Can we say US is the best country to live and work in the world?

Or is it Australia ,Norway, Germany?

Work family balance, steady decent income, climate, healthcare, people

Personally i prefer Japan

Well?

Work balance in the US is god awful. The American work ethic is something I used to subscribe to and take a lot of pride in, and look down on others who did not do so, but honestly I'm sort of over it. Especially when the return on your investment is so dismal these days. My time is more valuable than what little extra I might get from the extra effort I put in at work (which is almost expected of me as a given, and not as something to be rewarded).

I Deal with a lot of international companies at my new job and it's crazy how much time they get off. "Oh, sorry, we can't come out for *inset summer month* the company shuts down for summer vacation" WTF you guys get a summer vacation?

During Christmas I guess a lot of German companies basically shut down from mid-December through the first week of January.

Many of these folks have adopted work-from-home long before COVID as well, which is a nice perk.

Pay is also really screwed up here in the US. I Can be a lab tech which requires a college degree and start at maybe 20-25 dollars, or I can be a forklift driver at Costco for 25 dollars. The former often requires 6 days a week during crunch time while the latter works four ten-hour days.

Only folks that might have it worse than Americans (as far as industrialized/first-world goes) are the Japanese and their "salaryman" culture.

Things are just not looking great for the workers of the world right now.

I mostly agree with Comrade Bojangles, but maybe lean a little more positive. For the most part you can live relatively well in America (have shelter, food, security) without giving up your social and family life. It's harder in certain areas, especially the big, dense cities and super rual areas, but overall we are doing okay. That said, most other first-world nations, and even a few second world ones, have better work-life ballance, childcare, healthcare, and food than we do. I want us to be more like them.

I think the us is the best

I think I'd be OK with working in basically any first world country except the US or Japan.

I've no idea what's best, but Germany seems pretty cool.

@judaspete: yeah I was pretty pessimistic haha. US is still pretty good, and there's a lot to love about it here, I'm just not seeing us go in a direction that's positive. We'll see how things are in 10 years.

I'd like to get a job in a "developing" nation that has it's shit together. There's a few African countries that have very cheap cost of living, have stable governments, but are still sort of coming out of the "dark ages" in terms of industrialization and stuff like that...it's a weird transition phase, to put it poorly, but it seems like if you went in there working for a larger multinational company you could live very well. Or open up your own small business in a field that isn't overly exploited in that area....like a brewery in a country that just got rid of sharia law or something so alcohol is now OK to drink 😋

Not with the current administration, no. Freedom is being curtailed. Never thought I'd have to say that but the US is not the best.

@mrbojangles25: Sounds really nice, actually.

IMO a great deal of people wake up and live a good life w/o being affected by those controversies pushed from certain outlets.

Depends on what you prioritize in life, where you live, connections, cultural preferences and a bunch of other things.

The US, much like any other part of the world, has its strengths and its flaws. The US has a high standard of living, but not the highest in the world, ranking 20th out of 69 countries considered very high Human Development Index.

Healthcare holds it down. A lot.

@mattbbpl: Exactly

US is a great place to work as long as you are able bodied. But god help you if you get sick or disabled. There are little to no protections....and no guaranteed health coverage

Netherlands has a great work/life balance.

I keep hearing US has very little holidays.

it depends on you're class. If you're smart, hardworking, rich, and elite then yes America is one of the best places in this world to live in. If you have a lot of upward mobility, then yes the US is a great place. Unfortunately, for most people, the country is very exploitative, and is established on backward constitutional laws, ie gun rights, and very much pro elite/ruling class. Even the pro "democracy laws" are stacked interpreted heavily in favor of the rich. People often claim that the US is not a democracy, its a republic. That actually makes more sense, and less people would be butt hurt about it if they see the US through that lens. Its really a republic, and not very far off from middle eastern countries in many aspects, ie the Saudis, or Kuwait, etc. The laws and rules in the US are not even what you would call "fair", the rules are stacked in favor of the rich, and its heavily tilted like so. Personally I don't mind such a culture, I even think its pretty awesome in some ways. But lets be real...if you get sick through no fault of your own, then you're fucked. I can accept pretty much every thing else, but this one health care issue, and gun rights, well that just tough pills to swallow. Say you work hard you're whole life, you take care of your body, completely disciplined, learning more things and setting yourself up, but one day you get cancer, or get shot. You are completely fucked in such a situation. The system will pick you apart, like crows picking apart a dead body.

US is #22

Best Countries for Quality of Life | U.S. News

Too many conservatives policies bogging it down. Note that almost every country in that 21 list is more liberal than US.

