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Old 11-15-2014, 02:15 AM
 
1,135 posts, read 1,110,249 times
Reputation: 689

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I came to America when I was three, back in 1972. And I grew up here ever since. But on July 2014, I came to the Philippines to live here for I don't know how long. So I've been here four months in the Philippines, and that's a good enough perspective to see how it is to live in the Philippines and to see how great American is.

So what do I think about America? If you live in good neighborhoods or good cities like Chicago, then the architecture and neighborhoods are great. But I once thought about renting a $600 two bedroom apartment in a dumpy neighborhood in Chicago and it was depressing. But what America has is great shopping, great fast food, big department stores, better groceries, and more toys and gadgets that people can afford. Exquisite toys and gadgets are rare in the Philippines, unless I don't know where to buy them yet or where to get them on Filipino websites. What depresses me in the Philippines is that, why aren't more local movies and music appreciated? Filipinos here seem to be more into American music and movies. SM Mall theaters often only play American movies. I said "Why is this?" to my cousin, and he said American movies are more realistic and have better special effects. When you see a Filipino movie you can see the special effects are so fake like when people fight. And even when I visited France, on the billboards of French theaters – were American movies.

Computer shopping in America is simply the best. Best prices, best selection, and they have the ultra high end stuff. You can't get a 30 inch monitor in the Philippines. The latest LGA 2011 version 3 Intel CPUs and motherboards aren't available here, only in America? America has giant computer shops, like Fry's and Micro Center, and the Philippines has nothing such. America is full of awesome websites to buy computer stuff, the Philippines just has a few and they don't have too much stuff. You can get a 128 GB USB stick in America, but you can't get one in the Philippines. You can get a removable hard drive or SSD tray from Newegg.com but you can't get anything like that in the Philippines. I guess the solution to that kind of stuff is to buy from American websites and to ship them to website USA mail centers that ship to foreign countries, – that's what many ex-pats do.

And the rich Filipinos here appreciate American imports. Food, gadgets, bikes, books or, music, movies, and etc. But American imports are expensive, and only a limited selection of imports are available. I can't get Almond Joy, Jr Mints, Cinnabons Cereal, Captain Crunch, or diet Sunkist here. Krave cereal costs $2.50 in America but costs 418 pesos in the Philippines, about nine dollars. A nine dollar bag of American candies cost $26 here. There is a special Filipino warehouse club - S & R - that sells a lot of American imports here, but they are expensive. Ben & Jerry's six dollars, 36 rolls Charmin 1499 pesos. There are some American fast food joints here like KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Subway. Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are here too, but the Dunkin' Donuts menu is different here. Regular donuts are 20 pesos, and luxury donuts are 35 pesos – so that's cheaper than the one dollar a donut American Dunkin' Donuts.

In the Philippines, if you work for a company or corporation, you don't get rich here. A senior web developer, 30 year experienced civil engineer, Senior mechanical engineer, can make between 35,000 to 50,000 pesos per month, – that's pathetic! I ran into a mechanical engineer consultant at SM North EDSA and he said that's about right, but he said he makes 135,000 pesos a month because he's his own consultant. The rich people here in the Philippines own businesses, and with minimum wage around 450 pesos a day, well, that's like slave labor. And there is too much age discrimination here in the Philippines, many ads say "not over 35." But the Philippines doesn't have unemployment benefits, and Social Security here is pathetic. My uncle here worked several years earning good money at Ford and Chrysler here, that's why he owns a good sizable plot of land, and I'm living in our house built on that land. But Philippines Social Security claims to have lost his work records, so he almost lost his Social Security benefits, but anyway, it's about a pathetic 6000 pesos a month. That's why people here make sure they have kids so that their kids can support them when they get old. But live in maids here make 4000 two 6500 pesos per month.

- Now contrast that to America, were senior engineers make a good salary, may be $85,000-$120,000 a year. There is age discrimination in America, but there are laws against it, but companies always find a way around that. American Social Security and unemployment benefits are good enough. But in the current economy and future, maybe America could become a third world country, with many companies outsourcing work, lowballing salaries, making many jobs temp jobs, and not giving you enough time or good health care.

But generally, I love living in America and I want to go back to America. Right now it's still a mess of an economy and poor job market, despite the government claim of 5.8% unemployment, which could be a lie. The true labor participation rate shows the lowest labor participation rate in 30 years, so actually many people are unemployed, and not counted as unemployed. Because when I applied for jobs, I still had a lot of competition for those jobs, and then I didn't get hired.

So that's my rant about America. If you live in a foreign country, what do you think of America? Would you like to move to America?

If you live in America, do you still want to live in America, or do you want to move to a foreign country?
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Old 11-15-2014, 02:29 AM
 
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
11,223 posts, read 16,369,819 times
Reputation: 13536
America isn't really "foreign" to me, but I like it just fine.

