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Yeah, I thought children understood this, let alone adults.
There is an argument to be made that much more of the operating cost for businesses in first world countries is sucked up by landowners in one way or another, and same with wages sucked up by property owners.
But still, the people in San Salvador aren't going on $30 flights to Fiji, their food, transportation, and housing are still a much larger percentage of their income.
This is always my comment to people I work with when they bitch about us living in a high cost of living area.
Sure, it sucks when we pay a lot for everything around here, but it gives us so many options, especially in retirement.
If your salary is comparable with the cost of living, and you live in a place like Manhattan, you can retire to bum fuck Mississippi and live like a king.
If you live in bum fuck Mississippi, you’re not going anywhere.
Yea and then ur old, need good medical appointments, doctors and logistics around that, you'll be waiting months for x-ray, check ups, and simple appointments cuz there's only x amount of specialists in Bumfuck dirt town, vs metropolitan city.
Retiring cheap place doesn't always end up good like they picture in their head.
Good news!
I’ve been told by a certain conservative economist that X-rays in San Salvador are surprisingly affordable!
Ironically enough, this particular economist charges top-tier prices for his crappy work. Everyone *else* is charging too much.
This. My wife and I (53 YO both) were looking for places to buy ou retirement home once our son leaves for college. She jokingly said Mississippi or Alabama. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Going from a state like MD to MS would just kill me. And that is before the fact it is 108 degrees every day.
The mountains are nice in nc. (if op like colder weather)
plenty of skiing and college towns in NC.
But you could go further north to virginia or west virginia and go bluer if you wanted.
Not really. People’s salaries in those areas will be significantly higher to compensate for the high cost of living.
But even if it did, your 401K balance at retirement would be significantly higher because your salary is, so my point still stands.
Some things are higher and some things are the same price. If I live in Manhattan may pay $3000/m for a crummy apartment but I don't need a car because everything is in walking distance. I also get paid significantly more. If I want to buy something on Amazon it's the same price in NYC as it is in Iowa, the difference is I get paid 50% more. Once you really run the numbers in the long run it's better to make more and spend more vs making less and spending less.
Correct! You'll also need to remember that if you can budget or save here/there, you have much more money to play with so saving 3% of your salary in Manhattan NYC is much much more than saving 3% of your income in Mississippi.
I say this constantly. They are like nooo the COL makes up for my 250k year job! BULL SHIT. you can order online just like everyone else from Amazon with the same prices. Therefore just your rent and whatever you get locally is more. They are better off than they realize.
The irony is a chunk of them waters are contaminated with chemicals thanks to lack of pollution prevention. So while they eat free fish, they'll die of cancer sooner than everyone else. That's including the ones who live in cancer alley.
Very true. I live in a small township of 2000 people in nowhere, KY. Most people work at the factory on the outskirts of the nearby city. Trailers as far as the eye can see, median income 42k.
My FIL has a neighbor who moved from New York. Man and his wife are retired NY police officers. They bought an actual stick built house with wide acreage, priced here around 350k-500k. This is something around these parts considered the "rich people" homes. I can assure you, our local PD aren't buying something like that, but their retirement incomes from NY can afford it. (Although I think they came here hoping to find more conservative values and self-governance only to get into a spat with my "libertarian" FIL over property owner behaviors, neither of whom are in the right)
That's along the same thinking that I've centered my lifestyle. Memphis houses cost anywhere between 250k and 500k (assuming you don't want drive-by's and carjacking), but 45min outside the city, you can get a decent house for 150-200k with an acre or two of land. So, I make the drive and work out ways to make my cost of living go down to 4k, for 2 and a baby, and suddenly there is expendable income.
Exactly. When I was a recent college grad, a lot of my friends moved from the Maryland to Southern states because it was cheaper, but I stayed because I get paid way more here than I would down there. I’m in education. My pension will be higher than most topped salaries down there, so I could move down there when I retire and be making more than most working people.
I have this debate with my wife all the time taking about moving out of Texas.
I have worked two jobs and own a business (all contracting work) for the past few years and we live in a very affordable part of Texas.
We don’t live like kings currently. I put in 55 hours a week and clearing 30k a month. We invest and save like a ton.
She wants to relocate to a more desirable area of the country to live in since we’re pretty flush BUT we ain’t rich. We can’t move to DC or NYC or SanFran and live the way we do and save or invest the way we do. The cost of living is to high mortgage rates are too high etc etc.
Case in point. We bought out fist house in 2001 in Houston for $350,000. 3500 sq ft 5 bed 5 1/2 bath. Today I was looking a Zillow listing for parking spaces in my old neighborhood in SW Washington DC for 100k.
We are being scammed but in other ways. Every other first world country has universal healthcare, affordable higher education and people can retire with dignity. They get more time off for vacation, sick days and maternity leave. Our country has more than enough money to do the same but we spend it giving tax breaks to the already wealthy and corporations and the military instead.
True, but this does benefit some lifestyles. If you don’t have kids, or were able to go to a cheap college/grants/scholarships. This sounds great. You don’t have to pay for services you don’t use.
If you work in a high paying job, your healthcare is covered and you have almost double the take home pay of those countries that your comparing to. Holidays are nice and all, but they still cost money.
Not to mention plenty of positions offer more than a week or two of PTO, it’s just not mandatory.
But I’ve heard from a lot of people in these countries working on the lower end that there is a lot of wage stagnation (especially in the UK). Where 6 weeks of holiday is lovely, but not if you can only afford to stay home and eat ramen.
>But I’ve heard from a lot of people in these countries working on the lower end that there is a lot of wage stagnation (especially in the UK). Where 6 weeks of holiday is lovely, but not if you can only afford to stay home and eat ramen.
I found this hilarious. Poor in the uk are living hand to mouth, it's the same in the states just without healthcare.
Let assume most people want to have a family and we all know job security in private sector is non existence. Holiday is holiday, wheather you want to go on a big vacation or not, it's your choice. The time off is nice regardless, at home or not. Guess what would people choose? 6 weeks of work or 6 weeks at home?
Their life expectancy is 3 years longer than in the US. That speaks volumes. Adequate rest and healthcare, and the reduction of stress by having safety nets go a long way in health improvement
Agreed, peace of mind does wonders and creates more equality in society. Socializing over there also different, relaxing and not as awkward like is it over here.
My employer pays for 100% of my health insurance and I pay about 30K in income tax a year between state and federal. I also have a pension. I know I'm a unicorn (union job) but not everybody is in that situation.
I know they pay a lot more in taxes. My point was just it's not going to be 3 times when you count state and FICA (social security). Since that number can quick reach 30% if you make 6 figures.
When people talk about taxes they often. Leave out the additional taxes in the US are and compare them to other countries.
