I am curious ... (21)

it s hangin' good mate. and you?

Make a very small alternative downhill skiing slalom piste?

Test the flammability of vanilla flavoured desserts??

Do a road-handling-on-slippery-roads test course for toy cars???


NO - I can't imagine!!! Do tell!!

That one would work

great ideas

mind still boggling

erm no, no and no!

---

I'd recently read a book called Nickel and Diming in USA. There were stories of many many people in it - most holding down three jobs, sleeping in their cars, brutalised by superiors at work and without a penny of savings. Some American's still call it 'God's country' and how everyone is envious of their great nation.

It is true that, on average, in Europe we pay nearly 4 times for gas than you do in USA...we have done so for decades. Our cars use perhaps one third the metal that an american car uses and are highly fuel efficient compared to american cars.

There is also a thing called 'social security' in Europe which may have been unheard of before in America. There are minimum wages; strictly monitored work conditions; a thing called rmg ie.minimum guaranteed revenue which means that peoples without jobs or any other means are given the eqivalent of $1900 a month without taking into account further subsisdies if they have dependents etc. There is also mecical security - there is practically total medical coverage from visiting docyors, buying medication, hospitalisation as well as sending a patient to another European country by helicopter if the better treatment is avaible there. There are, depending upon your years of work, up to 55 working days of paid leave. Unemployment benefits are very generous. You cant simply hire and fire at will. The courts of justice will leave a compant throughly mangle if it does that. (Needless to say many American banks and companies here have tried it and some even lost their license to operate in Luxmbourg. And there are countless other smaller benefits, varying from country to country, that people are entitled to.

Because TVA (or value added tax), which are relatively high, any spike in basic commodities are buffered by this already high VAT. The wages in Europe are not the employer's whim. There are conventions and trade/management agreement all over Europe. Wages are, I think, significantly higher in the European Union - as long as an American here is being paid in Euros and not dollar denominated salary converted to Euros. Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in Europe - may the world - the average per-capita (per living person) earns nearly a 100.000 US dollars. In American I think it is somewhere closer to 27.000 dollars. Anyway, I should re-check my facts because it's been a while but I dont think much of any significance has happened.

There are some other differences beteen the USA and the EU which I wont bring up now because they are rather political and cultural in nature, not purely economic.

I am not sure, whether travelling around directly related to your earning.

I am travelling a lot for work with strong wish to work and find out any mean that would make you move, and then move and explore.

I completely agree that "things" related to travel would not depend only on economy but on the "mind" which means much more than we think.

Having lived in Europe and America (well "only" four months) in can make some realistic comparisons.
But be aware this is all seen from a students perspective so I can't/won't touch wages and paid holidays.
I can't deny that this makes my comparison kind of useless

Europe:

-good food for less money (if I eat in the dining hall, I have to buy good food for about 10€/week(cheese,bread,butter,juice,yoguhrt))
-clothes and electronics is way more expensive
-dining out seems more expensive to me
-education is for free in most countries !!

USA:

-electronics is really cheap
-clothes are ULTRA cheap (not to mention that it is assembled in China/India anyways)
-good food in the supermarket is expensive (little piece of French cheese costs me 5 $)
-dining out is (not only the fast food stuff) seems to be less expensive to me.
-education is expensive

well I don't know, I think there is a balance but for a free education you better stay in Europe

Having lived in Europe and America (well "only" four months) in can make some realistic comparisons.
But be aware this is all seen from a students perspective so I can't/won't touch wages and paid holidays.
I can't deny that this makes my comparison kind of useless

Europe:

-good food for less money (if I eat in the dining hall, I have to buy good food for about 10€/week(cheese,bread,butter,juice,yoguhrt))
-clothes and electronics is way more expensive
-dining out seems more expensive to me
-education is for free in most countries !!

USA:

-electronics is really cheap
-clothes are ULTRA cheap (not to mention that it is assembled in China/India anyways)
-good food in the supermarket is expensive (little piece of French cheese costs me 5 $)
-dining out is (not only the fast food stuff) seems to be less expensive to me.
-education is expensive

well I don't know, I think there is a balance but for a free education you better stay in Europe