Great people, beautiful countryside, lots to offer. Do I want to live there? meh. I like Canada, myself. But if I had to go anywhere else, it would be America. It's familiar to me.
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Old 11-15-2014, 02:49 AM
 
Location: Northern Ireland
3,400 posts, read 3,195,664 times
Reputation: 541
Quote:
Originally Posted by JTE1969 View Post
I came to America when I was three, back in 1972. And I grew up here ever since. But on July 2014, I came to the Philippines to live here for I don't know how long. So I've been here four months in the Philippines, and that's a good enough perspective to see how it is to live in the Philippines and to see how great American is.

So what do I think about America? If you live in good neighborhoods or good cities like Chicago, then the architecture and neighborhoods are great. But I once thought about renting a $600 two bedroom apartment in a dumpy neighborhood in Chicago and it was depressing. But what America has is great shopping, great fast food, big department stores, better groceries, and more toys and gadgets that people can afford. Exquisite toys and gadgets are rare in the Philippines, unless I don't know where to buy them yet or where to get them on Filipino websites. What depresses me in the Philippines is that, why aren't more local movies and music appreciated? Filipinos here seem to be more into American music and movies. SM Mall theaters often only play American movies. I said "Why is this?" to my cousin, and he said American movies are more realistic and have better special effects. When you see a Filipino movie you can see the special effects are so fake like when people fight. And even when I visited France, on the billboards of French theaters – were American movies.

Computer shopping in America is simply the best. Best prices, best selection, and they have the ultra high end stuff. You can't get a 30 inch monitor in the Philippines. The latest LGA 2011 version 3 Intel CPUs and motherboards aren't available here, only in America? America has giant computer shops, like Fry's and Micro Center, and the Philippines has nothing such. America is full of awesome websites to buy computer stuff, the Philippines just has a few and they don't have too much stuff. You can get a 128 GB USB stick in America, but you can't get one in the Philippines. You can get a removable hard drive or SSD tray from Newegg.com but you can't get anything like that in the Philippines. I guess the solution to that kind of stuff is to buy from American websites and to ship them to website USA mail centers that ship to foreign countries, – that's what many ex-pats do.

And the rich Filipinos here appreciate American imports. Food, gadgets, bikes, books or, music, movies, and etc. But American imports are expensive, and only a limited selection of imports are available. I can't get Almond Joy, Jr Mints, Cinnabons Cereal, Captain Crunch, or diet Sunkist here. Krave cereal costs $2.50 in America but costs 418 pesos in the Philippines, about nine dollars. A nine dollar bag of American candies cost $26 here. There is a special Filipino warehouse club - S & R - that sells a lot of American imports here, but they are expensive. Ben & Jerry's six dollars, 36 rolls Charmin 1499 pesos. There are some American fast food joints here like KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Subway. Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are here too, but the Dunkin' Donuts menu is different here. Regular donuts are 20 pesos, and luxury donuts are 35 pesos – so that's cheaper than the one dollar a donut American Dunkin' Donuts.

In the Philippines, if you work for a company or corporation, you don't get rich here. A senior web developer, 30 year experienced civil engineer, Senior mechanical engineer, can make between 35,000 to 50,000 pesos per month, – that's pathetic! I ran into a mechanical engineer consultant at SM North EDSA and he said that's about right, but he said he makes 135,000 pesos a month because he's his own consultant. The rich people here in the Philippines own businesses, and with minimum wage around 450 pesos a day, well, that's like slave labor. And there is too much age discrimination here in the Philippines, many ads say "not over 35." But the Philippines doesn't have unemployment benefits, and Social Security here is pathetic. My uncle here worked several years earning good money at Ford and Chrysler here, that's why he owns a good sizable plot of land, and I'm living in our house built on that land. But Philippines Social Security claims to have lost his work records, so he almost lost his Social Security benefits, but anyway, it's about a pathetic 6000 pesos a month. That's why people here make sure they have kids so that their kids can support them when they get old. But live in maids here make 4000 two 6500 pesos per month.

- Now contrast that to America, were senior engineers make a good salary, may be $85,000-$120,000 a year. There is age discrimination in America, but there are laws against it, but companies always find a way around that. American Social Security and unemployment benefits are good enough. But in the current economy and future, maybe America could become a third world country, with many companies outsourcing work, lowballing salaries, making many jobs temp jobs, and not giving you enough time or good health care.

But generally, I love living in America and I want to go back to America. Right now it's still a mess of an economy and poor job market, despite the government claim of 5.8% unemployment, which could be a lie. The true labor participation rate shows the lowest labor participation rate in 30 years, so actually many people are unemployed, and not counted as unemployed. Because when I applied for jobs, I still had a lot of competition for those jobs, and then I didn't get hired.

So that's my rant about America. If you live in a foreign country, what do you think of America? Would you like to move to America?

If you live in America, do you still want to live in America, or do you want to move to a foreign country?
Hi, I like it but there are a few things that I don't like.

1. The landscape in the middle.
2. The way nothing is consistent, everything is different everywhere.
3. I don't 'get' Walmart, its not like a supermarket to me but a warehouse... I don't feel like anywhere needs that amount of food.
4. Staring is common particularly among the Indian Americans, I lost count on the number of times someone would stare at me.
5. Awful driving.
6. Awful cheese.
7. No one is scared of saying to your face what they think, they can be quite nasty.
8. Arrogance of the people.
9. The fat ugly 7 seaters that everyone drives around in, there is no unique cars. Here everyone has different cars and we have much better choice.
10. How no one buys anything with their own money but resorts to keeping up with the jones and buying things well above their weight.

