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showerst | 18 days ago

I'd argue that QoL in middle America is not great compared to similarly priced places in the EU.

Americans have worse health outcomes (including lifespan), travel far less and have less time off, and retire later. That said, you do get much more space, nicer housing stock, (arguably) better access to education, and generally more 'stuff', so it's a tradeoff.

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trimethylpurine|18 days ago

I live a few months out of each year in Europe. Usually max out my 90 day stay with ABnB.

It's a hard life in Europe. My friend owns 11 bars that are packed 24/7 on a Mediterranean shoreline. He is what anyone would call successful. But he lives in a little apartment and drives a beat up old Mercedes, not because he's modest but because that's what "rich" looks like in Europe. If you ask him, he'll tell you that taxes ensure that you can never be rich in Europe.

My friend in middle America owns one bar, multiple houses, multiple cars, kids in private school. And what's mind blowing is that no one in America would consider him "rich." That's just middle class America.

I'd love to visit wherever you're going to point to as a counter example. Let me know where I'm headed this summer.

Btw I checked about health outcomes. It's actually only true if you look at America as an average. Middle America has much better health outcomes. Look at Utah for example. Again, point was that middle America isn't like the coasts.

laurencerowe|18 days ago

It's true that non-coastal Utah, Colorado, and Minnesota have good life expectancy for the US but they lag behind California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Hawaii.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/state-life-expec...

Utah is 1.7 years behind the EU average. Even Hawaii with the highest life expectancy in the US is behind all but the former Eastern Block EU countries.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240324032202/https://www.ined....

(Archive link to get comparable 2022 data.)

michaelmrose|18 days ago

The education is available to those who don't live here. The more "stuff" is not a fair trade for anything else mentioned.