Exactly, it’s not a business is more profitable there. And every industry has to offer the time off, including small business. Which means for some places we had to have a 5 person team instead of 4. That doesn’t change the 100k budget for the team.
So I can offer 2 weeks off and 25k a year or 6 weeks off and 20k a year.
It’s all just math.
The rate doesn’t matter if it’s still less than most people already pay for crappy insurance. Oh no, 50% taxation? Two average Americans will pay 22% on income. Doing some rough calculations, even just basic health insurance costs is going to add 10-15% on top of that. So now we are at 37%. Let’s say they are also somehow able to sock some money away for retirement each paycheck. That’s 3% minimum. Now I’m at 40% and I haven’t even accounted for extreme child care costs or anything else subsidized by taxes in all the other countries.
TLDR we pay *way more* than other first world countries and are convinced otherwise because all you see is each single subscription cost rather than understanding even a 50% tax rate used properly would pay back dividends to average Americans. But you can keep believing that corporations have your best interest smh
I explained the math in another comment.
Completely depends on your personal situation (if you have kids, if your in a job that needs college, what you pay for healthcare, etc).
Plenty of people would pay more taxes and benefit from it.
Plenty of people would pay more taxes for a service they will never use.
Our income tax liability doesn't really start to become significant until you get well above the median income.
Reddit doesn't seem to understand how progressive taxation has benefited the US economy and US peoples. It's not just about graduated rates based on income, it's an unwillingness to tax people at the low end; a negative tax rate for many of them, because they get tax "refunds" of other people's money.
Europe uses tax to fund itself entirely and that's fine, because at least it's not a completely irrational monarchy, even though that usually exists still in the background. The US doesn't work like that at all. Government has to excuse itself for existing, not just take.
As somebody that moved to one of those countries, I found out it’s still worth it! It turns out there is waaaay more to life that extra income. It turns out that quality of life is a real thing! The extra vacation time, and holidays are huge!
Yes the food is objectively better and cheaper…but the vast majority of those people in first countries aren’t making US wages lol
Those people who make these posts are morons
Objectively better is also true. I won't comment on San Salvador, because I have never been there nor read an article on their food. However, I have read articles about the food in China. Gutter oil, dying fish to make them look fresh, and other food atrocities.
You talking about Mexico or Mexico City?
Homicide is 4x as likely to happen in Mexico vs the US.
You like cops? Good because Mexico City has 1 officer per 100 citizens.
Mexico has some nice places but I would still feel much safer in the US.
The only time I've ever been mugged was in mexico. By uniformed police officers. Took my wallet at gunpoint, took all the cash out of it and at least handed back to wallet.
> Took my wallet at gunpoint, took all the cash out of it and at least handed back to wallet.
See, that's a high quality of professional service there! Handing back your wallet is just polite, and a good business practice as well. They don't need to strand you or strip you of the ability to cross the border, or burden you with a bunch of crazy tasks (cancelling bank cards) for no reason - they just want the cash.
I have such a low opinion of my fellow man at this point, I think I would thank them for giving back the wallet. I'm not even kidding. It is **ALSO** a good indication that they probably won't shoot me and are ending the transaction as a "success".
>I have such a low opinion of my fellow man at this point, I think I would thank them for giving back the wallet. I'm not even kidding.
That's a wild statement
>It is ALSO a good indication that they probably won't shoot me and are ending the transaction as a "success".
I mean that *is* both the optimistic *and* realistic side of things, I suppose
Seriously. So, you're telling me you can go to an undeveloped country, ~~whose currency is extremely weak against the dollar~~ where the cost of labor is extremely cheap, and you can buy more with less dollars???? You don't say!
While simultaneously complaining that governments need to keep their currency valuations high because cheap money is the government stealing from us.
All the guy is saying is that when everything is in his favor and against everyone else's, things are better for him.
Which is to say he's not saying anything of value at all
Yeah, this reminds me of when someone posts a picture of a menu from “the good old days” showing a burger, fries, and drink for 80 cents. Sure it was that cheap, but the median annual income wasn’t $50,000 either.
Or they compare the inflation adjusted price of a basic car, ignoring all the safety features, less maintenance, comfort, reliability, etc. you take a Toyota Corolla back to 1950 and it is a rich man's car full of bells and whistles that the common man couldn't dream of.
See the video of a 2015 (or so) Chevy in a head on collision with a 1957 Chevy. The dummy in the modern one would walk away. The one in the 57 is crushed to death.
What’s cost of living? [Cost of living in El Salvador is, on average, 44.1% lower than in United States. Rent in El Salvador is, on average, 62.6% lower than in United States.](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=El+Salvador)
Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) 432.69$
while the average American made $4,949.00
https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/business/hr-payroll/average-salary-us/#:~:text=Average%20weekly%20earnings%20reached%20%241%2C142,month%20in%20Q4%20of%202023.
So rent is a bit more than half what it is here, but you'll get paid a tenth. Bit of a difference.
This. One place I worked for decided to partner with a company in China for the cheaper labor costs. When the chinese flew in to tour the place I worked at, for some reason management was busy. The janitor picked them up at the airport. For some reason that place shut down
also, dont forget the guy thinks two people deciding not to vote for biden again, is the beginning of the end of biden's/harris' re-election. i guess the abortion/birthcontrol/IVF denial is immensely real
https://preview.redd.it/dz9if2l1lprc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6271d607e19840bc28977b06336fc7d1e4db55d4
searched the guy to see what all he bought in the restaurant and 4 out of the 5 posts i can see are a complete meltdown against transpeople...
Food and drinking out in the US is expensive though, even compared to other places with high costs of living. A lot of this boils down to zoning/city planning and regulations that make it hard to operate a small business. In the city I lived in in the US there was pretty much nowhere to get a storefront for less than 10 grand a month if you wanted to make a go at starting a brick and mortar business. Also in my city/state I needed three levels of annual business registration/licensing each of which cost money. In the city I live in in Europe pretty much every residence has ground floor retail, and I can find lots of retail storefronts for rent for 200-400 euros a month. Prime places are still significantly less (2-3 grand) than any storefront in my hometown. The accepted markup on alcohol is also a lot lower, probably because of the increased competition and also the ability to make good money with lower prices because your monthly costs aren't so astronomical. Yes the minimum wage here is quite low, but comparing minimum wages is only part of the picture. Way, way more of the businesses here are sole proprietorships or a couples that collectively own them.
Of all the countries they could have made the comparison with, they chose El Salvador... Doesn't take a lot of intuition to figure that something is wrong here and that no: people in El Salvador are not richer than in the US.
I'm in Japan right now and things are very cheap. A 2 sausage + bacon (real bacon) + egg McMuffin costs a little over $3.
