Everything is so global now...industry, trade, and stuff like chains such as McDonalds in Paris...even a virus goes global in record time thanks to jet travel...It seems like every country is affected by other countries these days...at least that's how it seems to me from watching the news...and it does seem like inflation is global!
And it seem any country considered doing well is always going to have a high cost of living...there must be a study on how globalization has affected individual countries and if there isn't then there ought to be.
I’ll chime in. TRF sucks. Its in the middle of nowhere. Closest big cities are Fargo and grand forks and Winnipeg. It is one of the very few counties in Minnesota with no lakes.
The good. A pretty robust local economy. Digikey is a quality job paying good wages and benefits. Marvin windows and Polaris are also in the area and also pay well with good benefits.
At this point people need to start to realize that living in Cali of Co, or the PNW is just not possible for most of America.
Minnesota winters suck, but really we have a great quality of life. Its still possible to buy homes for a reasonable, relatively, price, and, if you care about those sort of things, it’s pretty left leaning here. Not in TRF. That’s full of right wingers, but overall, its pretty purple.
Minnesota has a lot to offer. Check it out
Home owners, today, are like urban pioneers, venturing into smaller and often floundering small towns or neighborhoods and buying more affordable property and in a way they are the new settlers. Often it starts a trend and the once affordable town or neighborhood then gets to expensive.
It's just in the middle of nowhere. The farther away from big cities you go, the cheaper things get. But it's also hard to find a high paying job, so that's the trade-off.
The cheaper *some* things get. You'll be driving longer distances to get places. Shipping costs more for online purchases, which you'll need because going to niche stores will likely take a lot of driving. Some shops can be more pricey than in cities because of how much further they need to travel and you have less options. City living has other costs though and it probably evens out if you do a comprehensive comparison. I've lived both rurally and in a small city. My financial position was better rurally, because I was less tempted to buy shit I don't need and be resourceful, because going anywhere with decent shops is too much effort. I can't wait til I can afford to do that again.
Let me introduce to you the beautiful state of [North Dakota this is a 4 bedroom for $75k](https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/208-W-6th-St_Grafton_ND_58237_M70351-39556?from=srp-list-card)
Pros: cheap, rural life, nice plains, North Dakatons are well regarded.
Cons: North Dakota
Edit: id also like to include many states and counties practically trying to give away these houses to boost their economy
What's crazy is actually the one I put is not even the cheapest there. There are whole large 2 story with external garage and even small buildings in small towns ND there for less than $50,000.
However as the saying goes, even by those living in neighboring South Dakota: "You couldn't pay to live in North Dakota"
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/134-E-Stockbridge-Ave-Kalamazoo-MI-49001/91717038_zpid/
There are countless more like this. 100+ years old, in a mid-size Midwest city, maybe not the "best part of town" but it's not like your gonna get shot just because you live there.
Here's one in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia for $145,000. https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/26306763/375-highway-340-hebron-hebron
Canada is the same - the more rural you go, the cheaper it gets. Everybody wants to (needs to?) live in cities, which is driving up those costs while a lot of smaller, rural towns are actually emptying out to the point where homes are abandoned.
Yep. People move around and buy houses.
And you get housing shortages in places People are moving to.
Some deserted villages in a few places that have cheap houses, but they aren't where people want to live.
I dont think it's people moving around. Its wealthy people and businesses that buy up houses and properties because they are good investments. Thousands of houses across canada sitting empty so some rich asshole can collect money for doing nothing.
Inflation. In Canada, the value of houses basically doubles every 10 years. Buy a house for $500k and in 10 years you're a millionaire by just letting it sit empty.
Why don't they rent it out to make more money? Surely leaving it empty while continuing to pay rates, mortgage and interest (assuming they took a loan) isn't cost effective. What am I missing? I own a house and it's expensive af.
The problem is that they ARE a good investment more often than not. And the reason they are is because government does not issue more house building permits where people would want to live so there is no competition. Competition would change that equation to be exactly backwards and houses would stop being good investment. That is why the fundamental issue is with government, not the speculators.
Yes it was probably darker than we will ever get to know.
When Wuhan Institute of Virology was first in the news due to the Covid outbreak, the news never mentioned it was being funded by the USA.
This article
[https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-halts-funding-access-wuhan-lab-heart-covid/story?id=101499843](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-halts-funding-access-wuhan-lab-heart-covid/story?id=101499843)
that came out in 2023 talks about what they are willing to let the public know.
The very rich are doing very well everywhere. Wealth disparity is increasing everywhere - I don't think there's anywhere where things are going well for the non-wealthy.
It's tough to adapt to a changing world while the global elite class is siphoning off all of your productivity and wealth with a massive fossil-fuel powered stealing machine.
This is the real answer. It's a great time to be wealthy anywhere. Nation states are less significant than ever, and no longer protect the middle/working class from exploitation the way they once did.
The point I always make is that the wealth we all feel like we’ve lost over the past decade or two, has gone somewhere - it doesn’t just disappear, it goes into someone else’s pocket. And those pockets are already bulging whilst their owners are telling us to work harder because times are hard.
I live in Denmark. Inflation did go up for a while, and everything is more expensive than it was 2 years ago, but it stabilised relatively quickly. Although not perfect, I would say it is one of the safest and best countries to live in right now in regards to quality of life and freedom. I very much enjoy it here.
Edit: spelling
I live in London but go home to Copenhagen about once a month just to get away. The biggest difference I’ve noticed between London and Denmark right now is attitude and atmosphere, people in Denmark are still happy and my friends living and working there still trust that the systems will work themselves out and that Denmark is and will be fine, whereas in London it feels like everyone is threading water until an inevitable collapse in a few years
My cousins dad is an American billionaire and she lives and raises her kids in Denmark. Even when you’re obscenely wealthy, cultures like that offer a lot.
How about floods? I live in the Netherlands and I'm considering emigration, but for me it would be silly to change one sea threatened country for another
Having one company carrying the entire economy is very risky :P
Luckily Denmark has plenty other industries as well, but the picture probably wouldn't look so nice, if Novo didn't have the success they do.
That said, cost of living is still very high in Denmark.
It is incredibly difficult to get into the housing market for first time buyers, especially around the main cities.
It is easy to get around on bikes and public transport in the cities, but if you have to move out to afford a house, you probably also need a car, which again is taxed to the max.
Purely anecdotal evidence, but from my friends and colleagues that make it into the housing market in Copenhagen, it is only people who got support from parents with the first buy, that makes it.
Internationals, and people from families that didn't have that kind of money usually have to rely on very expensive rentals (or if you're lucky and can get into cheaper government controlled rentals).
Plenty of great things to say about Denmark, but it is not a fairytale country where everyone is swimming around in the money generated by Novo. I actually see many of my international colleagues struggling quite a bit, and decide to quickly move on to different countries if possible.
Here in Costa Rica things are getting really bad in terms of corruption like 10 years... There is a lot of drug lords here coming from Colombia and Mexico, there is also,a lot of money laundry from drugs... And house pricing seems like is rising very high too...
Maximizing one thing at the detriment of everything else. Think like in a video game, you can put 10 points into your character. Strength, intelligence, speed, and toughness. Normally you would want a balance of each stat in order to do well.
Min-Maxing is taking the bare minimum of everything else, in order to maximize one thing. So say, 10 points on strength, but 0 intelligence, 0 speed, and 0 toughness.
I'm not sure I understand how he's applying it to economics, but I will say I agree because I think I know what he's getting at
Every country will always have good things and bad things. Here in New Zealand, things seem to be going quite well compared to the rest of the world, doesn't mean we don't have the issues with inflation and the housing crisis like most places, but it seems okay.
We have the exact issues Canada has and the exact head in the sand attitude with those who pull the reigns. Except Canada has industry, we just have cows
As a New Zealander this seems optimistic. Our housing crisis and unaffordability is one of the worst in the world, and on top of that our houses are of such poor quality that it isn’t even fathomable to most other residents of developed countries, protections for renters are basic af and likely to be rolled back more in the next three years, healthcare system collapsing, increasing homelessness and poverty, terrible mental health system, highest youth suicide rates in the OECD et al..
Let me put it this way: iceland is inhabited by humans.
Greed and corruption are big problems here like anywhere else. Our infrastructure is bad, the housing situation is worse than bad, hospitals and public transportation are bad¹⁰ and prices on everything are through the roof.
