How is it? Life in United States?

I swear this describes my life too right now.

Do not listen to the foolish and weak.

There are riches and power for the taking. Simply take it.

It's all about money in the US. If you're not bringing in bank you're a nobody. You'll marry a fat chick and have ugly kids, or live in the Midwest.

I personally enjoy my current life style, but the only reason I can enjoy it is because I am single. Women are expensive.

You allow your morals to define you.

Female companions are disposable while female children must be protected at all costs.

New York State - USA

Gas 3.65 to 4.00 this month

Cigarettes - 8-9$ a pack

Personally I forage for work.

The good stuff is Photography for 300-1000 a day but that happens once or twice a month.
Doing landscaping for a crew gets 100$ a day
Doing the high end Video camera work is last with 15$ an hour.

I wont ever work on a 9-5 job ever again if I can help it.

If I didnt have skills I wouldnt have any work save a MCDs or Gas station. Even the raking leaves job I got because I knew the rich folks through photography/video jobs.

It's different in different parts of the country....

Do a google for cost of living calculators....and you can pop in different places and see for yourself.

Here is mine...

Plano stats
Financial City stats Best places avg.
Median family income
(per year) $110,799 $99,975
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted) N.A. $95,706
State sales tax 6.25% 5.75%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket) N.A. 7.37%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket) N.A. 3.13%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average price quotes, for the state) $1,748 $1,687
Job growth %
(2000-2010)* 28.33% 24.63%
See jobs near Plano
Housing
Median home price $202,181 $265,929
Average property taxes
(2010) $5,274 $4,083
See Plano homes for sale
Education
Colleges, universities and
professional schools (within 30 miles) 17 28
Test scores reading
(% above/below state average) 8.1% 25.1%
Test scores math
(% above/below average) 13.0% 24.7%
% students attending public/private
schools (located within town limits) 92.6/7.4 92.1/7.9
Quality of life
Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good) 81.0% 78.5%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 2 1
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 27 16
Median commute time (in minutes) 23.7 23.3
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer 17.6% 15.4%
% population walk or bike to work 2.0% 2.6%
Leisure and culture
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles) 69 30
Restaurants
(within 15 miles) 5,677 2,758
Bars
(within 15 miles) 265 208
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles) 172 165
Libraries
(within 15 miles) 75 74
Museums (accredited by AAM;
within 30 miles) 5 10
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 0 16
Arts funding (Dollars per person of state funds spent on arts) 0.3 1.2
Weather
Annual rainfall
(inches) 41.01 39.07
% clear days in the area 37 27
High temp in July ° F 92.7° 84.1°
Low temp in Jan ° F 31.1° 20.9°
Meet the neighbors
Median age 35.9 36.35
Completed at least some college
(% of residents) 81.0% 74.5%
Married % 65.1% 61.5%
Divorced % 8.5% 7.6%
Racial diversity index
(100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity) 176.7 71.0See less data



[link to money.cnn.com]

Although we do live comfortable lives, things are falling apart. Our economy has hit rock bottom. We are losing our freedoms, and becoming more of a socialist nation every day.

economy & weather is probably better than Latvia

List of countries by Human Development Index: [link to en.wikipedia.org]

True - Gone straight downhill since 2008.

i don't normally like to post. prefer lurking.

americans tend to be whiners and complainers so take above posts with grain of salt

everywhere has pluses and minuses. i lived in the netherlands and i didn't like it. over a decade. too much social control. too high taxes. everything expensive. didn't like mandatory health insurance because i don't go to doctors. government in your life from cradle to grave. too group oriented. no freedom

canada i lived for 4 years. don't like mandatory health care cause don't go to doctors. where i lived in vancouver everybody lied. don't ask me why but they did. nature best in the world there. everything similar to USA though more government control.

USA has most generous people of all 3 countries. i've had hard times and americans have been most giving to me. USA is place you can experience the most freedom . probably l/2 of american population doesn't like government . that's why there are guns. government = tyranny. beautiful nature here.

l bedroom is same as in canada or europe roughly = $700/800/month
food roughly $l00/week (tastes better in europe) (canadian/american food is disgusting because big corporations make crap food(there is good food to find but costs money))
i don't smoke or drink usually
gas $3.60/gallon
internet $26/month

electronics are cheap and so is clothing and other durable goods

food is costly

fascism is coordinated worldwide by those that have been in power. so this land has become more fascist.

difference here is americans won't tolerate much longer fascism. when i lived in netherlands dutch put up with fascism. europeans seem more obedient.

Full of cunt-humans.

oh yeah. before i left USA in early 90s it was a better place

came back and it's harder to find work. wages are lower. seems as many people on gov't assistance in USA as in Europe or Canada.

Wages here vary. some people make alot and most make a little.

popular wage in USA - $8-l0/hour

oh yeah. before i left americans were against drug testing. since i've been back they've been mind-controlled into going along with drug testing for jobs

It suck ass here.

oh yeah. americans and canadians tend to be superficial. relationships aren't that close. people get personal very uickly.

in netherlands people take longer to get personal but relationships tend to be closer.

dutch stubborn. americans/canadians more flexible

europeans more formal and into presentation

americans/canadians less into presentation and 'let it all hang out'

poverty is more hidden in europe. here you will see it more

Good question. America is a huge country with every social strata. For some people, it's great. For others, it's not so good.

In my opinion, a lot of it has to do with where you live in the U.S. Find a place you like.

