle. Take education. We have free public education from K-12 in the United States. Funded by our local and state and national governments. It's widely accepted that it's a benefit to society to provide free education, to the point that no one seriously questions it. Why should health care be any different given how important it is to the well-being of society to have a healthy population? Why should someone suddenly unemployed due to no fault on his part lose his health care? We don't kick his kids out of the local schools if he can no longer afford to pay his property taxes...
Quote:
Originally Posted by boxus
And if your and your company's healthcare cost was converted to a tax rate, how much would that be?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