I like it there yes but those things above make it sometimes annoying. The availability of so many different things make it so good, however, I will say that its not all good and there are parts of the country that you could live in that are third world. Rural areas in Florida seemed very third world with the trashy houses. The main benefit to me is the cheap prices of everything and the massive shopping malls. I thought the cinemas would be nice but they are actually rubbish, smaller screens than ours here and the choice of food is rubbish with no crisps for sale and awful prices, the only thing I liked was the churros. Computer shopping isn't any different, we get the food delivered to our door like Amazon fresh and also presents delivered so I don't care about that. Krave cereal is my favourite cereal that I eat, we do have a lot of american food here and as time goes on this increases, now basically every shop has Hershey's and the peanut butter cups for sale when they didn't have those 10 years ago. Shops are increasing, we now have AE, Forever 21 etc.

What really annoyed me was the fact that the American shops came here and thought they could take the **** out of the British shoppers by charging triple the price for the clothes made in America.

Of course this didn't too far as people resorted to going online so now prices have been reduced.

I apply for GC lottery every year for the laugh but i'm not sure what i'd do if I won it. The salaries are quite crappy there. I haven't visited enough to even think where I would live.
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Old 11-15-2014, 02:59 AM
 
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
11,223 posts, read 16,369,819 times
Reputation: 13536
Quote:
Originally Posted by Summerwhale View Post
Hi, I like it but there are a few things that I don't like.

1. The landscape in the middle.
The landscape in the middle of America is actually quite pretty.


Quote:
2. The way nothing is consistent, everything is different everywhere.
That's a plus in my book.


Quote:
3. I don't 'get' Walmart, its not like a supermarket to me but a warehouse... I don't feel like anywhere needs that amount of food.
If you "get" ASDA, then you "get" Wal-Mart.


Quote:
4. Staring is common particularly among the Indian Americans, I lost count on the number of times someone would stare at me.
Some people just people watch.

Quote:
5. Awful driving.
Nothing exclusive about this in America.

Quote:
6. Awful cheese.
Agreed.


Quote:
7. No one is scared of saying to your face what they think, they can be quite nasty.
On the whole, I see this as a good thing.

Quote:
8. Arrogance of the people.
There's 350 million of them. You visited Florida.
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Old 11-15-2014, 03:01 AM
 
Location: Northern Ireland
3,400 posts, read 3,195,664 times
Reputation: 541
Asda is absolutely NOTHING like Walmart.I didn't like the interior landscape because it was so flat and yellow, there like no houses for miles and the population was so small that the amenities were crap, I would rather live here than there.

I've not been to the west but can't see myself liking the Arizona or New Mexico landscape either, i've been to parts of Spain like that and could not stand that. I have to have a green hilly landscape like Florida or NYC and I have to be near the coast.
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Old 11-15-2014, 03:31 AM
 
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada
11,223 posts, read 16,369,819 times
Reputation: 13536
I thought ASDA was pretty much the same, since Wal-Mart owns it, but I suppose I have no experience. Googling pictures of it though looks like the same bloated aisles, stuffed with the same Chinese garbage we get over here.

I can understand, some people don't like the prairies, or desert, but there really is beauty in them. I'm not sure what's hilly about Florida, but yeah, I agree. I prefer greenery, landscape and water. But that's also the great thing about living in North America. In either country, pretty much, you can live in whichever climate or landscape your heart desires.
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Old 11-15-2014, 03:46 AM
 
Location: Northern Ireland
3,400 posts, read 3,195,664 times
Reputation: 541
Yes I like that. Well Asda takes some inspiration from Walmart but its more like Publix than Walmart.
http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/...1_e56e7859.jpg
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townn...bcc0.image.jpg
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Old 11-15-2014, 09:31 AM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,230,378 times
Reputation: 39027
RE: Cheese

The status quo of cheese in America is pretty poor, but good, even excellent cheeses are made locally in America and literally thousands of varieties are imported from Europe, you are not going to find them in the refrigerated case at Wlamart, though.

If you insist on a very high standard for cheese, you can get it unless you live in a very remote area.
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Old 11-15-2014, 10:44 AM
 
Location: Top of the South, NZ
22,216 posts, read 21,547,782 times
Reputation: 7608
America was nice. It was quite big.
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Old 11-15-2014, 10:48 AM
 
Location: Northern Ireland
3,400 posts, read 3,195,664 times
Reputation: 541
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQConvict View Post
RE: Cheese

The status quo of cheese in America is pretty poor, but good, even excellent cheeses are made locally in America and literally thousands of varieties are imported from Europe, you are not going to find them in the refrigerated case at Wlamart, though.

If you insist on a very high standard for cheese, you can get it unless you live in a very remote area.
In our supermarkets we have ordinary cheese so I found it weird that the plastic stuff was common.
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