The U.S. is surely not the cheapest first world country to live in. The main reason are probably the high costs for health care and education. For example in 2013 the U.S. spends 9,255$ per person for health care compared to 3,910€ per person in Germany. And that despite the fact that there are much more old people in Germany who needs more health care. I don't know, but I guess the quality of health care in Germany isn't worse than in the U.S.
Of course it's extremely difficult to compare prices between different countries, but the extremely expensive and inefficient health care industry in the U.S. makes it very unlikely that the U.S. is a cheap country to live in.
In my opinion Germany seems to be significant cheaper than the U.S. Here are some examples:
It's true that the driver licence is much more expensive in Germany and other European countries compared to the U.S. But what about the car insurance? There are much more car accidents in the U.S. and of course that leads to much higher costs for car insurance. The average cost for a fully comprehensive car insurance in Germany in 2013 was 529 € compared to 926$ in Ohio (lowest) and 1,962$ in California (one of the highest).
According to this site
Average Cost of Car Insurance (2015) | Average Cost of Insurance | ValuePenguin
the average cost for home owner insurance in the U.S. was 978$. That is also much higher than in Germany, here it is more like 300 €.
We all have heard about those huge compensations in the U.S. that insurance companies have to pay if someone get hurt. Of course that leads to higher costs. Someone have also to pay for all these lawyers. Of course the consumer will pay for them.
Gasoline is cheap in the U.S., yes, it's about 2.5 times more expensive in Germany. But of course people don't need to drive that much, distances are much shorter. And cars consume less gasoline. In 2012 the average German household spends 1,248€ per year for gasoline compared to 2,756$ in the U.S. Of course much further distances (while almost everything is spread out) leads to higher costs. And the amount that Europeans spend for gasoline is not completely waste through the exhaust, no they get the biggest part of that amount back (the taxes are used for amenities and of course some stupid things).
Electricity cost also about 2.5 times more than in the U.S. but the average American also needs about 3 times more electricity than the average German. In 2012 The average German household spends 1,860€ for utilities compared to 3,648$ for the average U.S. household.
Comparing food prices. Americans often think that their food is cheap. I don't know why they think that. Maybe they get teached so at high school? I really don't know, but almost every American think that. Of course compared to Norway and Switzerland, food in the U.S. is cheap. But compared to other European countries? Aldi in the U.S. is seen as the chain with the cheapest food prices in the U.S. In Germany it's the same. With the important difference that all other food retail chains in Germany offer the exactly same price than Aldi for the most common (about 500) products. And the food at Aldi and therefore all other grocery chains in Germany are a lot cheaper than in the U.S. There are some exceptions, for example bananas and avocados and for sure many other items, but overall food is much more expensive in the U.S. than in Germany. Even the food at the upmarket food retailer Edeka is significant cheaper than food at Walmart. For example why is flour so expensive in the U.S.? 1 kg flour in Germany cost 0.32€, every store sells flour for this price. Flour at Walmart? The cheapest price that I could find was 2.46$ for 5 lb, that is a little bit more than 1$ for 1 kg flour. That is unbelievable expensive.
Or why are trash bags in the U.S. so expensive? A 13 gallon trashbag with strips cost at least 0.13$ in the U.S. compared to about 0.05€ with strips or 0.0325€ for those without strips in Germany. A package with 30 trash bags of The most common size (25 liter) cost 0.65€, at every grocery store.
Or look at the K-cups in the U.S. 12 of them at Aldi in the U.S. cost 4.99$ and that is cheap for the U.S. That are 0.42$ per cup. In Germany 16 of them cost 2.79€ at Aldi or 10 of them cost 1.74€ at Lidl. Normally almost every price in a grocery store in Germany ends with a "9". Why the price for the k-cups at Lidl ends with a "4"? Because they have to offer the same price like Aldi to stay competitive: 2.79 / 16 = 1.74 ;-)
Or liquid hand soap? I guess everyone buys it. Prices in Germany: 500ml (dispenser) cost 0.65€ or 0.55€ for 500ml in a refill pack. That are the normal prices you can find at every grocery store or drug store, they are available in countless different flavours. What cost liquid hand soap in the U.S.? The cheapest product what I could found: A 7.5 fl oz store brand liquid hand soap at Dollar General for 1$, that is about 2.30$ for 500ml compared to 0.65€ for the same amount in Germany. And in Germany you get this price at every store, even at a beautiful shiny drug store.
When it comes to food prices or household goods it seems difficult to find products that are cheaper in the U.S. than in Germany.