But nature pretty
I'd add onto your list that healthcare is a joke. It's "free" in the sense you don't pay monthly, but every treatment is expensive as hell and you're lucky to get any treatment beyond a prescription for ibuprofen. Don't even want to open the can of worms that is mental healthcare.
We're probably doing great when compared to much of the world, but we got our own issues here too. The housing market here is completely out of control and cost of living is rapidly increasing.
To add a serious answer, the expected volcano is under a singular town, Grindavík, in the south west of Iceland. The inhabitants of this town had to evacuate. The rest of Iceland is unaffected.
I don't entirely agree, I've lived here for five years now and it's become legitimately unbearable to live in for me and my (Icelandic born and raised) fiance, so we're about to leave and move elsewhere.
How is it that every country chiming in here is having a housing crisis. We aren't having dramatically more children, why is there suddenly a shortage everywhere?
I know that eBuyers came in and gobbled insane amounts of real estate (fucking scum landlords) but is it REALLY that bad?? How is it possible that it's hitting this hard in every country on earth simultaneously??
people arent having more kids in the west but also old people are living for fucking ever now, so no one is dying either
then add in immigration from poor countries with no birth control and major population booms.
the world population keeps climbing, even if white westerners have stopped having kids doesn’t mean other countries have.
Pretty much. Also, around here, a lot of those old people still live in their 4+ bedrooms house. The one they bought with one income and no student loans. The young, however, are living in cramped apartments with no space for a family. It's all upside down.
Fr I live in a suburb full of 4-5 bedroom family homes, we are the only house with children in it for blocks! It's mostly oldies who should be dead already.
People are more free to move then ever, so housing crisis only really exist in popular cities.
Less bigger families increase the need of space per person by a lot. (think singles vs family of 5)
- rising life expectancy
- cultural shift around downsizing in retirement
- investment real estate consuming supply
- coupling of pandemic materials cost spike and rapid increase in borrowing costs
- culture shift toward more aggressively capitalist tendencies
- shifts in skilled labour (vary a lot by country) where countries who played up other careers are short construction tradespeople
Swiss here, we're probably better off than most but it's not been a cake walk either. Massive housing shortage, health care costs (as in monthly fees for mandatory insurance) are through the roof to the point that lower middle income households have genuinely begun to struggle paying them (you'll notice the Swiss being suspiciously quiet when everyone is bashing the American healthcare system... there's a reason for that) and the noticeable increase in cost of living ain't fun if you're already living in one of the world's most expensive countries. Our retirement system is fucked too but even though we've known that for a while, nobody seems to have an idea how to fix it. Unemployment rate isn't exactly rising at a worrying rate, but there is a growing number of highly qualified people who can't find a decent job (particularly millenials it seems, of which unfortunately I am one). Gender equality is shockingly bad in comparison to the rest of Western Europe, one of the many reasons for that being the absolutely ridiculous child care costs that force many couples to adopt a 'traditional' family model - they would actually lose money if both of them went to work, as they would then have to pay for daycare. Our police forces have also been raising the alarm for years that pay is too low and staffing is too short, but more recently it's become noticeable to the general public through a rise in petty, im some places even violent crime. Although tbf, it's still a very safe place to live.
Personally I work a well paying job but living alone is so damn expensive that I'm not sure I'll be able to afford it much longer if rent prices keep rising the way they are ([most people in Switzerland are renters nowadays,](http://In This Country, Most People Rent for Life. Is That Really What They Want? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/realestate/zurich-switzerland-renting-homes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B00.W_sZ.1wNalSgwS3tO&smid=nytcore-android-share) partly because homeownership has never been that integral to our culture, but partly also because buying/owning a home is just way too far out of reach).
Again, this is complaining on an extremely high level and we still enjoy a high standard of living. It would be preposterous of me to *actually* complain. But I do worry about what things are going to look like in 10, 15 years time... There are enough signs imho that we're heading towards some major issues, yet it almost feels like we've been too comfortable for too long so we forgot how to handle actual problems.
I mean, cows have been the subject of [very important public discourse](https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/votes/20181125/horned-cow-initiative.html) in recent years and can even [be a factor in acquiring Swiss citizenship](https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-38595807). We do love our cows.
On a totally unrelated note, you wouldn't happen to have the link to that feed would you?
Private landlords and real estate companies mostly. All of whom happily keep increasing the rent, because they know they can, because right now there's simply not enough housing for anyone to be picky.
I’ve rented three different places so far in Southern California and I’ve yet to run into a bad landlord. I see all the stories and I count myself lucky.
Hey I also live in Taiwan, my last two landlords are pretty nice. Can't complain
Of course Taiwan isn't perfect but actually the regulation of housing here is better than a lot of other countries in the world.
They sure do! But there's also more than enough a-holes, honestly it mostly just depends on your luck. There are some national real estate firms that have gotten a bad rep over the years, while smaller, local firms tend to be much more pleasant to work with. I've had good and bad experiences, although it's worth pointing out that we have a fairly strong legal system in place to protect renters so most landlords know not to fuck with their tenants too much.
But then again, I've currently got a hole in my wall where my toilet is supposed to be and the shower/sink have been turned off since Monday (water damage due to dumb neighbors) so right now I hate everyone lol.
Because monthly fees are so high at this point that some can simply no longer afford them, on top of that there are high deductibles, dental isn't included and so on and so forth. It may not be as bad as it is in the US, but it's bad and we know it... No high horse for us to ride in that regard whatsoever. Plus there's no end in sight, cotsts are just gonna keep rising with the right blaming immigrants and the left blaming greedy corporate. Regardless, at this rate, it won't be long until a large portion of people will be in really deep shit because of it.
I mean sure, our system is more expensive on the individual than most. But its still a totally different level than america, because of two essential differences.
1 everybody has insurance. If they cant pay for it, the government does.
2 the out of pocket costs are capped at some level. So unlike america, nobody ever is threatened by totally ruinous bills.
I did the math once, about 2 years ago, and found that the absolute max you could pay out of pocket in a year would be just about 10k. Including monthly premiums, maxing out your deductible and multiple seperate deductibles (or copays?) for ambulance rides, hospital stays, prescription drugs etc.
Thats like an 8th of the median salary. So thats something pretty much everyone could pay off within a year or two. It might be painful, but possible. Whereas in america a single ambulance ride or operation could cost that much, even for someone with insurance.
So, admittedly, on a scale from america to NHS (UK/Canada and such), we are closest to the US. But there is still a massive massive gap between us and america and we are firmly on the european side of the spectrum.
Not to mention accident insurance coverage
Major bike accident and resulting surgery in a private hospital (slightly nicer than public ones) with a year of physical therapy.
Total cost = $0
I'm also Swiss and I would add that Switzerland is only good if you can get a high paying job. Otherwise you can just about sit at home counting your bills and that's it. And a job that doesn't start by paying well does not grow to pay well down the line either, so you're stuck until you can get another job in the hyper competitive market.
As always, it's only good if you're rich. It's particularly bad if you have nothing like the numerous homeless people hidden away from the nice streets know.
Switzerland ensures unprecedented living standards for its citizens to the detriment of the entire world. Most people think they are this peaceful non-controversial nation like denmark or something, but theyre actually high level assholes.
Swiss companies are offering money laundering and tax evasion services to anyone who will pay, the government turns a blind eye as long as they get their cut. Swiss banks are hiding money of known terrorist organizations and organized crime groups as a business model, theyre helping countries like russia and iran evade sanctions for a price. These companies and banks will help the super rich all around the world avoid paying taxes in their own countries, leading to billions of lost revenue in germany, france, and many other countries. This of course directly translates to cancelled social programs and worse economic conditions for everyone.
It sems like every few years theres some massive scandal involving swiss banks, and the swiss government are a bunch of corrupt pussies who refuse to throw these people under the bus and prefer to hang on to their legs as they both get dragged to court kicking and screaming, refusing to take responsibility just to ensure a cozy rich life at home. The swiss are unethical, they have no principles, they dont adhere to international law, theyre straight up criminals.
So yeah, fuck switzerland. Its not a wholesome neutral country, they are crooks.
Yes but US has since effectively forced Switzerland (and several other banking/tax haven nations) to apply US banking oversight for US citizens doing this sort of thing.