As for prices, yes, they're rising, as wages stagnate. But I guess that's the case with most places around the world.

plus you have to take into account that most of the people on GLP are probably not your average americans

Thats why i live here that and the coming in 2013 free really cool cars. You cant beat that!

The United States is HUGE. There are many, many different cultures, lifestyles, and outlooks. Simpletons on here try to make it sound like Americans are all the same. It is not so. There are good and bad people everywhere you go. Generally, quality of life is commensurate with education level. There are plenty of Americans who are active in community events and the arts, socialize with neighbors, and enjoy sports and outdoor activities. Although American culture is generally materialistic, it's because products are relatively inexpensive. Many Americans, especially religious and spiritual people, are aware of this and are grateful and appreciative of what they have, and would get along just fine if fortunes turned and didn't have so many things. You see the true spirit of people in the United States with the outpouring of charity and aid to others in times of natural disasters, etc.

In a nutshell, if you aren't born with connections here, you had better learn some fucking programming. Become as tech smart as you can. Learn C++, Ruby, Objective C, etc. And learn as many software dev platforms as well as you can (Qt, Rails, Cocoa, Eclipse). With those skill sets you might can find a job making 50K or you can be picked up early with a start up and have some real potential for growth. But if you ask me, you had better have some kind of business idea to use on your software skills and be ready to execute on it. I say this because tech is one of the last bastions of opportunity here. The only capital you can find around here is going to tech with the chief exceptions being biotech and energy.

If it isn't obvious, you'd better go to silicon valley or don't come at all. The southeast is a black hole and nearly impossible to escape without a generous family member ready to support you.

Northeast is vicious to business because of regulations and taxes as well as numerous other factors. There is a reason you don't hear of many startups coming from the NY/NJ scene like you do in silicon valley.

Midwest is interesting, Kansas City wants to poise itself as silicon valley number 2. I wouldn't bank too much on it though, the country population brings a heavy judge a book by its cover vibe that is poisonous to entrepreneurs. Silicon Valley doesn't have as much of that. Austin Texas is pretty good to tech entrepreneurs so I should throw that out there.

Pacific isn't bad, Seattle has a good scene, there is some opportunity lingering around there.

I am emphasizing all this entrepreneur talk because let me be straight forward, the job situation is somewhere between shit, shit sandwich, pure shit, and diarrhea delight. However this is still the best place to build a company as long as you are tech. Next in line would probably be London, England as I hear they have quite a tech scene (based on hearsay so any Brits, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

The cost of living in major urban areas is very high. However the cost of living in small towns is quite low.

Everything I love and want to do has become illegal. Don't move here.

Smokes $3.50 a pack in the USA? Fuck... They're 20bucks here

A lot of Americans go to India for surgery. Apparently a lot cheaper... You may want to remember that if it's useful to you

It's still slightly better than europe has it.

You can't ride manatees here anymore though

altough there is money to be made in america alot do not... are lives revolve around nothing but makeing money... i make about 800 a month. and when graduate colledge that may go to 2k a month. but... u need a car in most places in america, there is no public transportation where i am. to lisnce car to legally be able to drive it costs about 100$ a year in tax. and then like 50$ for a driver lisnce and another 100-200 for lisnce plates for the car and lastly government mandated insurance on the car for another 100$ a month. a pack of smokes is over 5$ a gallon of milk is like 3.5. renting a 2 bedroom apartment costs 800 dollars a month. utilities another 200. a pound of beef is 4$.
Typicaly if not a colledge granduate you are makeing less than 24,000 a year.... and just about any trip to the hostpital will cost you big dollars. The majority of the people are ignorant and rude. there is zero sense of comunity any where within 50 miles of a major city. no one gives a fuck what our government does over seas. they are all self absorbed materalistic people.

thoose of use who have good or bad jobs work 40-50 hours a week. the government takes about 30% of what u make a week out in all sorts of taxes. you can not own anything here, must pay taxes to government for any thing you have such as land or house or the government will take it from u if cant make payment.

and then there are the rich well off who usually work for the government and treat the unfortanate like pure shit

altough there is money to be made in america alot do not... are lives revolve around nothing but makeing money... i make about 800 a month. and when graduate colledge that may go to 2k a month. but... u need a car in most places in america, there is no public transportation where i am. to lisnce car to legally be able to drive it costs about 100$ a year in tax. and then like 50$ for a driver lisnce and another 100-200 for lisnce plates for the car and lastly government mandated insurance on the car for another 100$ a month. a pack of smokes is over 5$ a gallon of milk is like 3.5. renting a 2 bedroom apartment costs 800 dollars a month. utilities another 200. a pound of beef is 4$.
Typicaly if not a colledge granduate you are makeing less than 24,000 a year.... and just about any trip to the hostpital will cost you big dollars. The majority of the people are ignorant and rude. there is zero sense of comunity any where within 50 miles of a major city. no one gives a fuck what our government does over seas. they are all self absorbed materalistic people.

thoose of use who have good or bad jobs work 40-50 hours a week. the government takes about 30% of what u make a week out in all sorts of taxes. you can not own anything here, must pay taxes to government for any thing you have such as land or house or the government will take it from u if cant make payment.

and then there are the rich well off who usually work for the government and treat the unfortanate like pure shit

Someone i know was diagnosed with this several weeks ago, don't sound good at all.. he has advanced stages in his late 30's.. they started all the 'treatments' right away,

Anyhow they told us the cost of one shot he needed was 9 thousand dollars.. How is that even possible?
OP, you'll be living the good life compared to what we're headed for. He has good insurance. Guess that's why he getting shots that cost 9gs.