If you are middle or upper class, America is still a very, very good place to live. Housing in areas outside of NYC, LA, SF is fairly affordable. We bought our single family house with a garage and yard for $230k a few years ago and have nearly paid it off. It's in a safe suburb, good school district, great amenities, and convenient location. Healthcare is great if you're in the 90% that has health insurance. Cost of vehicle ownership is reasonable. Taxes are low on income compared to Europe.
A few doors down from us there is a couple, both work at Costco making $18-20/hour, and they were able to afford a single family house. Compare that to my wife's T3/T4 hometown in China, where a 2 BR CONDO would start at $120k, schools are awful unless shell out extra money, it's polluted, noisy, and crowded af, and someone working a retail job would probably earn $500-600/month.
I would even claim that a large chunk of poor people in the US live better than middle-class people do in places like India thanks to the ridiculously generous welfare. There is a section 8 apartment complex 5 miles away from out house that I pass on my way to work. The parking lot is full of nice vehicles (not luxury, but newer Toyotas and Fords), lots of the tenants are fat so they are obviously well fed, they've all got TVs, air conditioning/heat, and the complex goes to a good public school district.
Yohan wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2021, 9:41 pm
USA has many internal problems and often try to distract from them by complaining about the situation in other countries.
Not all and everything is bad about USA, but it is clearly a legal mess with a huge prison population, it does not offer any social security - even not a basic health care for its citizen, it has deep racist issues going on all the time..
Generally I consider USA for sure not to be a paradise, far away from that - but it is also not the worst place on earth. It is somewhat in the middle. There are many countries which are by far worse - check out the situation in many countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America....
For me personally, as EU-citizen living in Japan, to move to USA is not an option.
However it depends from where you come from - plenty of people are lining up all the time to enter USA hoping for a better life...
US does offer social security and good health care (Medicare) for those 65+ years old. Actually, you could start to collect social security at age 62 but the amount you receive will be lower for the rest of your life.
Most states also offer welfare/food subsidies and medical care for poorer residents (e.g. Medicaid). In 2019, over 90% of Americans had private health insurance - health care is quite good if you are in this group.
Yes, the US does have problems and is in an awkward position now. But it's been through worse before, and still made it out okay. I just don't know of any other places I'd rather be now because frankly it seems like it sucks everywhere - maybe Singapore? Pre-2018 I probably would've considered Hong Kong as well.