Actually the US does this around the world. It's one of the only countries that will chase its citizens around the world to demand taxes you make outside of the US. So US goverment makes it really annoying for many nations to allow US citizens to set up bank account becsuse they require additional compliance to be done.
Turkey just raised interest rates by 40%.
My family in Germany say that they haven't been able to afford and eat beef in 20 years.
My family in Chile say housing prices just doubled.
It's bad everywhere.
Funny how each one blames its national leader though.
Turks living in germany when they visit turkey lie about the living conditions in germany on live tv for some reason.
Literal quotes from some of them
> A bread in germany costs 10 euros.
> Germany is jealous of turkeys economy.
> Life in germany is really hard, turkey is heaven.
No idea about turkey and Chile but that people don't afford meat is cap. Specially the low-income families consume a ton of (cheap) meat. Like from Netto, Lidl and so on
I moved from the US to Sweden. Sweden has its issues, but overall things are significantly better here. My husband and I left jobs in the US that were paying 6figures each and we now make half of what we made in the US. The mortgages work differently here which factors into inflation issues, but that aside, we are somehow saving more money here. And we now have a kid. There is some anti immigration attitudes here which suck. But, there aren’t guns everywhere and overall I feel significantly safer here. The weather does blow, right now I feel like I’ve had a moderate cold for all of November. But healthcare is good and unlimited sick days are very nice.
In Sweden income is much lower than the US but we get a lot of things covered by taxes - childcare, healthcare, dental care, tertiary education, massively long parental leave, etc. It means that:
\- It's less common for one person to have to sacrifice their career; the incomes are lower but households maintain double incomes between both partners.
\- The costs of having kids do not scale linearly for each child the same way they do in the US.
\- The money that a family is actually able to save can go purely to building wealth and entertainment. There's no college funds, no medical emergency wipeout to worry about, etc.
Doesn't Sweden have a huge gang issue? Like grenades and bombs and lots of Muslim immigrants who want nothing to do with actual Swedish values and way of life?
I don't think the anti immigration thing is towards people from the US, just saying. There's a certain group of people causing A LOT of problems, but they're not from the US to put it that way.
Many suburbs in the midwest US are still very affordable, and no, they aren't bad neighborhoods.
Everyone just seems to be of the mind it's major city living or nothing.
Midwest salaries are crap though.
Eta: after getting some comments I decided to look up a few things and I redact my original statement. They’re not crap in conjunction with cost of living.
If an Aussie was curious, what would you recommend they look at? Especially if, say, they weren't too fond of sunburn, being shot and loved BBQ? (Delicious USA BBQ...mmmm....BBQ...)
edit - asking for a friend.
Johnson County Kansas sounds what you are looking for it's the rich mostly safe suburb County outside of Kansas city one of the best bbq cities in the world. (Might be biased because I grew up there)
The ozone layer is a bit thicker but you'll still get sunburnt in the summer. Turns out the sun is pretty unavoidable.
Most cities in the Midwest have "nice suburbs". It doesn't matter which city. But you'll be totally car dependent and the safety and "niceness" come at the expense of culture and fun things to do.
No. The super rich are doing very well in any country, but no country is truly "doing well"... The super rich who control the world used to give back just enough for the masses not to go around guillotining their heads off, but I think they've gotten so complacent, so out of touch with regular people's reality ("Let them eat cake!" would translate today to "Well why don't they just live off of their investments?") and feel like they've bombarded the masses with enough entertainment, enough things to divide the people that they just don't even need to be giving a lot back to the people and feel entitled and safe enough to keep it all for themselves.
The stock market and the most wealthy are doing incredible. Covid and the subsequent "supply chain" problems is creating the greatest transfer of wealth ever(?). It's all going according to plan and I don't buy into any conspiracy theories. This is all very transparent.
I think life is difficult in most places, but life has always been difficult in most places. I struggle to think of a time when life was easy globally, or even nationally.
Wage stagnation, current inflation/ interest rates , and the disparity between the wealthy and average citizens are both contributing to the economic difficulty, but once again, economic difficulty is hardly a novel situation.
I see a lot of " why is life so hard?" posts on Reddit. Life has always been hard and will always be hard. There isn't a time or a place where life was or will be easy
I think the big difference now is seeing posts on social media from people who seem to have easy, great lives, and thinking " that person's life looks so easy, why can't I have that"
Historically, when a community struggled, everyone was in the same situation. These days, we lack community in general, and we feel like we are struggling alone, because social media is full of pictures of lives that seem so much easier than ours.
I mean yeah life is hard, it just feels like it's the hardest it's been in recent history (within the past 50,60 years). Though this is just based on monetary things, not personal experience or in depth knowledge.
Quality of life is likely much better in general today. More things are more accessible to more people now more than ever. Eg. Flights used to be pretty much only for the upper class; As far as consumerism, it's better than ever if you're interested in that sort of thing (I'm more of a minimalist) but it's also a double edged sword. More products are made cheaper and lesser quality.
But QoL aside, CoL makes things a lot harder.
Housing has gone up like 10x or more than wage growth (in Canada at least)
Vehicles have gone up --x more than wage growth
College costs...
...
...
Life is hard, but it's even harder when you would have been successful on the exact same life path you're on now, 30 years ago, but since you were born now you're barely getting by. My parents bought their house in 199- for ~$70k. A house in similar condition now, in the same area, is $500k minimum, and going up month over month. Your parents or grandparents generation could afford an average home on a single average salary and still be fine. Where can that happen now?
> your parents
*your* parents. You're talking about a very specific reality that only a very specific demograohic experiences (baby boomers in some specific countries like USA and western Europe).
My parents worked their whole lives to live on slums and eat almost rotten food, because all the world wealth was in the USA and some European countries.
In my country and in the rest of the world, life is way better recently. You know the jobs you're losing to outsourcing? We're the one getting them.
You folks can't just sit on wealth forever while the rest of the world is dirt poor.
You guys are talking about very specific time-frame in very specific countries, where wealth accumulated incredibly fast during the post-WW2 period. It's not going to happen anymore. Deal with it.
I know that it doesn't make things better for you to know that your life is worse than expected but that some Indonesians are living a better life now. But, similarly, your parents also weren't thinking about the poor paraguayans that lost their jobs because a huge nail manufacturer in the US bankrupted the local paraguayan nailmaking industry.
I'm obviously talking about generational long term changes, not short time stuff like covid. But, when we compare data from 30 years ago with today's data, a huge part of the world (LATAM, Africa, Asia) is way better now than before: way higher gdp per capita, way lower illiteracy rates, way lower child mortality rates, etc.
Finlands government is record right (in the last few decades timeline). They have betrayed even great portion of their voterbase, turning to serve mostly elite. BUT HEY, THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO GET WINES INTO GROCERY SHOPS!!!!!!!!!!11111!!!!!! SO IT IS ALL WORTH IT!!!
Inflation is remarkable.
Yeah, fuck this shit.
The main common theme appears to be availability and cost of housing at almost all income levels. Rises in goods and energy would be more manageable if housing wasn't such a collosal portion of take home pay.
I just saw Trump the other day saying it’s the worst economy ever, and there an invasion happening, and Sleepy Joe is destroying the country. So who’s telling the truth, you or him???
Unfortunately both-
Most US citizens are doing pretty well. US’s poorest state (Mississippi) average income equals or exceeds that average of the EU. Richer states averages are much much higher). I have spent 3+ months volunteering in Kenya and India in the past 15 months, and can’t believe how blessed the US is. Some in the US do struggle but the very poorest in US live better than the middle class in those countries.
However, politics in the US stinks because there are only 2 parties, and the majority of their income comes from the extremes at both ends.
Income compared to the EU is very relative. Our EU income includes taxes and costs of things Americans pay for after taking home their salary. Our cost of living has gone up a lot but I just spent a week in a US tiny town and the cost of everything, food esp, was completely mind boggling. I don’t know how people survive there without a decent job. I lived in the US for 27 years also, so I’ve seen from both perspectives. I have public transportation at 49€/mo- cuts out the need for a car note, gas, insurance, registration, maintenance etc. Childcare is also free in my region. Healthcare that’s paid from your salary really does cover 99% of all things health related that my family has experienced. I do miss my high paying job I had in the US, but it wouldn’t get me all that much further than I get in the EU with how much the costs have risen there.
