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.
An interesting article but a touch harsh.
One point that is noticeable, one sees very few young Americans on holiday in other countries doing the young thing, getting smashed , etc etc etc.
Do young Americans live to work ?
An interesting article but a touch harsh.
One point that is noticeable, one sees very few young Americans on holiday in other countries doing the young thing, getting smashed , etc etc etc.
Do young Americans live to work ?
1. Americans live to work. That reputation is not for nothing.
2. The phrase 'Quality of Life' means very little to Americans.
3. Americans believe they are (and have) the best of everything.
Americans believe they are (and have) the best of everything.
Upon closer inspection - meaning residing here for a while without having being born and raised (therefore indoctrinated) here, you come to understand that, for the most part, they have THE WORST of everything.
Sometimes though they can have one thing that will sadly override all other deficiencies: a sourse of decent income from a relatively decent workplace which your own country managed NOT TO have for you.
An interesting article but a touch harsh.
One point that is noticeable, one sees very few young Americans on holiday in other countries doing the young thing, getting smashed , etc etc etc.
Do young Americans live to work ?
An interesting article but a touch harsh.
One point that is noticeable, one sees very few young Americans on holiday in other countries doing the young thing, getting smashed , etc etc etc.
Do young Americans live to work ?
I'm from the States. I know some Americans who 'escape' America. But it is very unusual. I'm one of them though.
Partly because the States is a massive, massive country. Every once in awhile I think of 'emigrating' to Australia or New Zealand, then I realize how few choices there are comparitively of cities they have.
Whereas in the States, you have literally every kind of city you can imagine. Honolulu to New Orleans to Austin to whatever are all completely and entirely different worlds. Plus, as an American who grew up in the Midwest, it is easy to do 'California dreaming' or 'Colorado dreaming' or whatsoever else. (Australia does have some similarities though, but just an even much larger scale in the States, especially on the massive variation scale).
All that being said. I have lived outside of the States for well over a decade throughout Asia, Europe and South America. One of my biggest irks is everywhere I go, locals assume ALL their social ills from sex tourists to whatever else is from 'Americans'. However, whenever I've visited all these cool Lonely Planet hangouts, yeah, almost entirely Europeans, Aussies, etc.
I will have to say the 'live to work' is another American thing. Partially as things are setup in such a poor way - i.e. you need a car, and renting a place you are committed to generally a year lease. So, it is easy to get locked in, and not find that opportune moment to NOT have a job, NOT have an apartment, and HAVE money to go international. Whereas in Europe and OZ and such...maybe more people are closer to foreign countries, the cost disadvantages are lower, plus they come from a culture where they know their own country fairly quickly and well, and easy to 'make a leap' outside of it, eager to explore somewhere else.
One of the traps with the States is that it is so enormous, that most americans, even well-traveled one, might still have large regions of the country that is so different and unique that they haven't been to, they can get conjured up in the imagination as a 'far away exotic locale' despite being in the same country.
An interesting article but a touch harsh.
One point that is noticeable, one sees very few young Americans on holiday in other countries doing the young thing, getting smashed , etc etc etc.
Do young Americans live to work ?
Talk about a severe "grass is greener" blog article.
Part of the reason why Americans aren't seen outside of America are manyfold:
1) The USA is a HUGE place! The continental USA has roughly equivalent land area to the whole of Europe, including Russia, up to the Urals. Thus, it is HUGELY EXPENSIVE to travel anywhere else.
2) The USA has many options of enjoyment and entertainment. If it didn't, you'd see more vacationing elsewhere.
3) The wages bit I can argue with. The author of this article has one of the most slanted and biased viewpoints I can think of. White collar workers getting a less quality of life than the blue collar workers elsewhere? LAUGHABLE AND TOTALLY WRONG. Let's take a look at a few of the "rich" countries he says are superior to us lowly and godforsaken Americans:
China: have you been under a rock for the past two years? There have been RIOTS AND STRIKES at companies in China as workers demand higher pay. Further, at one company that employs a staggering 310,000, living conditions are so poor in the campus that hundreds commit suicide every year. Slave labor/plantation mentality? Wake up and smell the f*cking oolong tea buddy. Go to ANY of the countryside cities and see what life is REALLY like in China (i.e. NOT Shanghai or Beijing). These people cannot take vacations. They are NOT the wealthy elite. Just because you see a lot of Chinese people abroad now is that with a 1.3 BILLION (as in, 1,300 million) people, assuming just 0.1% of that population is wealthy enough to travel, you still got ****ing 1.3 MILLION Chinese tourists. Wow. You're just stupid.
Japan: People really are a slave to their jobs here. I should know, my in-laws are Japanese. Their dad goes to work at 8 AM and doesn't come back till ****ing 11 at night. And he does this 5 days a week, 6 every other week. The culture is such that if you avoid being sociable with the coworkers and bosses, people will think something's up and/or you hate them. A cursory review of internet articles and Youtube videos of Australian and American expats in Japan will confirm this.
Western Europe: There is a reason most European countries do not approach the replacement population birthrate of 2.2 children: IT'S TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE!
France: I personally would hate to live in a country where raising the retirement age for a fat check in welfare from 60-62 basically shuts down the country. Even in the smoothest of times, people in France have to live with basic services being interrupted due to some strike.
England: I don't know where to begin. You think the US is in shambles, take a look at the UK. They're rated lower in most standard of life polls than the US.
Germany: Probably the best-off of the lot. I could see myself living in Germany. Gotta love export-driven democratic economies
Italy: This country is called the "sick old man" of Europe. They have a contracting economy and a contracting populace. It's laughable if you think they got it better.
Spain: Their economy is in the ****ter and have 20% unemployment. Nuff said. Next.
Scandanavian Countries: They're pretty well off for one reason: Oil. Take that away and there's little else.
So there you have it - for all its foibles and tribulations, the USA is still the best country to live in in my own opinion. In the words of countless British, Irish, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, and all sorts of other immigrants who I have BEFRIENDED RIGHT HERE IN THE GOOD OL USA ... when I ask why they came here, I get nearly always the SAME REPLY:
Huh? Have you ever heard of this thing called "Spring Break"?
lol.
Yeah, that is essentially one week where american college students go party in warmer climates - usually Florida...but sometimes Mexico, Jamaica, etc. They party with generally other American college students for a week, then go back to taking college classes again immediately right afterwards.
But, the OP is thinking of something different. As a previous backpacker backpacker...i.e. myself as a young person who traveled for six months to a year at a time going from hostel to hostel to hostel and country to country to country. The regular theme of that is you meet tons and tons of Europeans, Australians, Israelis, Asians, even Latinos....but you almost never ever meet Americans doing that. Almost unheard of.
1. Americans live to work. That reputation is not for nothing.
2. The phrase 'Quality of Life' means very little to Americans.
3. Americans believe they are (and have) the best of everything.
In a nutshell. No need to say more.
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.
