djshiva wrote:hartsta wrote:Please stop bitching about the cost of living in the grand old USA you guys don't know how lucky you are, just for a second why don't you take your heads out of your butts (backsides) & take a look around. Price for -: 1 Liter gas US average $.97, UK average £.97. conversion $1.80 for a liter of gas (or petrol if cannot understand what i am trying to get across). Prices for property
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ Its getting beyond a joke. If you live in the grand old USA,
PLEASE
STOP MOANING!!!!
hey now!
not only was sqook's point a valid one (the US is HUGE and transportation between cities is limited mostly to cars...buses and trains don't always get you where you need to go and planes are super expensive), but i gotta add to that.
now admittedly i do not know much about the employment situation there in the UK, but consider this:
*the federal minimum wage in the US is $5.15. according to the US census bureau, in 2001 (and certainly this has gone up in the last 5 years), the median monthly housing costs (rent, utilities, and garbage and trash collection) for renter occupied homes was $633.
5.15 times 40 hours a week is 206. if i were to apply the percentage of taxes i usually have taken out, that would make a weekly check about 164.80. times that by 4 weeks in a month. that's 659.20. so basically, someone making the minimum wage could not afford the average housing costs in the US from 5 years ago, let alone buy food or pay for transportation.
*43 million americans (most of them working class) have no health or dental insurance. those who do can still lose everything if hit by a major medical emergency. in fact, the leading cause of bankruptcy in america is major medical bills. and those without can become incredibly sick or even die if they have to choose between a roof over their head or paying medical bills.
*the corporate bastards who run this country are doing their damndest to turn the whole damn country into a service industry economy by sending high tech and manufacturing jobs overseas.
we don't have it any harder or any better than anyone else. poor people have it tough no matter where you go, and more people are getting more poor in the US. the rest of the world has this image of the US as the richest country in the world, and in numbers we are.
but those numbers are going to the richest people in the country, while the rest of us (middle to working class) are getting progressively poorer. real wages have stayed static since 1973, and the cost of living has skyrocketed. the reality on the ground is poor people are getting poorer and rich people are getting richer.
i guess my point is that playing the "my struggles are bigger than your struggles" game gets nobody anywhere. things are tough all over. but until you have walked a mile in my shoes, don't try and tell me how good we have it here in america. hell, one look at the aftermath of hurricane katrina says more about this than i ever could.
p.s. i HIGHLY recommend reading barbara ehrenreich's "nickel and dimed: on not getting by in america".
!!! )