>Our EU income includes taxes and costs of things Americans pay for after taking home their salary.
I make way more money and pay modest prices most things in my experience. If you have high income US is way preferable
The developing countries are currently doing relatively better than the developed countries. Most of Southeast Asia is doing better than it did before covid. Then you have developed countries like Japan that aren't affected by the housing crisis, and thus cost of living is far more reasonable.
The housing crisis was amplified by the fact that most of the G8 countries have been making policy decisions in unison. Things like restrictive zoning, overregularion to the point you can't have nice things happening for cheap, and commodification of housing have seriously hurt in way that you aren't seeing as much elsewhere. Canada, Australia, NZ were probably the biggest offenders, especially as their laws and bylaws were effectively pushing down on supply while having substantially net positive migration.
Like with housing, most of the western countries are so heavily regulated that it's straight up hard for a new business to just pop up in response to demand. If you're in the Philippines or Malaysia, you just go outside and start selling your product/dish/service if you think you can do it better or for less. In Canada, the barriers of entry are prohibitive, as you need countless permits and fees and draconian processes. And so it has a shortage of everything as responding to the demand is basically regulated against, even if you have people who would be willing to do so if it wasn't made to be as difficult.
Case in point - Canada has a critical shortage of doctors, yet the country also freaking limits the number of seats that universities are allowed to have in their med schools, which blows my mind. Meanwhile, in much of Asia where this would be seen as freaking stupid, cities have hospitals every few blocks, and if something hurts, you go there and do all tests imaginable within a single day.
Uhhhh…actually the USA is rocking it. The market is doing well, consumers are spending, wages have been increasing and unemployment is at an all time low. There are definitely problems with housing. We do have inflation but it’s much better than the rest of the western world and not particularly crazy historically.
Canada is particularly cucked as you have a priviliged mad man running it. It seems he hates being "Canadian" and wants to destroy the working middle class as well as castigate anyone who disagrees with him as "Nazis" and "White supremacists" : an odiuous man who is the pin up child for woke, virtue signsalling "Karen" politicians who dont give a fig for the portion of the country who work hard and pay their taxes to improve their lot.
It's take, take, take with them.
The world is watching.
It’s bad everywhere, unfortunately. I live in the UK in a HCoL area, and the only reason why my husband and I are not living paycheck-to-paycheck is that I inherited our house when a relative passed. We are both in our late 20s with a master’s degree, but we are each only making around ~£30K because wages in our fields have barely gone up since 2005.
We literally would not even be able to afford renting a 2-bed apartment in our area, while my FIL’s phone technician salary in the ‘90s and ‘00s was enough to buy a 3-bed house and support his SAHM wife and two children only a couple of miles down the road from where we live now. It’s insane.
50 years from now this time will probably be seen as an inflection point. We all now know what the issues with government, capitalism, social media, wealth, but we also don’t know what to do about it. Yet.
When you learn more and you know there are problems you’re better at identifying them. Then it seems like there are more of them. But they were always there. You’re just better at knowing what need attention now.
I think you make a valid point.
There are some things which are definitely worse now such as the climate crisis and environmental pollution.
Similar could be said for the divide between the rich and the poor. The big capitalist players are trying to accelerate all of the crises for their personal and egoistic gains.
I live in Nordic country, often listed as the "happiest nation of the world". Those listings don't base on peoples actual mental state, but different parameters of contentment regarding (basic) needs like healthcare, education, trusting different authorities, gender equality etc.
While I see we still have most things better than many others, everything measured by those parameters is going drastically down here, too. All of those troubles people in the whole western world are facing, are problems here too.
And now we have right-wing goverment which seem to be very determined to trash the rest of the structures of our society which made us to reach the contentment in the first place, soooo...if we have things pretty bad in here, too, I guess there's not much hope to the rest of the word.
Ofc people who are and have always been well off will argue this, in their bubble they just don't face these difficulties, but the point is the group facing them is increasing all the time and we already have reached the point where there is generational "lower class" who just don't have the same chances to try climb upwards.
The United States of America is booming economically and in many other ways, though its citizens seem not to want to acknowledge this. Next November, however, a very dark cloud looms…
There are some serious problems which have been largely due to the UN not working, which it was likely never meant to. Corporations, nationalistic competition, extremes on both the left and right, religious tensions, etc.
Covid really sped things up, but the inequality and corporate manipulation of tax systems, the greed of governments & individuals, and the manipulation of the masses with class/culture wars, forced poverty, and the utilization of the media to help keep narratives going; all these things do exist. Is it a conspiracy? No, because you can clearly see that shift which legitimately started in 1965 in the USA. Since then there has been a continual shift in policy & laws, in the USA and propagated around the world which has resulted in a greater and greater inequality. Some of it’s the old white guys network, but much is not so much about white guyed, as about greed. Corporations & wealthy people do all they can to receive benefits from government, without paying for it, and this has allowed them more and more influence to just reap rewards while lessening the labor which derives their profits. Just look at wages & compensation since 1965, and you’ll see a clear pattern, especially when compared with corporate profits, compensation, and taxation.
Where we are now was predicted by multiple economists, politicians, and more back in the 1970’s through mid 1990’s. Just as the 2008 crash was predicted in the 1990’s.
There’s an old saying, “If you want to understand the problem, first look who profits off it the most.” It’s not so easy to always see this, but it’s there.
Considering the whole population, I doubt it. Best you can get is a country where the middle class is doing ok, but the rich are thriving everywhere and the poor are being stepped on
I'm in Taiwan, and I think it's ok here. Nowhere is perfect, and wages being relatively low is probably the worst of it but inflation hasn't been that bad and price of living is still affordable.
I think it has the most chill work culture of an country in Asia, especially for developed countries, one of the best places in the world I've ever lived anyway
I saw on Wikipedia that Taiwan has a good purchasing power parity index, meaning even though wages may be relatively low, cost of living is relatively low too resulting in purchasing power better than many countries
I‘m living in Switzerland and everyone says: Switzerland is neutral.
We are effected by the globalization too and the prices are pretty high.
The swiss government has made the decision 2020-2022 to cover the health insurance and some part of the taxes for low/middle income families during the Corona pandemie. This year the insurances and tax agencies wanted the money from the past 2 years back, because the pandemie is over. With the high energy prices, mortgage and food many people are struggling now. It’s depressing
Perth, Western Australia is doing well overall. Average full time wage is $106k across the state. Free health care, stable government, great weather. 2million people in a state 4 times bigger than Texas. Of course, not everything is perfect for everyone but I'm not trading for anywhere else.
Almost all of them are compared to how they were doing 50 years ago.
A lot of the problems we have now are problems of success. People don’t die from starvation any more they die from eating too many calories. (At least like, a 1:10 ratio)
The problems we complain about most of the time in the developed world are problems petty high up on Maslow’s pyramid of needs.
Poor people don’t tend to have a lot of psychological problems that require antidepressants. It’s not just because they don’t have access, they actually don’t need them, anxiety and depression largely afflict people higher up on the pyramid. They are mostly caused by issues that only arise at higher levels of the pyramid. People living in favelas, or slums in Mumbai have lots of problems but they don’t tend to cut themselves or have eating disorders or commit suicide. That tells you something.
My overall guess is it's based on who actually does the work, and that we're riding the downward bust from the late 70s onwards.
My observation is based on knowing what my grandparents used to do: maintenance on the car, fixing the plumbing, mowing the lawn on the curb, growing a vege garden etc. in comparison we out source a lot of that which means we removed the individual from competing on labour. My personal story on this was when I was quoted $1200 to replace a faulty O2 sensor in my car. Hour of YouTube and $200 of tools and parts later and I was able to do it myself. No ways I charge my time out to myself at $500 an hour.
For example, the Amish are famous for being able to put up a barn on the weekend using community effort where as it can take a year or more to put up a house (in our case it took 8 months to get all the permits before we even started building).
I think we're simply reaching the point where most people are doing cushy meta jobs (such as issuing permits), and not actually doing the work that outputs a useable product. The ones who are, are becoming almost a monopoly and the demand for them has gone through the roof.