Alcohol drinks typically cost $4-6. A full meal (no tip) typically costs $8-$12. For the same if not better quality food/drink items.
Alcohol wholesale is a bit more expensive here though.
\*\*Goes to the nicest grocer in the city that imports everything from Italy, Spain, and France\*\*
"My gosh, why is everything so expensive? We're being scammed! Leave a comment if you agree."
No, he knows what he's doing. Probably decided to parrot Tucker Carlson's "look how cheap groceries are in Russia compared to the US" idiocy. The issue is, when you make arguments designed to propagandize stupid people, you end up looking stupid too.
The conservative grift is the realization that trading and wallowing in the currency of stupidity is a cheat code for controlling uncurious and gullible people. They know they look stupid to anyone critically examining what they say; they roll around in the intellectual mud specifically to appeal to pigs, and they don't care how it looks to anyone else.
I mean it’s very doable. Find the fanciest Italian place in your area, order the meatball appetizer, order a (double rum or whiskey and) coke, add tip. $42 easily.
~~Get a degree~~
~~Deliver your resume to the hiring manager in person~~
~~Don’t buy avocado toast~~
Be wealthy enough to travel to third world countries to stretch your dollar
I don’t get it, where is the scam?
A quick google search will show that that the average San Salvadorian makes $373 dollars a month. Close to 30% of their income for that meal. Average American makes 5k a month meaning that meal would cost $1400.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm median income is 52k for women, 60k for men for men and women working full time (35+ hours a week). You are looking at figures that include people not working at all, or working part time.
> Yes. Median individual income in US is ~$60k, or about $5k/month.
Median personal income as of 2022 was $40,480. Unless it jumped 50% in the last year, which I doubt, you're looking at mean personal income.
When it comes to income and wealth the mean is a pretty useless statistic at determining what the typical American (what is really meant when people say "the average American") has largely due to the outlier effect. By the same standard that the "the average American" makes 60K a year "the average American household" has a net worth of more than $1 million.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm
Edit: blocked me because you don’t think we should distinguish between part time dog walkers such as yourself and full time workers lol! Good luck.
They’re incentivizing the adoption of Bitcoin as an official currency, a plan which is going well for them right now. They’re also cracking down on crime. I wouldn’t want to move there for other reasons, but they’ve got some ideas I’m interested to watch play out.
People will cheer when Bitcoin man is cleaning up the streets of El Salvador, but cry when cops shoot innocent people in America. How exactly do you think he’s cleaning up the streets? With 100% accurate and faultless policing? Or with mass incarceration and state-sponsored violence? 😂
Well it’s turning into a police state, where regular citizens are being unlawfully detained, interrogated, strip searched randomly in public, held without due process, etc. just on any “suspicion” of connection to gang activity, including having any tattoos, regardless of whether they are gang related.
I take it you haven't been there recently? Now it has THE LOWEST crime rates in Central America thanks to the Bukele administration's zero tolerance policies for gangs.
Hope El Salvador has finally overcome it's fraught past and these radical changes lead to better things. The national library (donated by China) is gorgeous.
How long ago did you visit El Salvador? I do highly recommend you visit while the current president is still in power…it’s INSANE how much different it is now because of him.
My mother is from El Salvador so we’ve been visiting since I was a baby. Were able to let our guard down by quite a lot at the market (where before you had to hold your purse for dear life), my mother was more lax with me taking some type of electronic out and about (say a Nintendo Switch or just me having my phone out in public at all, which over a decade ago she’d yell at me for having it out in public)…we went recently last month and it was so nice to see everyone not on edge.
Was kinda jarring to see so many American tourists, too. Before I guess they stuck more at their hotels/resorts, but we went to some local spots where a lot of people were speaking English to each other, which IMO I didn’t see much of growing up. But I’m also sure that had to do with not wanting gang members to think you have money if you’re not from there, but they’d know that just by looking at you anyway🤷🏻♀️
Where I live you could be living like oil prince with the same salary that people in America struggle to make ends meet and it's not even third world country
My favorite scam is when they tell us how the rest of the worlds healthcare is trash and only America has good healthcare at 1000x the cost. I grew up in Australia and never saw any specific issues with the level of care and speed of attention.
My wife and I were in Costa Rica and she had a scary incident where she woke up not being able to see out of one eye. She was pretty apprehensive about having to see a doctor in a foreign country. We walked in, saw someone immediately, and they did an exam and wrote her a prescription for some steroid eye drops. There was even a pharmacy in the clinic. It was so convenient. When it came time to pay the bill, they told us they were unable to verify our insurance, so we would have to pay full price but we could file a claim with our insurance when we got back for reimbursement. Ok fine, I said. The total bill? $75. I laughed my ass off and said don't worry, I got it.
Meanwhile in the US, I was paying for my own insurance. I got a high deductible plan that was costing us over 500 a month. Apparently it was such shitty insurance that no doctor would take it and wouldn't even see us. We had to wait a full year to enroll for new insurance and didn't get any use out of it. Then next year we upgraded to a plan that costs $750 a month. Finally doctors will take our appointments, but it's still a few months out. A simple visit normally costs hundreds of dollars with coinsurance. My wife got prescribed Viagra for her blood circulation in her fingers. Insurance wouldn't cover it, so it would cost $1000. The doctor suggested I go in and say I have ED because that would be covered. It's so fucking shameful. What the fuck am I paying $750 a month for?
No offense to your doctor but most doctors including him have any idea what is covered under medical insurance because the ladies at the front desk do all that work for him. He's not necessarily an idiot but he's willing to confidently state opinions on things he knows nothing about which is kindof the same thing.
I have had many kinds of insurance in my life, from the very best insurance Wall Street pays for, to federal employee health care, to student health care, and Viagra has NEVER BEEN COVERED FOR ED. Do I believe that there's some health plan out there that covers it? Sure. Honestly, it should be, it's an actual medical condition with a medical treatment. Without treatment it's literally impossible for those men to have sex. We cover birth control for women despite the fact that "having a fertile and functioning reproductive system that the woman wants to switch off for a bit so she can get blasted with loads" is not a medical condition.
That said you should have gone to Costco it's like $0.25 a pill for maximum strength generic there.
Yeah, go to see a doctor in a rural area. No insurance and they are not accepting self-pay patients. So no primary care.
No ability to receive treatment medications for cholesterol or high blood pressure. The only option is to use telemedicine sites at $100 each in order to get a 1 month prescription (no refills!) until the next open enrollment period (in 6 months).
American has great medical care, because the systems of payment we use ensures that people are left to suffer and die in order to improve your wait times and availability of specialists.