Here are some products that are cheaper in the U.S. than in Germany. Almost every name brand clothing is cheaper in the U.S. than in Germany. I don't know, but they are maybe 30% cheaper. It's astonishing because no name clothing is very similar priced, despite the higher sale tax in Germany. The question is, why for example NIKE demand so much more for their shoes in Europe than they demand in the U.S.? Germans and of course other Europeans are willing to spend much more for name brand clothing. If Nike in the U.S. would raise their prices to the same level like in Europe, a high percentage of Americans would stop buying Nike shoes and switch to Walmart shoes for example.
All Apple products and most other consumer electronics are cheaper in the U.S. But phone, surf and TV plans are significant cheaper in Germany.
I don't think that there are so much more products that are significant cheaper in the U.S. than in Germany. Of course there are a lot other products that are cheaper, but at the moment no other come in mind. (Aspirin,...)
I really don't understand why so many Americans think that living in the U.S. is basically cheaper than in other developed countries. In my opinion that's very illogical. For example many stores in the U.S. are open 24/7. Of course that leads to much higher costs. There is probably not that much traffic in a Walmart at 3 a.m. At swim parks or similar facilities there are so many employees for supervising the visitors or at schools there are employees for guarding the entrance or supervising the students during lunch. There are so many public employees in the U.S. at least compared to Germany. Many of them doesn't offer any value to the people.
And the manufacturing sector. When I compare factories in the U.S. with factories in Germany, Switzerland, Austria or the Netherlands and some other European countries, the average factory in the U.S. looks from the outside as well as from the inside somewhat outdated. Of course there are also super modern factories in the U.S. but the average midsize production company? Those really doesn't seem very advanced. How should it be possible to produce the goods as efficent as possible if the equipment isn't top-notch? It's also astonishing that for example a plastic manufacturer that needs more production space move from his last factory to a larger factory building that was so far used by a carpet manufacturer which went bancrupty. That is quite common in the U.S. But how should such a factory produce goods as cheap as possible? It's more efficent in the long term to build a factory that is exactly designed to produce a special product. The number of installed industrial robots in the U.S. per employee in the manufacturing industry is higher than in the UK but lower than in almost every other European country.
There are a lot more hints that goods in the U.S. aren't that cheap as many people think. When the incomes in the U.S. are so high and the goods are so cheap why are there so many people in the U.S. that buy the cheapest possible plastic garden chairs? Those chairs looks terrible, why not more people buy much nicer and better quality garden chairs? Why so many people have those cheap chain link fences around their plot? When everything is so cheap in the U.S. why people don't buy nice and beautiful fences?
The prices for toilets at Home Depot in the U.S. starts at 88$ + taxes. The prices for toilets in Germany starts at 18€ (taxes are already included). There is a wide supply of different toilets for less than 88$ in Germany. Or bathtubs, sinks, shower heads and so on. Everything is much more expensive in the U.S. I don't know, but maybe Home Depot is just completely overpriced and other home improvement stores are more reasonable priced?
When everything in the U.S. is so cheap why have so many people in the U.S. such high amounts of consumer debt?
Here is the consumer expenditure survey for the U.S.:
http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann13.pdf
And here is a comparable statistic from Germany:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikati...ublicationFile
Disposable income for the average U.S. household (2.5 persons): 51,442$
Disposable income for the average German household (2.0 persons): 37,596€
It's very difficult to compare both statistics, but to say that living in the U.S. is cheaper under consideration of the disposable income? No, it seems to be that the average German household need a smaller amount of their disposable income for necessities but can spend more for amenities and can save more.
I really don't understand why so many Americans think that living in the U.S. is cheap. Probably they just compare prices of products they are used to in the U.S. that are mostly iconic American products, yes those are more expensive in Europe. That would be the same if a German would compare the 700$ for a Miele vacuum cleaner in the U.S. with the 200€ he would pay in Germany for the same appliance. Or the price for a certain product from Ferrero in the U.S. with the price in Germany. I am also absolute sure that almost every American don't realize that price tags in Europe already include the sales tax. It's just normal that they compare their price tags with the price tags in Europe. Everyone would do that. Americans mostly came to Europe as a tourist and often stay in touristic place where almost everything is more expensive. Someone have to live at least several month in a foreign country to get used to the prices and find the best deal. It is also normal that people don't realize that the composition of goods is different in other countries. For example in the U.S. people use much more gasoline and electricity than people in Europe do. The high gasoline and electricity prices in Europe are by far not such a problem than most Americans think. Germans spend about 8.3% of their disposable income for gasoline and utilities compared to 12.4% for the average U.S. household.
Statistics are nice but it's always very difficult to compare statistics from different countries. So I really don't know whether the statistics I mentioned are reliable and whether they are comparable or not. BTW, canned tuna is cheaper in the U.S. than in Germany, but not sure.
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