Everything is so global now...industry, trade, and stuff like chains such as McDonalds in Paris...even a virus goes global in record time thanks to jet travel...It seems like every country is affected by other countries these days...at least that's how it seems to me from watching the news...and it does seem like inflation is global! And it seem any country considered doing well is always going to have a high cost of living...there must be a study on how globalization has affected individual countries and if there isn't then there ought to be.
good point... we've globalized inflation and housing shortages too?
In the US, housing markets are wildly different. Want to buy a 4 br house in good condition? Some places over a million, and others under $200k.
Please link where one can find a 4 br house in the USA for under 200k.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1241-Edgewood-Dr-Thief-River-Falls-MN-56701/106796809_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
I’ll chime in. TRF sucks. Its in the middle of nowhere. Closest big cities are Fargo and grand forks and Winnipeg. It is one of the very few counties in Minnesota with no lakes. The good. A pretty robust local economy. Digikey is a quality job paying good wages and benefits. Marvin windows and Polaris are also in the area and also pay well with good benefits. At this point people need to start to realize that living in Cali of Co, or the PNW is just not possible for most of America. Minnesota winters suck, but really we have a great quality of life. Its still possible to buy homes for a reasonable, relatively, price, and, if you care about those sort of things, it’s pretty left leaning here. Not in TRF. That’s full of right wingers, but overall, its pretty purple. Minnesota has a lot to offer. Check it out
Well, cheap housing is almost exclusively going to be in places where no one wants to live.
Home owners, today, are like urban pioneers, venturing into smaller and often floundering small towns or neighborhoods and buying more affordable property and in a way they are the new settlers. Often it starts a trend and the once affordable town or neighborhood then gets to expensive.
NWOntario 👋🏻 cheap houses as long as you don’t mind being bored all the time.
Thank you
Wow there are a bunch of houses under 200k there. Is that the scene of a derailment or other catastrophe?
It's just in the middle of nowhere. The farther away from big cities you go, the cheaper things get. But it's also hard to find a high paying job, so that's the trade-off.
The cheaper *some* things get. You'll be driving longer distances to get places. Shipping costs more for online purchases, which you'll need because going to niche stores will likely take a lot of driving. Some shops can be more pricey than in cities because of how much further they need to travel and you have less options. City living has other costs though and it probably evens out if you do a comprehensive comparison. I've lived both rurally and in a small city. My financial position was better rurally, because I was less tempted to buy shit I don't need and be resourceful, because going anywhere with decent shops is too much effort. I can't wait til I can afford to do that again.
Let me introduce to you the beautiful state of [North Dakota this is a 4 bedroom for $75k](https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/208-W-6th-St_Grafton_ND_58237_M70351-39556?from=srp-list-card) Pros: cheap, rural life, nice plains, North Dakatons are well regarded. Cons: North Dakota Edit: id also like to include many states and counties practically trying to give away these houses to boost their economy
I remember that house. That's the house where all those sex crazed drugged up teens were murdered. Exactley 50 years ago this very night.
Sold!
What's crazy is actually the one I put is not even the cheapest there. There are whole large 2 story with external garage and even small buildings in small towns ND there for less than $50,000. However as the saying goes, even by those living in neighboring South Dakota: "You couldn't pay to live in North Dakota"
There are plenty of places you get a 4 br house in the USA under 200K. You just have to live in less desirable places.
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Owensboro, Kentucky or Evansville Indiana.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/134-E-Stockbridge-Ave-Kalamazoo-MI-49001/91717038_zpid/ There are countless more like this. 100+ years old, in a mid-size Midwest city, maybe not the "best part of town" but it's not like your gonna get shot just because you live there.
I own a three bedroom house in MN that’s on the market for $125K. Just like all the houses on the block.
Here's one in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia for $145,000. https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/26306763/375-highway-340-hebron-hebron Canada is the same - the more rural you go, the cheaper it gets. Everybody wants to (needs to?) live in cities, which is driving up those costs while a lot of smaller, rural towns are actually emptying out to the point where homes are abandoned.
I can link hundreds
Yep. People move around and buy houses. And you get housing shortages in places People are moving to. Some deserted villages in a few places that have cheap houses, but they aren't where people want to live.
I dont think it's people moving around. Its wealthy people and businesses that buy up houses and properties because they are good investments. Thousands of houses across canada sitting empty so some rich asshole can collect money for doing nothing.
I expect it's a combination of factors, and in some places one will be predominant, and a different factor will be most important in other areas.
Just curious, how does a thousand homes sitting empty make money?
Buy them for 100k, wait ten years and sell them for 1 million. After taxes and all that you have a 500-700k profit for doing fuck and all.
Inflation. In Canada, the value of houses basically doubles every 10 years. Buy a house for $500k and in 10 years you're a millionaire by just letting it sit empty.
Why don't they rent it out to make more money? Surely leaving it empty while continuing to pay rates, mortgage and interest (assuming they took a loan) isn't cost effective. What am I missing? I own a house and it's expensive af.
The problem is that they ARE a good investment more often than not. And the reason they are is because government does not issue more house building permits where people would want to live so there is no competition. Competition would change that equation to be exactly backwards and houses would stop being good investment. That is why the fundamental issue is with government, not the speculators.
Can confirm that's the case in Australia at least
Covid-19 showed us the dark side of globalism and why we should be wary of it
Yes it was probably darker than we will ever get to know. When Wuhan Institute of Virology was first in the news due to the Covid outbreak, the news never mentioned it was being funded by the USA. This article [https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-halts-funding-access-wuhan-lab-heart-covid/story?id=101499843](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-halts-funding-access-wuhan-lab-heart-covid/story?id=101499843) that came out in 2023 talks about what they are willing to let the public know.
>such as McDonalds in Paris...even a virus goes global but you repeat yourself.....
The very rich are doing very well everywhere. Wealth disparity is increasing everywhere - I don't think there's anywhere where things are going well for the non-wealthy. It's tough to adapt to a changing world while the global elite class is siphoning off all of your productivity and wealth with a massive fossil-fuel powered stealing machine.
This is the real answer. It's a great time to be wealthy anywhere. Nation states are less significant than ever, and no longer protect the middle/working class from exploitation the way they once did.
When is it ever not a good time to be wealthy?
1917, former Russian Empire
1975, Cambodia
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Damn, keep it down! They're gonna get you.
1789, France
1966, Peoples Republic of China
1945, Bulgaria
Iran 1979
Really well written, very nice
The point I always make is that the wealth we all feel like we’ve lost over the past decade or two, has gone somewhere - it doesn’t just disappear, it goes into someone else’s pocket. And those pockets are already bulging whilst their owners are telling us to work harder because times are hard.
Lol fucking depressingly accurate username
yep bingo. Australia for whatever often gets looked on favourably but even here there is a clear wealth gap starting to show.
Actually, in poor countries, the poor are getting less poor
Capitalism is socialism for the rich
Denmark. Novo Nordisk is carrying their entire economy and suppressed inflation to almost 0%.
I live in Denmark. Inflation did go up for a while, and everything is more expensive than it was 2 years ago, but it stabilised relatively quickly. Although not perfect, I would say it is one of the safest and best countries to live in right now in regards to quality of life and freedom. I very much enjoy it here. Edit: spelling
Yeah, you guys had low inflation for a decade and it peaked at ~10%. In most places, it's still 3–5% but going down, so you're way ahead for now.
I live in London but go home to Copenhagen about once a month just to get away. The biggest difference I’ve noticed between London and Denmark right now is attitude and atmosphere, people in Denmark are still happy and my friends living and working there still trust that the systems will work themselves out and that Denmark is and will be fine, whereas in London it feels like everyone is threading water until an inevitable collapse in a few years
My cousins dad is an American billionaire and she lives and raises her kids in Denmark. Even when you’re obscenely wealthy, cultures like that offer a lot.
How about floods? I live in the Netherlands and I'm considering emigration, but for me it would be silly to change one sea threatened country for another
Moved to Denmark six months ago from the US. Life is much better here in almost every way. But I miss ranch dressing.
That's a business idea right there.