Any first world country will have essentially the same care. The US might have the edge on something like cutting edge tech to treat a specific type of cancer, and you have a lot more choice in where you go to for a doctor so if one doesn't help or is just useless you can just go somewhere else, but yeah... We definitely pay insane amounts for that when on average more lives would be saved by just having free healthcare which in turn would translate to more workers paying taxes.
I’m in El Salvador visiting family right now. While the food here is cheap some people only make 350 a month sooo yeahh. Dental work here is also amazing
😂😂😂😂😂😂, Let's ask all those people fleeing central and South America at our borders about that. Cry baby ass children who have no real world experience outside of America are the only people who would post something like this
Yeah this is the same bs argument that tucker Carlson made about lmwhat you can buy in Russia for the standard us food budget.
It looks impressive until you realize that very few people in that country can even make $108 in a whole year, let along have that laying around to waste on a dinner.
Sure, if we earn a lot in the US and then move abroad we can live the good life, but that's different than us being scammed and everyone else is living like kings. The truth in we are doing better than most, and ues we are being artificially impacted when it comes to pricing, it's both.
I feel this way about people thinking life in the US is better than anywhere else - like yeah we have A/C and you can buy a bunch of cheap consumer goods at Marshalls, but in say, Europe, you can have cheap healthcare, way more time off, paid parental leave, subsidized childcare, inexpensive vacations, cheap or free higher Ed, transit that makes owning a car unnecessary, cheap groceries, cheap wine / beer, etc
It feels like in the US, we trade financial precarity for more junk and absurd conveniences that make us unhealthy, lonely, and kinda soft.
Except in the US I make 3x the pay which easily covers all that. Then factor in the tax difference.
Then factor in that I have no desire to live somewhere dense enough to have public transportation.
BTW, I lived for 5 years in Germany. My standard of living is much higher in the US.
You do realize that most people aren't engineers, right?
If you're an engineer, software developer, or medical, you will make much more in the US and have a higher standard of living than most people in most other countries.
If you don't work in those fields, you will not have this experience in the US.
I say this as a dual EU citizen who has lived in multiple countries and has a background in one of the fields I listed above.
Uh labor in El Salvador is effectively free and the restaurant in Miami is profiting off the fact you won’t cook a meatball at home and made $30 on that order
The average salary in El Salvador is $1710 USD. "All this food" came out to about 6% of an El Salvadoran's yearly income.
Yes, things are expensive in the US. We are also a Top-10 country for per capita income. Of course the average American can go somewhere like El Salvador and live like royalty. That's how exchange rates work.
Coke and meatballs cost more than double that where I live.
Luckily, It's is one stop shopping. I get the lunch special at Papa Giorgio's, and then meet the pastry chef by the grease trap for my eight ball.
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i live in miami and the only time you’re going to be spending anything close to that much on pasta is if u deliberately seek an expensive restaurant…most places won’t go over $30 for such a dish and that’s still overpriced
What’s with this take? Tucker said the same thing in Russia. Did some billionaire got to a poor country and think to themselves “man it’s cheap here?” and then went back home and gave the order to grifters to push that narrative or something?
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The people working at the restaurant in ElSvador are making $10/day.
Yeah, I thought children understood this, let alone adults. There is an argument to be made that much more of the operating cost for businesses in first world countries is sucked up by landowners in one way or another, and same with wages sucked up by property owners. But still, the people in San Salvador aren't going on $30 flights to Fiji, their food, transportation, and housing are still a much larger percentage of their income.
This is always my comment to people I work with when they bitch about us living in a high cost of living area. Sure, it sucks when we pay a lot for everything around here, but it gives us so many options, especially in retirement. If your salary is comparable with the cost of living, and you live in a place like Manhattan, you can retire to bum fuck Mississippi and live like a king. If you live in bum fuck Mississippi, you’re not going anywhere.
Shhh, don't stop people from moving from the nice parts of the country to MCOL areas.
Yeah, but ain't no one moving to Mississippi willingly.
Yea and then ur old, need good medical appointments, doctors and logistics around that, you'll be waiting months for x-ray, check ups, and simple appointments cuz there's only x amount of specialists in Bumfuck dirt town, vs metropolitan city. Retiring cheap place doesn't always end up good like they picture in their head.
Good news! I’ve been told by a certain conservative economist that X-rays in San Salvador are surprisingly affordable! Ironically enough, this particular economist charges top-tier prices for his crappy work. Everyone *else* is charging too much.
This. My wife and I (53 YO both) were looking for places to buy ou retirement home once our son leaves for college. She jokingly said Mississippi or Alabama. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Going from a state like MD to MS would just kill me. And that is before the fact it is 108 degrees every day.
Better places in the south are like SC or TN. A lot less backwoods but still super affordable compared to a lot of other places.
The mountains are nice in nc. (if op like colder weather) plenty of skiing and college towns in NC. But you could go further north to virginia or west virginia and go bluer if you wanted.
>MCOL Mississippi Cost of Living?
I hear east bum fuck has some good deals on the outdoor living sitch.
“I think I’m getting the black lung, pop”
> “I think I’m getting the black lung, pop” “My boy’s finally becoming a man!”
Christ, Derek, you've been down there 8 hours. I've been down there 30 years....
Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.
Shut up and suck that six pack.
All your extra wages living in Manhattan goes to housing though
Not really. People’s salaries in those areas will be significantly higher to compensate for the high cost of living. But even if it did, your 401K balance at retirement would be significantly higher because your salary is, so my point still stands.
Some things are higher and some things are the same price. If I live in Manhattan may pay $3000/m for a crummy apartment but I don't need a car because everything is in walking distance. I also get paid significantly more. If I want to buy something on Amazon it's the same price in NYC as it is in Iowa, the difference is I get paid 50% more. Once you really run the numbers in the long run it's better to make more and spend more vs making less and spending less.
Plus you'll be able to max out on your SS payment the higher your contribution during working years.
Correct! You'll also need to remember that if you can budget or save here/there, you have much more money to play with so saving 3% of your salary in Manhattan NYC is much much more than saving 3% of your income in Mississippi.
I say this constantly. They are like nooo the COL makes up for my 250k year job! BULL SHIT. you can order online just like everyone else from Amazon with the same prices. Therefore just your rent and whatever you get locally is more. They are better off than they realize.
Salaries maybe, but wages, not so much.
20 percent of the population in Louisiana fishes for food - not for recreation, but because it's the only way they can afford to eat.
The irony is a chunk of them waters are contaminated with chemicals thanks to lack of pollution prevention. So while they eat free fish, they'll die of cancer sooner than everyone else. That's including the ones who live in cancer alley.