Australia is probably better. Free health care, low population density, Low crime rate. However it is ridiculously expensive and housing is impossible to afford.

omg, thats terrible :(

They can literally deny anything and then drag it out in court until you give up or die. People literally get cancer and then their claim is denied and they have to go through step A, B, and C and that takes a long time, all the while you're paying out of pocket and making crowd-funding attempts on Facebook and shit. Read about the guy Luigi shot, he was a monster.

It's a broken system and Reagan making insurance for-profit in the 80's (along with education, something that never should have happened) and these companies being publicly traded is just wrong to its core.

The US has a lot of great stuff about it, great people, great country, but the more I read and listen the more I realize we aren't a democracy anymore.

Damn , it's scary 😮‍💨

maybe those lazy europeans should get their butts in gear

@comp_atkins said:

@mrbojangles25 said:

Work balance in the US is god awful. The American work ethic is something I used to subscribe to and take a lot of pride in, and look down on others who did not do so, but honestly I'm sort of over it. Especially when the return on your investment is so dismal these days. My time is more valuable than what little extra I might get from the extra effort I put in at work (which is almost expected of me as a given, and not as something to be rewarded).

I Deal with a lot of international companies at my new job and it's crazy how much time they get off. "Oh, sorry, we can't come out for *inset summer month* the company shuts down for summer vacation" WTF you guys get a summer vacation?

During Christmas I guess a lot of German companies basically shut down from mid-December through the first week of January.

Many of these folks have adopted work-from-home long before COVID as well, which is a nice perk.

Pay is also really screwed up here in the US. I Can be a lab tech which requires a college degree and start at maybe 20-25 dollars, or I can be a forklift driver at Costco for 25 dollars. The former often requires 6 days a week during crunch time while the latter works four ten-hour days.

Only folks that might have it worse than Americans (as far as industrialized/first-world goes) are the Japanese and their "salaryman" culture.

Things are just not looking great for the workers of the world right now.

maybe those lazy europeans should get their butts in gear

That graph assumes the US workers are getting a share of those profits, and they aren't. It's like all these cuts going on right now, current admin supporters are thinking....what? That we'll get a check in the mail if we save $5 trillion over 10 years? That somehow things will get cheaper? Not happening. The US doesn't redistribute, trickle down was a lie, etc. etc...

I'd rather be happy in the orange line than slaving away contributing to a blue line I won't benefit from.

I also wouldn't call Europeans lazy, I'd just call Americans a little overzealous and ridiculous in their work ethic.

Your healthcare is heavily tied to your employment which impacts flexibility in the workplace along with it being your only feasible outlet for health, you get significantly less holidays than the rest of the western world, your minimum wage is well below what's feasible to live on for a single person full time.

I work 38 hour weeks, 9 day fortnights, get 4 weeks leave and 4 weeks sick leave per year (both paid) and have complete flexibility on my healthcare including a very good universal healthcare system while paying very similar tax to the equivalent US worker.

You guys have been taken for a hell of a ride.

The US is pretty much the bottom of the barrel for developed western countries.

@comp_atkins said:

@mrbojangles25 said:

Work balance in the US is god awful. The American work ethic is something I used to subscribe to and take a lot of pride in, and look down on others who did not do so, but honestly I'm sort of over it. Especially when the return on your investment is so dismal these days. My time is more valuable than what little extra I might get from the extra effort I put in at work (which is almost expected of me as a given, and not as something to be rewarded).

I Deal with a lot of international companies at my new job and it's crazy how much time they get off. "Oh, sorry, we can't come out for *inset summer month* the company shuts down for summer vacation" WTF you guys get a summer vacation?

During Christmas I guess a lot of German companies basically shut down from mid-December through the first week of January.

Many of these folks have adopted work-from-home long before COVID as well, which is a nice perk.

Pay is also really screwed up here in the US. I Can be a lab tech which requires a college degree and start at maybe 20-25 dollars, or I can be a forklift driver at Costco for 25 dollars. The former often requires 6 days a week during crunch time while the latter works four ten-hour days.

Only folks that might have it worse than Americans (as far as industrialized/first-world goes) are the Japanese and their "salaryman" culture.

Things are just not looking great for the workers of the world right now.

maybe those lazy europeans should get their butts in gear

EU handled the financial crisis far worse than US. Generally not wanting to spend money to make money compared to US.

I don't think the US has been in the running for at least the last couple of decades. Healthcare is too expensive, education is spotty, public transport is minimal, and the wealth disparity hits hard. That's not even factoring in those low-risk-but-alarming things like gun crimes.

I'd probably go with one of the Scandi countries. They seem to have their stuff together.

We have it pretty good, but you're definitely right about the cost of living and cost of housing. We also have some cultural problems, like littering and speeding and vandalism and whatever. It varies from place to place, but we're a far cry from the collectivism you'd find in somewhere like Japan.