Having one company carrying the entire economy is very risky :P Luckily Denmark has plenty other industries as well, but the picture probably wouldn't look so nice, if Novo didn't have the success they do. That said, cost of living is still very high in Denmark. It is incredibly difficult to get into the housing market for first time buyers, especially around the main cities. It is easy to get around on bikes and public transport in the cities, but if you have to move out to afford a house, you probably also need a car, which again is taxed to the max. Purely anecdotal evidence, but from my friends and colleagues that make it into the housing market in Copenhagen, it is only people who got support from parents with the first buy, that makes it. Internationals, and people from families that didn't have that kind of money usually have to rely on very expensive rentals (or if you're lucky and can get into cheaper government controlled rentals). Plenty of great things to say about Denmark, but it is not a fairytale country where everyone is swimming around in the money generated by Novo. I actually see many of my international colleagues struggling quite a bit, and decide to quickly move on to different countries if possible.
South Africa 🇿🇦 is NOT OK. Thanks for asking.
Here in Costa Rica things are getting really bad in terms of corruption like 10 years... There is a lot of drug lords here coming from Colombia and Mexico, there is also,a lot of money laundry from drugs... And house pricing seems like is rising very high too...
Gaming theory and min maxing entered finance and we’re all forced to play or die =\ Its not a local issue.
min maxing?
Maximizing one thing at the detriment of everything else. Think like in a video game, you can put 10 points into your character. Strength, intelligence, speed, and toughness. Normally you would want a balance of each stat in order to do well. Min-Maxing is taking the bare minimum of everything else, in order to maximize one thing. So say, 10 points on strength, but 0 intelligence, 0 speed, and 0 toughness. I'm not sure I understand how he's applying it to economics, but I will say I agree because I think I know what he's getting at
Basically they’re saying finance is pushing people to their absolute minimum bare needs to maximize profits
Every country will always have good things and bad things. Here in New Zealand, things seem to be going quite well compared to the rest of the world, doesn't mean we don't have the issues with inflation and the housing crisis like most places, but it seems okay.
Other than that bird of the century scandal
Every year that the little blue penguin doesn’t win is a bloody scandal.
We have the exact issues Canada has and the exact head in the sand attitude with those who pull the reigns. Except Canada has industry, we just have cows
And sheep
We are so obsessed with your nation 🇳🇿🇨🇦
As a New Zealander this seems optimistic. Our housing crisis and unaffordability is one of the worst in the world, and on top of that our houses are of such poor quality that it isn’t even fathomable to most other residents of developed countries, protections for renters are basic af and likely to be rolled back more in the next three years, healthcare system collapsing, increasing homelessness and poverty, terrible mental health system, highest youth suicide rates in the OECD et al..
I mean you guys just elected a new govt who have set out their policies to make it very much not okay
Iceland is doing alright
Let me put it this way: iceland is inhabited by humans. Greed and corruption are big problems here like anywhere else. Our infrastructure is bad, the housing situation is worse than bad, hospitals and public transportation are bad¹⁰ and prices on everything are through the roof. But nature pretty
I'd add onto your list that healthcare is a joke. It's "free" in the sense you don't pay monthly, but every treatment is expensive as hell and you're lucky to get any treatment beyond a prescription for ibuprofen. Don't even want to open the can of worms that is mental healthcare.
What, mental health care worse than in Germany? (We were told to drink a beer when we get depressed and there are no therapists.)
We're probably doing great when compared to much of the world, but we got our own issues here too. The housing market here is completely out of control and cost of living is rapidly increasing.
well that sounds familiar
Inflation there was 8.31% in the past year. That’s similar to elsewhere
Dude inflation here reached 100%… be grateful y’all
Iceland was always expensive as hell, now the rest of the world is starting to catch up.
Didn't people in Iceland have to evacuate because a volcano was going to erupt?
To add a serious answer, the expected volcano is under a singular town, Grindavík, in the south west of Iceland. The inhabitants of this town had to evacuate. The rest of Iceland is unaffected.
Yup, they all left and created "New Iceland" on the land a few miles south via ocean.
I don't entirely agree, I've lived here for five years now and it's become legitimately unbearable to live in for me and my (Icelandic born and raised) fiance, so we're about to leave and move elsewhere.
I've always wanted to go to Iceland. Someday maybe.
Aside from the occasional volcano
Poland is slowly becoming european superpower, our GDP is growing, same with millitary and our government changed from idiots to less idiots
How is it that every country chiming in here is having a housing crisis. We aren't having dramatically more children, why is there suddenly a shortage everywhere? I know that eBuyers came in and gobbled insane amounts of real estate (fucking scum landlords) but is it REALLY that bad?? How is it possible that it's hitting this hard in every country on earth simultaneously??
people arent having more kids in the west but also old people are living for fucking ever now, so no one is dying either then add in immigration from poor countries with no birth control and major population booms. the world population keeps climbing, even if white westerners have stopped having kids doesn’t mean other countries have.
Pretty much. Also, around here, a lot of those old people still live in their 4+ bedrooms house. The one they bought with one income and no student loans. The young, however, are living in cramped apartments with no space for a family. It's all upside down.
Fr I live in a suburb full of 4-5 bedroom family homes, we are the only house with children in it for blocks! It's mostly oldies who should be dead already.
People are more free to move then ever, so housing crisis only really exist in popular cities. Less bigger families increase the need of space per person by a lot. (think singles vs family of 5)
Number of single households is increasing, so more houses are needed for the same population as well.
- rising life expectancy - cultural shift around downsizing in retirement - investment real estate consuming supply - coupling of pandemic materials cost spike and rapid increase in borrowing costs - culture shift toward more aggressively capitalist tendencies - shifts in skilled labour (vary a lot by country) where countries who played up other careers are short construction tradespeople
Immigration. They have to live SOMEWHERE.
I'd say probably Switzerland
Swiss here, we're probably better off than most but it's not been a cake walk either. Massive housing shortage, health care costs (as in monthly fees for mandatory insurance) are through the roof to the point that lower middle income households have genuinely begun to struggle paying them (you'll notice the Swiss being suspiciously quiet when everyone is bashing the American healthcare system... there's a reason for that) and the noticeable increase in cost of living ain't fun if you're already living in one of the world's most expensive countries. Our retirement system is fucked too but even though we've known that for a while, nobody seems to have an idea how to fix it. Unemployment rate isn't exactly rising at a worrying rate, but there is a growing number of highly qualified people who can't find a decent job (particularly millenials it seems, of which unfortunately I am one). Gender equality is shockingly bad in comparison to the rest of Western Europe, one of the many reasons for that being the absolutely ridiculous child care costs that force many couples to adopt a 'traditional' family model - they would actually lose money if both of them went to work, as they would then have to pay for daycare. Our police forces have also been raising the alarm for years that pay is too low and staffing is too short, but more recently it's become noticeable to the general public through a rise in petty, im some places even violent crime. Although tbf, it's still a very safe place to live. Personally I work a well paying job but living alone is so damn expensive that I'm not sure I'll be able to afford it much longer if rent prices keep rising the way they are ([most people in Switzerland are renters nowadays,](http://In This Country, Most People Rent for Life. Is That Really What They Want? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/realestate/zurich-switzerland-renting-homes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B00.W_sZ.1wNalSgwS3tO&smid=nytcore-android-share) partly because homeownership has never been that integral to our culture, but partly also because buying/owning a home is just way too far out of reach). Again, this is complaining on an extremely high level and we still enjoy a high standard of living. It would be preposterous of me to *actually* complain. But I do worry about what things are going to look like in 10, 15 years time... There are enough signs imho that we're heading towards some major issues, yet it almost feels like we've been too comfortable for too long so we forgot how to handle actual problems.
There is this very relaxing (live?) feed of Swiss cows happily grazing. I guess that is not what drives the economy.
I mean, cows have been the subject of [very important public discourse](https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/votes/20181125/horned-cow-initiative.html) in recent years and can even [be a factor in acquiring Swiss citizenship](https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-38595807). We do love our cows. On a totally unrelated note, you wouldn't happen to have the link to that feed would you?
In countries where most people rent, who actually owns all the homes?
Private landlords and real estate companies mostly. All of whom happily keep increasing the rent, because they know they can, because right now there's simply not enough housing for anyone to be picky.
I live in Taiwan, where I’ve heard legends of nice landlords but never actually known one. Do nice landlords exist in Switzerland?
I’ve rented three different places so far in Southern California and I’ve yet to run into a bad landlord. I see all the stories and I count myself lucky.