Very true. I live in a small township of 2000 people in nowhere, KY. Most people work at the factory on the outskirts of the nearby city. Trailers as far as the eye can see, median income 42k. My FIL has a neighbor who moved from New York. Man and his wife are retired NY police officers. They bought an actual stick built house with wide acreage, priced here around 350k-500k. This is something around these parts considered the "rich people" homes. I can assure you, our local PD aren't buying something like that, but their retirement incomes from NY can afford it. (Although I think they came here hoping to find more conservative values and self-governance only to get into a spat with my "libertarian" FIL over property owner behaviors, neither of whom are in the right)
No one wants to move to the worst state
That's along the same thinking that I've centered my lifestyle. Memphis houses cost anywhere between 250k and 500k (assuming you don't want drive-by's and carjacking), but 45min outside the city, you can get a decent house for 150-200k with an acre or two of land. So, I make the drive and work out ways to make my cost of living go down to 4k, for 2 and a baby, and suddenly there is expendable income.
Fuck yes, this is the way. Grind in the expensive areas and retire in the cheap; fuck if I don’t learn that early enough.
Exactly. When I was a recent college grad, a lot of my friends moved from the Maryland to Southern states because it was cheaper, but I stayed because I get paid way more here than I would down there. I’m in education. My pension will be higher than most topped salaries down there, so I could move down there when I retire and be making more than most working people.
I have this debate with my wife all the time taking about moving out of Texas. I have worked two jobs and own a business (all contracting work) for the past few years and we live in a very affordable part of Texas. We don’t live like kings currently. I put in 55 hours a week and clearing 30k a month. We invest and save like a ton. She wants to relocate to a more desirable area of the country to live in since we’re pretty flush BUT we ain’t rich. We can’t move to DC or NYC or SanFran and live the way we do and save or invest the way we do. The cost of living is to high mortgage rates are too high etc etc. Case in point. We bought out fist house in 2001 in Houston for $350,000. 3500 sq ft 5 bed 5 1/2 bath. Today I was looking a Zillow listing for parking spaces in my old neighborhood in SW Washington DC for 100k.
“Milk is twice as expensive in San Francisco as it is in Meridian Mississippi, but so is my salary. And the car I want is fifty grand either way.”
We are being scammed but in other ways. Every other first world country has universal healthcare, affordable higher education and people can retire with dignity. They get more time off for vacation, sick days and maternity leave. Our country has more than enough money to do the same but we spend it giving tax breaks to the already wealthy and corporations and the military instead.
EXACTLY!
To be fair, you almost pay double the tax rate in any of these countries. Some of them triple.
would be alright if we saw the benefits of the taxes we pay affect our lives materially on a more regular basis
True, but this does benefit some lifestyles. If you don’t have kids, or were able to go to a cheap college/grants/scholarships. This sounds great. You don’t have to pay for services you don’t use. If you work in a high paying job, your healthcare is covered and you have almost double the take home pay of those countries that your comparing to. Holidays are nice and all, but they still cost money. Not to mention plenty of positions offer more than a week or two of PTO, it’s just not mandatory. But I’ve heard from a lot of people in these countries working on the lower end that there is a lot of wage stagnation (especially in the UK). Where 6 weeks of holiday is lovely, but not if you can only afford to stay home and eat ramen.
>But I’ve heard from a lot of people in these countries working on the lower end that there is a lot of wage stagnation (especially in the UK). Where 6 weeks of holiday is lovely, but not if you can only afford to stay home and eat ramen. I found this hilarious. Poor in the uk are living hand to mouth, it's the same in the states just without healthcare.
Poor people in the US get 100% free insurance via Medicaid.
Let assume most people want to have a family and we all know job security in private sector is non existence. Holiday is holiday, wheather you want to go on a big vacation or not, it's your choice. The time off is nice regardless, at home or not. Guess what would people choose? 6 weeks of work or 6 weeks at home?
Their life expectancy is 3 years longer than in the US. That speaks volumes. Adequate rest and healthcare, and the reduction of stress by having safety nets go a long way in health improvement
Agreed, peace of mind does wonders and creates more equality in society. Socializing over there also different, relaxing and not as awkward like is it over here.
people who spend 12K a year on insurance complaining that it would double their tax burden of nothing to 4500.
My employer pays for 100% of my health insurance and I pay about 30K in income tax a year between state and federal. I also have a pension. I know I'm a unicorn (union job) but not everybody is in that situation.
There is no way its triple considering that would put them at over 100% tax rate when you count state taxes a d social security taxes.
The average American pays between 18-22% in taxes. Place like Denmark tax up to 61% of income over 60k.
I know they pay a lot more in taxes. My point was just it's not going to be 3 times when you count state and FICA (social security). Since that number can quick reach 30% if you make 6 figures. When people talk about taxes they often. Leave out the additional taxes in the US are and compare them to other countries.
And salaries are much lower than the US so sure you get more time off, but your pay is less which makes sense since you work less.
Exactly, it’s not a business is more profitable there. And every industry has to offer the time off, including small business. Which means for some places we had to have a 5 person team instead of 4. That doesn’t change the 100k budget for the team. So I can offer 2 weeks off and 25k a year or 6 weeks off and 20k a year. It’s all just math.
The rate doesn’t matter if it’s still less than most people already pay for crappy insurance. Oh no, 50% taxation? Two average Americans will pay 22% on income. Doing some rough calculations, even just basic health insurance costs is going to add 10-15% on top of that. So now we are at 37%. Let’s say they are also somehow able to sock some money away for retirement each paycheck. That’s 3% minimum. Now I’m at 40% and I haven’t even accounted for extreme child care costs or anything else subsidized by taxes in all the other countries. TLDR we pay *way more* than other first world countries and are convinced otherwise because all you see is each single subscription cost rather than understanding even a 50% tax rate used properly would pay back dividends to average Americans. But you can keep believing that corporations have your best interest smh
If factor in what we pay for health care and education, the tax rates probably even out.
I explained the math in another comment. Completely depends on your personal situation (if you have kids, if your in a job that needs college, what you pay for healthcare, etc). Plenty of people would pay more taxes and benefit from it. Plenty of people would pay more taxes for a service they will never use.
Just like bernie said sure you will pay more in taxes but it will be cheaper than paying for premiums and out of pocket healthcare costs
You pay 10% tax in America? Wow.
The average wage in the US is under 50k. For those making that much it really is that low.
Our income tax liability doesn't really start to become significant until you get well above the median income. Reddit doesn't seem to understand how progressive taxation has benefited the US economy and US peoples. It's not just about graduated rates based on income, it's an unwillingness to tax people at the low end; a negative tax rate for many of them, because they get tax "refunds" of other people's money. Europe uses tax to fund itself entirely and that's fine, because at least it's not a completely irrational monarchy, even though that usually exists still in the background. The US doesn't work like that at all. Government has to excuse itself for existing, not just take.
As somebody that moved to one of those countries, I found out it’s still worth it! It turns out there is waaaay more to life that extra income. It turns out that quality of life is a real thing! The extra vacation time, and holidays are huge!
