It's all in the measurements. Poor Europeans still have much more vacation time than poor US citizens, and have much lower medical expenses because they're heavily subsidized.
Anything subsidised is from the horrendous level of taxes we are forced to pay, which also covers the freeloading welfare parasites and recent arrivals.
But every time I travel to Europe for work and meet working professionals, I'm amazed at their benefits and their taken-for-granted job security and social security, and huge paid time off allowance including maternity and paternity leave. I believe that in Germany, union factory workers only have 30 hours/week.
My only point being that you can't compare standard of living based on salary alone. Yes, we have higher salaries and much bigger houses, but we also have bigger bills, insane medical costs and a host of other things that detract from our quality of life.
And yeah, in the US we've subsidized the rest of the world for far too long, with our blood, sweat and labor by working more. We're due for some payback.
"...have much lower medical expenses because they're heavily subsidized."
In Germany we pay so called "Sozialabgaben":
Translated Brave:
"Social security contributions in Germany are legally mandated contributions that provide coverage for illness, long-term care, old age, unemployment, and accidents. They are calculated based on gross pay and are generally split 50-50 between employees and employers.
The total contribution burden for employees subject to social security contributions is currently approximately 21% of gross pay. The individual contribution rates are as follows:
Pension insurance: 9.3% (employee share)
Health insurance: 7.3% plus half of the additional contribution (on average)
Long-term care insurance: 1.525% to 2.0% (depending on family status)
Unemployment insurance: 1.2%"
Germany is totally broke. The System is going to cut the Federal share of the above "insurances". Germany is about to explode.
I had similar thoughts. If one country pays for medical charges out of disposable income while another gets healthcare "free" because it is paid for from taxes then that will skew the numbers.
It's all in the measurements. Poor Europeans still have much more vacation time than poor US citizens, and have much lower medical expenses because they're heavily subsidized.
Anything subsidised is from the horrendous level of taxes we are forced to pay, which also covers the freeloading welfare parasites and recent arrivals.
Agreed.
But every time I travel to Europe for work and meet working professionals, I'm amazed at their benefits and their taken-for-granted job security and social security, and huge paid time off allowance including maternity and paternity leave. I believe that in Germany, union factory workers only have 30 hours/week.
My only point being that you can't compare standard of living based on salary alone. Yes, we have higher salaries and much bigger houses, but we also have bigger bills, insane medical costs and a host of other things that detract from our quality of life.
And yeah, in the US we've subsidized the rest of the world for far too long, with our blood, sweat and labor by working more. We're due for some payback.
"...have much lower medical expenses because they're heavily subsidized."
In Germany we pay so called "Sozialabgaben":
Translated Brave: "Social security contributions in Germany are legally mandated contributions that provide coverage for illness, long-term care, old age, unemployment, and accidents. They are calculated based on gross pay and are generally split 50-50 between employees and employers. The total contribution burden for employees subject to social security contributions is currently approximately 21% of gross pay. The individual contribution rates are as follows: Pension insurance: 9.3% (employee share) Health insurance: 7.3% plus half of the additional contribution (on average) Long-term care insurance: 1.525% to 2.0% (depending on family status) Unemployment insurance: 1.2%"
Germany is totally broke. The System is going to cut the Federal share of the above "insurances". Germany is about to explode.
I had similar thoughts. If one country pays for medical charges out of disposable income while another gets healthcare "free" because it is paid for from taxes then that will skew the numbers.