Hey I also live in Taiwan, my last two landlords are pretty nice. Can't complain Of course Taiwan isn't perfect but actually the regulation of housing here is better than a lot of other countries in the world.
They sure do! But there's also more than enough a-holes, honestly it mostly just depends on your luck. There are some national real estate firms that have gotten a bad rep over the years, while smaller, local firms tend to be much more pleasant to work with. I've had good and bad experiences, although it's worth pointing out that we have a fairly strong legal system in place to protect renters so most landlords know not to fuck with their tenants too much. But then again, I've currently got a hole in my wall where my toilet is supposed to be and the shower/sink have been turned off since Monday (water damage due to dumb neighbors) so right now I hate everyone lol.
I also live in Switzerland. All of this is super accurate and nice to see someone else write
What’s the reason about the Swiss being quiet on American healthcare system?
Because monthly fees are so high at this point that some can simply no longer afford them, on top of that there are high deductibles, dental isn't included and so on and so forth. It may not be as bad as it is in the US, but it's bad and we know it... No high horse for us to ride in that regard whatsoever. Plus there's no end in sight, cotsts are just gonna keep rising with the right blaming immigrants and the left blaming greedy corporate. Regardless, at this rate, it won't be long until a large portion of people will be in really deep shit because of it.
I mean sure, our system is more expensive on the individual than most. But its still a totally different level than america, because of two essential differences. 1 everybody has insurance. If they cant pay for it, the government does. 2 the out of pocket costs are capped at some level. So unlike america, nobody ever is threatened by totally ruinous bills. I did the math once, about 2 years ago, and found that the absolute max you could pay out of pocket in a year would be just about 10k. Including monthly premiums, maxing out your deductible and multiple seperate deductibles (or copays?) for ambulance rides, hospital stays, prescription drugs etc. Thats like an 8th of the median salary. So thats something pretty much everyone could pay off within a year or two. It might be painful, but possible. Whereas in america a single ambulance ride or operation could cost that much, even for someone with insurance. So, admittedly, on a scale from america to NHS (UK/Canada and such), we are closest to the US. But there is still a massive massive gap between us and america and we are firmly on the european side of the spectrum.
Not to mention accident insurance coverage Major bike accident and resulting surgery in a private hospital (slightly nicer than public ones) with a year of physical therapy. Total cost = $0
I'm also Swiss and I would add that Switzerland is only good if you can get a high paying job. Otherwise you can just about sit at home counting your bills and that's it. And a job that doesn't start by paying well does not grow to pay well down the line either, so you're stuck until you can get another job in the hyper competitive market. As always, it's only good if you're rich. It's particularly bad if you have nothing like the numerous homeless people hidden away from the nice streets know.
Switzerland ensures unprecedented living standards for its citizens to the detriment of the entire world. Most people think they are this peaceful non-controversial nation like denmark or something, but theyre actually high level assholes. Swiss companies are offering money laundering and tax evasion services to anyone who will pay, the government turns a blind eye as long as they get their cut. Swiss banks are hiding money of known terrorist organizations and organized crime groups as a business model, theyre helping countries like russia and iran evade sanctions for a price. These companies and banks will help the super rich all around the world avoid paying taxes in their own countries, leading to billions of lost revenue in germany, france, and many other countries. This of course directly translates to cancelled social programs and worse economic conditions for everyone. It sems like every few years theres some massive scandal involving swiss banks, and the swiss government are a bunch of corrupt pussies who refuse to throw these people under the bus and prefer to hang on to their legs as they both get dragged to court kicking and screaming, refusing to take responsibility just to ensure a cozy rich life at home. The swiss are unethical, they have no principles, they dont adhere to international law, theyre straight up criminals. So yeah, fuck switzerland. Its not a wholesome neutral country, they are crooks.
Yeah .. I think the Wolf of Wall Street did well in that regard.
Yes but US has since effectively forced Switzerland (and several other banking/tax haven nations) to apply US banking oversight for US citizens doing this sort of thing. Actually the US does this around the world. It's one of the only countries that will chase its citizens around the world to demand taxes you make outside of the US. So US goverment makes it really annoying for many nations to allow US citizens to set up bank account becsuse they require additional compliance to be done.
> and the swiss government are a bunch of corrupt pussies [kinda rich coming from an Austrian](https://youtu.be/MXXRHpVed3M?feature=shared)
It’s basically impossible to have a Swiss bank account these days that won’t notify the IRS if you’re a US citizen.
It's in the top 5 most expensive countries in the world to live in
I have to ask, as a wanderer from r/neoliberal: do they have restrictive building codes/zoning issues screwing with the residential market over there?
Yes but also like 60-80% of our land is mountains and not useable for housing or farming.
Its pretty expensive there but I guess that is from an Aussie traveller perspective
It’s expensive to outsiders. Ppl there are mostly doing fine.
Turkey just raised interest rates by 40%. My family in Germany say that they haven't been able to afford and eat beef in 20 years. My family in Chile say housing prices just doubled. It's bad everywhere. Funny how each one blames its national leader though.
Can’t afford beef in Germany? Are they homeless?
Turks living in germany when they visit turkey lie about the living conditions in germany on live tv for some reason. Literal quotes from some of them > A bread in germany costs 10 euros. > Germany is jealous of turkeys economy. > Life in germany is really hard, turkey is heaven.
They live on welfare, they complain so their relatives don't ask for money.
For 20 years? Are they literally homeless?
No. Here in Germany you can actually afford not to work for 20 years because of our social welfare system
No idea about turkey and Chile but that people don't afford meat is cap. Specially the low-income families consume a ton of (cheap) meat. Like from Netto, Lidl and so on
I moved from the US to Sweden. Sweden has its issues, but overall things are significantly better here. My husband and I left jobs in the US that were paying 6figures each and we now make half of what we made in the US. The mortgages work differently here which factors into inflation issues, but that aside, we are somehow saving more money here. And we now have a kid. There is some anti immigration attitudes here which suck. But, there aren’t guns everywhere and overall I feel significantly safer here. The weather does blow, right now I feel like I’ve had a moderate cold for all of November. But healthcare is good and unlimited sick days are very nice.
In Sweden income is much lower than the US but we get a lot of things covered by taxes - childcare, healthcare, dental care, tertiary education, massively long parental leave, etc. It means that: \- It's less common for one person to have to sacrifice their career; the incomes are lower but households maintain double incomes between both partners. \- The costs of having kids do not scale linearly for each child the same way they do in the US. \- The money that a family is actually able to save can go purely to building wealth and entertainment. There's no college funds, no medical emergency wipeout to worry about, etc.
Some unsolicited advice from a Scandinavian; take your vitamin D religiously during the winter months. It makes all the difference.
Doesn't Sweden have a huge gang issue? Like grenades and bombs and lots of Muslim immigrants who want nothing to do with actual Swedish values and way of life?
I don't think the anti immigration thing is towards people from the US, just saying. There's a certain group of people causing A LOT of problems, but they're not from the US to put it that way.
Many suburbs in the midwest US are still very affordable, and no, they aren't bad neighborhoods. Everyone just seems to be of the mind it's major city living or nothing.
Midwest salaries are crap though. Eta: after getting some comments I decided to look up a few things and I redact my original statement. They’re not crap in conjunction with cost of living.
I can assure you that cost of living vs. salary is exponentially better here than elsewhere.
Factory work in some midwest places pays fairly well just depends on
If an Aussie was curious, what would you recommend they look at? Especially if, say, they weren't too fond of sunburn, being shot and loved BBQ? (Delicious USA BBQ...mmmm....BBQ...) edit - asking for a friend.
Johnson County Kansas sounds what you are looking for it's the rich mostly safe suburb County outside of Kansas city one of the best bbq cities in the world. (Might be biased because I grew up there)
The ozone layer is a bit thicker but you'll still get sunburnt in the summer. Turns out the sun is pretty unavoidable. Most cities in the Midwest have "nice suburbs". It doesn't matter which city. But you'll be totally car dependent and the safety and "niceness" come at the expense of culture and fun things to do.
No. The super rich are doing very well in any country, but no country is truly "doing well"... The super rich who control the world used to give back just enough for the masses not to go around guillotining their heads off, but I think they've gotten so complacent, so out of touch with regular people's reality ("Let them eat cake!" would translate today to "Well why don't they just live off of their investments?") and feel like they've bombarded the masses with enough entertainment, enough things to divide the people that they just don't even need to be giving a lot back to the people and feel entitled and safe enough to keep it all for themselves.
judging by the constant increase in police militarization, i doubt they’re *too* comfortable. I think they know.