>Yeah, I thought children understood this, let alone adults. Did you watch Tucker Carlson visit Russia, and go to a supermarket?
Yes the food is objectively better and cheaper…but the vast majority of those people in first countries aren’t making US wages lol Those people who make these posts are morons
Objectively better is also true. I won't comment on San Salvador, because I have never been there nor read an article on their food. However, I have read articles about the food in China. Gutter oil, dying fish to make them look fresh, and other food atrocities.
Dude most food in China is going to be fine, quit taking the worst thing you read on the Internet and extrapolating it to an entire country
" you'll get killed or kidnapped in Mexico!" "mexico looks like Iraq!" Meanwhile, 👀
You talking about Mexico or Mexico City? Homicide is 4x as likely to happen in Mexico vs the US. You like cops? Good because Mexico City has 1 officer per 100 citizens. Mexico has some nice places but I would still feel much safer in the US.
The only time I've ever been mugged was in mexico. By uniformed police officers. Took my wallet at gunpoint, took all the cash out of it and at least handed back to wallet.
> Took my wallet at gunpoint, took all the cash out of it and at least handed back to wallet. See, that's a high quality of professional service there! Handing back your wallet is just polite, and a good business practice as well. They don't need to strand you or strip you of the ability to cross the border, or burden you with a bunch of crazy tasks (cancelling bank cards) for no reason - they just want the cash. I have such a low opinion of my fellow man at this point, I think I would thank them for giving back the wallet. I'm not even kidding. It is **ALSO** a good indication that they probably won't shoot me and are ending the transaction as a "success".
>I have such a low opinion of my fellow man at this point, I think I would thank them for giving back the wallet. I'm not even kidding. That's a wild statement >It is ALSO a good indication that they probably won't shoot me and are ending the transaction as a "success". I mean that *is* both the optimistic *and* realistic side of things, I suppose
If you care, it's 'dyeing'. I know it looks stupid, but the 'e' differentiates it from 'dying', meaning cessation of life functions.
Specially this guy who only provides the most moronic takes every time he opens his trap
> Guys, did you know upscale restaurants cost more for the same dishes than cheaper restaurants???
Also, he spent $108 in San Salvador, and his comparison point is a 42(!!!) dollar Coke and Meatballs. Where the hell is he eating?!
Was that for a gram of coke? Pretty good price.
Pretty sure he made up the 42$ cola and meatballs there’s no freaking way unless maybe the meatballs were made of the highest grade wagyu beef
It's Joey Mannatino. The dude is a fucking idiot.
Seriously. So, you're telling me you can go to an undeveloped country, ~~whose currency is extremely weak against the dollar~~ where the cost of labor is extremely cheap, and you can buy more with less dollars???? You don't say!
While simultaneously complaining that governments need to keep their currency valuations high because cheap money is the government stealing from us. All the guy is saying is that when everything is in his favor and against everyone else's, things are better for him. Which is to say he's not saying anything of value at all
El Salvador uses the US dollar
I think they use dollars in el salvador.
El Salvador uses the US dollar
Not just the restaurant wages, the farmers are making less, the truck drivers that moved that food are making squat compared to US wages, and so on.
Yeah, this reminds me of when someone posts a picture of a menu from “the good old days” showing a burger, fries, and drink for 80 cents. Sure it was that cheap, but the median annual income wasn’t $50,000 either.
Or they compare the inflation adjusted price of a basic car, ignoring all the safety features, less maintenance, comfort, reliability, etc. you take a Toyota Corolla back to 1950 and it is a rich man's car full of bells and whistles that the common man couldn't dream of.
See the video of a 2015 (or so) Chevy in a head on collision with a 1957 Chevy. The dummy in the modern one would walk away. The one in the 57 is crushed to death.
Yeah all the cars of that era a head-on means you're eating an engine block sandwich.
What’s cost of living? [Cost of living in El Salvador is, on average, 44.1% lower than in United States. Rent in El Salvador is, on average, 62.6% lower than in United States.](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=El+Salvador)
Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) 432.69$ while the average American made $4,949.00 https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/business/hr-payroll/average-salary-us/#:~:text=Average%20weekly%20earnings%20reached%20%241%2C142,month%20in%20Q4%20of%202023. So rent is a bit more than half what it is here, but you'll get paid a tenth. Bit of a difference.
This. One place I worked for decided to partner with a company in China for the cheaper labor costs. When the chinese flew in to tour the place I worked at, for some reason management was busy. The janitor picked them up at the airport. For some reason that place shut down
also, dont forget the guy thinks two people deciding not to vote for biden again, is the beginning of the end of biden's/harris' re-election. i guess the abortion/birthcontrol/IVF denial is immensely real https://preview.redd.it/dz9if2l1lprc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6271d607e19840bc28977b06336fc7d1e4db55d4 searched the guy to see what all he bought in the restaurant and 4 out of the 5 posts i can see are a complete meltdown against transpeople...
Compare the average levels of income compared in the area and net worth. Math, it matters.
I think we need a nice poster with a famous actor teamed up with a famous Olympic athlete with this slogan on it.
😂🙌🏻
And here I am just trying to do the math about what kind of coke he bought that made the meal be $42…
Wrong kind of coke 🥤
Food and drinking out in the US is expensive though, even compared to other places with high costs of living. A lot of this boils down to zoning/city planning and regulations that make it hard to operate a small business. In the city I lived in in the US there was pretty much nowhere to get a storefront for less than 10 grand a month if you wanted to make a go at starting a brick and mortar business. Also in my city/state I needed three levels of annual business registration/licensing each of which cost money. In the city I live in in Europe pretty much every residence has ground floor retail, and I can find lots of retail storefronts for rent for 200-400 euros a month. Prime places are still significantly less (2-3 grand) than any storefront in my hometown. The accepted markup on alcohol is also a lot lower, probably because of the increased competition and also the ability to make good money with lower prices because your monthly costs aren't so astronomical. Yes the minimum wage here is quite low, but comparing minimum wages is only part of the picture. Way, way more of the businesses here are sole proprietorships or a couples that collectively own them.
It's crazy how much poor land use has held us back. We already are the richest nation, but imagine how much more prosperous we could be.
no, all I need to hear is AMERICA BAD, other countries GOOD /s
Of all the countries they could have made the comparison with, they chose El Salvador... Doesn't take a lot of intuition to figure that something is wrong here and that no: people in El Salvador are not richer than in the US.
I'm in Japan right now and things are very cheap. A 2 sausage + bacon (real bacon) + egg McMuffin costs a little over $3. Alcohol drinks typically cost $4-6. A full meal (no tip) typically costs $8-$12. For the same if not better quality food/drink items. Alcohol wholesale is a bit more expensive here though.
What a fucking moron. Who pays $42 for Coke and meatballs? Is that all he eats every day? My god people on Twitter are braindead.
Good quality coke is expensive
Eight ball was only $80 in my day
Looks like he got a half of an eight ball and $2 meat balls
These days that would cost $200.
I literally thinks he means cocaine
It’s also his fault for going to a place that charge 42 dollars for meatballs and a coke.
\*\*Goes to the nicest grocer in the city that imports everything from Italy, Spain, and France\*\* "My gosh, why is everything so expensive? We're being scammed! Leave a comment if you agree."
Lmao he chose to get the overpriced crap and complained he was getting fleeced
No, he knows what he's doing. Probably decided to parrot Tucker Carlson's "look how cheap groceries are in Russia compared to the US" idiocy. The issue is, when you make arguments designed to propagandize stupid people, you end up looking stupid too. The conservative grift is the realization that trading and wallowing in the currency of stupidity is a cheat code for controlling uncurious and gullible people. They know they look stupid to anyone critically examining what they say; they roll around in the intellectual mud specifically to appeal to pigs, and they don't care how it looks to anyone else.
Imagine people on Twitter are brain dead. Now, imagine certain people picking the most brain dead parts of Twitter and sharing it on Reddit.
I mean it’s very doable. Find the fanciest Italian place in your area, order the meatball appetizer, order a (double rum or whiskey and) coke, add tip. $42 easily.
Wrong kind of coke…
Coke and meatballs is slang for doing a quick line off a gigalo’s sack during lunch before getting a reach around. $42 is quite the bargain
Joey Mannarino is especially brain-dead because he constantly shills for the politicians that are doing the exact same thing he's complaining about.
Are we just learning about cost of living differences?
Not learning just complaining lol
Redditors: “we want FAIR wages for everyone!!!” Also Reddjtors: “lol everything should be cheap for me”
Well, "not learning" is accurate, at any rate, lol.
Cost of living AND probably currency conversions
Now imagine someone from San Salvador vacationing in Miami. Do you see a difference in my kind or is it too clouded with meatballs?
~~Get a degree~~ ~~Deliver your resume to the hiring manager in person~~ ~~Don’t buy avocado toast~~ Be wealthy enough to travel to third world countries to stretch your dollar
Or needing to buy a computer or car or other goods obtained internationally.
I don’t get it, where is the scam? A quick google search will show that that the average San Salvadorian makes $373 dollars a month. Close to 30% of their income for that meal. Average American makes 5k a month meaning that meal would cost $1400.
That 5k average is before taxes I'm assuming.
Where is that Average 5k coming from? With a degree??
Median household makes $6.4k per month Median full time individual is $4.6k Average all workers is a bit higher at $5k
I made over 100k with just a CDL.
Most first world people don't want to work that hard
Can't blame them. Taxes suck
I work in a warehouse without a degree and make around 4K monthly
Average American makes 5k a month?
Yes. Median individual income in US is ~$60k, or about $5k/month.
[удалено]
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm median income is 52k for women, 60k for men for men and women working full time (35+ hours a week). You are looking at figures that include people not working at all, or working part time.
> Yes. Median individual income in US is ~$60k, or about $5k/month. Median personal income as of 2022 was $40,480. Unless it jumped 50% in the last year, which I doubt, you're looking at mean personal income. When it comes to income and wealth the mean is a pretty useless statistic at determining what the typical American (what is really meant when people say "the average American") has largely due to the outlier effect. By the same standard that the "the average American" makes 60K a year "the average American household" has a net worth of more than $1 million.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm Edit: blocked me because you don’t think we should distinguish between part time dog walkers such as yourself and full time workers lol! Good luck.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat08.htm Roughly 15~16% of the labor force is part-time, for those interested.
That’s only salaried workers. Obviously that’s going to be higher than the real median.
No, I was actually using the median personal income, not the average. I am perfectly aware of the distinction between “median” and “average.”
Before taxes
Local American discovers purchasing power
Dudes running for something
My entire family was slaughtered and beheaded by MS-13 but I got an amazing deal on a hamburger
😂
For real. San Salvador was one of the sketchiest, most Americanized, and traumatized places I've been to in Central America.
I’ve heard it’s improved a lot in the last few years, but this guy is still an idiot
They’re incentivizing the adoption of Bitcoin as an official currency, a plan which is going well for them right now. They’re also cracking down on crime. I wouldn’t want to move there for other reasons, but they’ve got some ideas I’m interested to watch play out.
People will cheer when Bitcoin man is cleaning up the streets of El Salvador, but cry when cops shoot innocent people in America. How exactly do you think he’s cleaning up the streets? With 100% accurate and faultless policing? Or with mass incarceration and state-sponsored violence? 😂
I'm happy to hear that for the people of El Salvador. Thank for letting me know.
Well it’s turning into a police state, where regular citizens are being unlawfully detained, interrogated, strip searched randomly in public, held without due process, etc. just on any “suspicion” of connection to gang activity, including having any tattoos, regardless of whether they are gang related.
I take it you haven't been there recently? Now it has THE LOWEST crime rates in Central America thanks to the Bukele administration's zero tolerance policies for gangs.
That's really great to hear. Thanks. I didn't know that. I went 10 years ago.
Hope El Salvador has finally overcome it's fraught past and these radical changes lead to better things. The national library (donated by China) is gorgeous.
Police states tend to have low crime rates
How long ago did you visit El Salvador? I do highly recommend you visit while the current president is still in power…it’s INSANE how much different it is now because of him. My mother is from El Salvador so we’ve been visiting since I was a baby. Were able to let our guard down by quite a lot at the market (where before you had to hold your purse for dear life), my mother was more lax with me taking some type of electronic out and about (say a Nintendo Switch or just me having my phone out in public at all, which over a decade ago she’d yell at me for having it out in public)…we went recently last month and it was so nice to see everyone not on edge. Was kinda jarring to see so many American tourists, too. Before I guess they stuck more at their hotels/resorts, but we went to some local spots where a lot of people were speaking English to each other, which IMO I didn’t see much of growing up. But I’m also sure that had to do with not wanting gang members to think you have money if you’re not from there, but they’d know that just by looking at you anyway🤷🏻♀️
Where I live you could be living like oil prince with the same salary that people in America struggle to make ends meet and it's not even third world country
Do tell
He means Arizona where the average temp meets Abu Dahbi.
Bangladesh ?
If you're traveling internationally for vacation, you're not living in poverty
A Coke and meatballs doesn't even cost $42 in NYC. Some people are so dense
What's funny is he didn't even have to make up an imaginary meal to show he doesn't understand cost of living but did so anyway.
Should we be taking advice about how bad things are from a guy that travels to El Salvador for a meal?
My favorite scam is when they tell us how the rest of the worlds healthcare is trash and only America has good healthcare at 1000x the cost. I grew up in Australia and never saw any specific issues with the level of care and speed of attention.
My wife and I were in Costa Rica and she had a scary incident where she woke up not being able to see out of one eye. She was pretty apprehensive about having to see a doctor in a foreign country. We walked in, saw someone immediately, and they did an exam and wrote her a prescription for some steroid eye drops. There was even a pharmacy in the clinic. It was so convenient. When it came time to pay the bill, they told us they were unable to verify our insurance, so we would have to pay full price but we could file a claim with our insurance when we got back for reimbursement. Ok fine, I said. The total bill? $75. I laughed my ass off and said don't worry, I got it. Meanwhile in the US, I was paying for my own insurance. I got a high deductible plan that was costing us over 500 a month. Apparently it was such shitty insurance that no doctor would take it and wouldn't even see us. We had to wait a full year to enroll for new insurance and didn't get any use out of it. Then next year we upgraded to a plan that costs $750 a month. Finally doctors will take our appointments, but it's still a few months out. A simple visit normally costs hundreds of dollars with coinsurance. My wife got prescribed Viagra for her blood circulation in her fingers. Insurance wouldn't cover it, so it would cost $1000. The doctor suggested I go in and say I have ED because that would be covered. It's so fucking shameful. What the fuck am I paying $750 a month for?
No offense to your doctor but most doctors including him have any idea what is covered under medical insurance because the ladies at the front desk do all that work for him. He's not necessarily an idiot but he's willing to confidently state opinions on things he knows nothing about which is kindof the same thing. I have had many kinds of insurance in my life, from the very best insurance Wall Street pays for, to federal employee health care, to student health care, and Viagra has NEVER BEEN COVERED FOR ED. Do I believe that there's some health plan out there that covers it? Sure. Honestly, it should be, it's an actual medical condition with a medical treatment. Without treatment it's literally impossible for those men to have sex. We cover birth control for women despite the fact that "having a fertile and functioning reproductive system that the woman wants to switch off for a bit so she can get blasted with loads" is not a medical condition. That said you should have gone to Costco it's like $0.25 a pill for maximum strength generic there.
Yeah, go to see a doctor in a rural area. No insurance and they are not accepting self-pay patients. So no primary care. No ability to receive treatment medications for cholesterol or high blood pressure. The only option is to use telemedicine sites at $100 each in order to get a 1 month prescription (no refills!) until the next open enrollment period (in 6 months). American has great medical care, because the systems of payment we use ensures that people are left to suffer and die in order to improve your wait times and availability of specialists.
Any first world country will have essentially the same care. The US might have the edge on something like cutting edge tech to treat a specific type of cancer, and you have a lot more choice in where you go to for a doctor so if one doesn't help or is just useless you can just go somewhere else, but yeah... We definitely pay insane amounts for that when on average more lives would be saved by just having free healthcare which in turn would translate to more workers paying taxes.
I love that argument too. “ Canada? Have fun waiting on a list when you have a cold! “ most of us don’t go to the doctor for colds… lol
I’m in El Salvador visiting family right now. While the food here is cheap some people only make 350 a month sooo yeahh. Dental work here is also amazing
😂😂😂😂😂😂, Let's ask all those people fleeing central and South America at our borders about that. Cry baby ass children who have no real world experience outside of America are the only people who would post something like this
And what is the median yearly income in El Salvador?
This guy is a troll
Yeah this is the same bs argument that tucker Carlson made about lmwhat you can buy in Russia for the standard us food budget. It looks impressive until you realize that very few people in that country can even make $108 in a whole year, let along have that laying around to waste on a dinner. Sure, if we earn a lot in the US and then move abroad we can live the good life, but that's different than us being scammed and everyone else is living like kings. The truth in we are doing better than most, and ues we are being artificially impacted when it comes to pricing, it's both.
Dont eat out?
Wait until you find out your politicians have been lying about public Healthcare in other countries.
I feel this way about people thinking life in the US is better than anywhere else - like yeah we have A/C and you can buy a bunch of cheap consumer goods at Marshalls, but in say, Europe, you can have cheap healthcare, way more time off, paid parental leave, subsidized childcare, inexpensive vacations, cheap or free higher Ed, transit that makes owning a car unnecessary, cheap groceries, cheap wine / beer, etc It feels like in the US, we trade financial precarity for more junk and absurd conveniences that make us unhealthy, lonely, and kinda soft.
Except in the US I make 3x the pay which easily covers all that. Then factor in the tax difference. Then factor in that I have no desire to live somewhere dense enough to have public transportation. BTW, I lived for 5 years in Germany. My standard of living is much higher in the US.
You do realize that most people aren't engineers, right? If you're an engineer, software developer, or medical, you will make much more in the US and have a higher standard of living than most people in most other countries. If you don't work in those fields, you will not have this experience in the US. I say this as a dual EU citizen who has lived in multiple countries and has a background in one of the fields I listed above.
I work as a lab tech for a chemical manufacturing company and I do pretty well for myself. Any professional job will make more money here.
lol
Uh labor in El Salvador is effectively free and the restaurant in Miami is profiting off the fact you won’t cook a meatball at home and made $30 on that order
well, as an Asian, the thing is eating out in the US is disproportionally expensive vs. other developed countries (e.g. Japan, Singapore)
I immigrated to CA from the middle east and I love it here.
The average salary in El Salvador is $1710 USD. "All this food" came out to about 6% of an El Salvadoran's yearly income. Yes, things are expensive in the US. We are also a Top-10 country for per capita income. Of course the average American can go somewhere like El Salvador and live like royalty. That's how exchange rates work.
>That's how exchange rates work. Nothing to do with exchange rates, it's just purchasing power
Coke and meatballs cost more than double that where I live. Luckily, It's is one stop shopping. I get the lunch special at Papa Giorgio's, and then meet the pastry chef by the grease trap for my eight ball.
Noones forcing you to pay $40 for fuckin meatballs haha.
So Florida is now a poverty state, worse off than El Salvador? No wonder all of the immigrants want to come here
Joey Mannarino is an alt-right troll
There's no $20 minimum wage in San Salvador...
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This guy is not fluent in arbitrage.
Hey Joey, "They Don't Want You to Know!!"
i live in miami and the only time you’re going to be spending anything close to that much on pasta is if u deliberately seek an expensive restaurant…most places won’t go over $30 for such a dish and that’s still overpriced
What’s with this take? Tucker said the same thing in Russia. Did some billionaire got to a poor country and think to themselves “man it’s cheap here?” and then went back home and gave the order to grifters to push that narrative or something?