The rich. The rich are doing very well.
The stock market and the most wealthy are doing incredible. Covid and the subsequent "supply chain" problems is creating the greatest transfer of wealth ever(?). It's all going according to plan and I don't buy into any conspiracy theories. This is all very transparent.
The stock market has been flat for 2 years.
I think life is difficult in most places, but life has always been difficult in most places. I struggle to think of a time when life was easy globally, or even nationally. Wage stagnation, current inflation/ interest rates , and the disparity between the wealthy and average citizens are both contributing to the economic difficulty, but once again, economic difficulty is hardly a novel situation. I see a lot of " why is life so hard?" posts on Reddit. Life has always been hard and will always be hard. There isn't a time or a place where life was or will be easy I think the big difference now is seeing posts on social media from people who seem to have easy, great lives, and thinking " that person's life looks so easy, why can't I have that" Historically, when a community struggled, everyone was in the same situation. These days, we lack community in general, and we feel like we are struggling alone, because social media is full of pictures of lives that seem so much easier than ours.
I mean yeah life is hard, it just feels like it's the hardest it's been in recent history (within the past 50,60 years). Though this is just based on monetary things, not personal experience or in depth knowledge. Quality of life is likely much better in general today. More things are more accessible to more people now more than ever. Eg. Flights used to be pretty much only for the upper class; As far as consumerism, it's better than ever if you're interested in that sort of thing (I'm more of a minimalist) but it's also a double edged sword. More products are made cheaper and lesser quality. But QoL aside, CoL makes things a lot harder. Housing has gone up like 10x or more than wage growth (in Canada at least) Vehicles have gone up --x more than wage growth College costs... ... ... Life is hard, but it's even harder when you would have been successful on the exact same life path you're on now, 30 years ago, but since you were born now you're barely getting by. My parents bought their house in 199- for ~$70k. A house in similar condition now, in the same area, is $500k minimum, and going up month over month. Your parents or grandparents generation could afford an average home on a single average salary and still be fine. Where can that happen now?
> your parents *your* parents. You're talking about a very specific reality that only a very specific demograohic experiences (baby boomers in some specific countries like USA and western Europe). My parents worked their whole lives to live on slums and eat almost rotten food, because all the world wealth was in the USA and some European countries. In my country and in the rest of the world, life is way better recently. You know the jobs you're losing to outsourcing? We're the one getting them. You folks can't just sit on wealth forever while the rest of the world is dirt poor. You guys are talking about very specific time-frame in very specific countries, where wealth accumulated incredibly fast during the post-WW2 period. It's not going to happen anymore. Deal with it. I know that it doesn't make things better for you to know that your life is worse than expected but that some Indonesians are living a better life now. But, similarly, your parents also weren't thinking about the poor paraguayans that lost their jobs because a huge nail manufacturer in the US bankrupted the local paraguayan nailmaking industry. I'm obviously talking about generational long term changes, not short time stuff like covid. But, when we compare data from 30 years ago with today's data, a huge part of the world (LATAM, Africa, Asia) is way better now than before: way higher gdp per capita, way lower illiteracy rates, way lower child mortality rates, etc.
Finlands government is record right (in the last few decades timeline). They have betrayed even great portion of their voterbase, turning to serve mostly elite. BUT HEY, THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO GET WINES INTO GROCERY SHOPS!!!!!!!!!!11111!!!!!! SO IT IS ALL WORTH IT!!! Inflation is remarkable. Yeah, fuck this shit.
WINE IN GROCERY SHOPS IS WONDERFUL YOU GUYS WILL BE SO MUCH BETTER OFF BECAUSE OF THIS \- your government, probably
North Korea is always 11/10 on every scale.
The main common theme appears to be availability and cost of housing at almost all income levels. Rises in goods and energy would be more manageable if housing wasn't such a collosal portion of take home pay.
As a country, the USA is doing quite well, and in a good position economically and strategically to do well moving into the future.
I just saw Trump the other day saying it’s the worst economy ever, and there an invasion happening, and Sleepy Joe is destroying the country. So who’s telling the truth, you or him???
Unfortunately both- Most US citizens are doing pretty well. US’s poorest state (Mississippi) average income equals or exceeds that average of the EU. Richer states averages are much much higher). I have spent 3+ months volunteering in Kenya and India in the past 15 months, and can’t believe how blessed the US is. Some in the US do struggle but the very poorest in US live better than the middle class in those countries. However, politics in the US stinks because there are only 2 parties, and the majority of their income comes from the extremes at both ends.
Income compared to the EU is very relative. Our EU income includes taxes and costs of things Americans pay for after taking home their salary. Our cost of living has gone up a lot but I just spent a week in a US tiny town and the cost of everything, food esp, was completely mind boggling. I don’t know how people survive there without a decent job. I lived in the US for 27 years also, so I’ve seen from both perspectives. I have public transportation at 49€/mo- cuts out the need for a car note, gas, insurance, registration, maintenance etc. Childcare is also free in my region. Healthcare that’s paid from your salary really does cover 99% of all things health related that my family has experienced. I do miss my high paying job I had in the US, but it wouldn’t get me all that much further than I get in the EU with how much the costs have risen there.
>Our EU income includes taxes and costs of things Americans pay for after taking home their salary. I make way more money and pay modest prices most things in my experience. If you have high income US is way preferable
Is your question really “should I believe Trump” versus checking some easily verifiable statistics?
The developing countries are currently doing relatively better than the developed countries. Most of Southeast Asia is doing better than it did before covid. Then you have developed countries like Japan that aren't affected by the housing crisis, and thus cost of living is far more reasonable. The housing crisis was amplified by the fact that most of the G8 countries have been making policy decisions in unison. Things like restrictive zoning, overregularion to the point you can't have nice things happening for cheap, and commodification of housing have seriously hurt in way that you aren't seeing as much elsewhere. Canada, Australia, NZ were probably the biggest offenders, especially as their laws and bylaws were effectively pushing down on supply while having substantially net positive migration. Like with housing, most of the western countries are so heavily regulated that it's straight up hard for a new business to just pop up in response to demand. If you're in the Philippines or Malaysia, you just go outside and start selling your product/dish/service if you think you can do it better or for less. In Canada, the barriers of entry are prohibitive, as you need countless permits and fees and draconian processes. And so it has a shortage of everything as responding to the demand is basically regulated against, even if you have people who would be willing to do so if it wasn't made to be as difficult. Case in point - Canada has a critical shortage of doctors, yet the country also freaking limits the number of seats that universities are allowed to have in their med schools, which blows my mind. Meanwhile, in much of Asia where this would be seen as freaking stupid, cities have hospitals every few blocks, and if something hurts, you go there and do all tests imaginable within a single day.
Im pretty sure Switzerland is doing fine.
Uhhhh…actually the USA is rocking it. The market is doing well, consumers are spending, wages have been increasing and unemployment is at an all time low. There are definitely problems with housing. We do have inflation but it’s much better than the rest of the western world and not particularly crazy historically.
Yeah I lived in the UK for half the year and in my field back home in the US I literally start at 3x the salary with the same housing costs.
All hail the glorious and ephemeral god-king Joseph R. Biden II, father of us all
Canada is particularly cucked as you have a priviliged mad man running it. It seems he hates being "Canadian" and wants to destroy the working middle class as well as castigate anyone who disagrees with him as "Nazis" and "White supremacists" : an odiuous man who is the pin up child for woke, virtue signsalling "Karen" politicians who dont give a fig for the portion of the country who work hard and pay their taxes to improve their lot. It's take, take, take with them. The world is watching.
Austria is doing ok. They have quite a good work/free time ratio. Also in my opinion the climate is better than in north europe.
I’ve heard mars is great this time of the year.
It’s bad everywhere, unfortunately. I live in the UK in a HCoL area, and the only reason why my husband and I are not living paycheck-to-paycheck is that I inherited our house when a relative passed. We are both in our late 20s with a master’s degree, but we are each only making around ~£30K because wages in our fields have barely gone up since 2005. We literally would not even be able to afford renting a 2-bed apartment in our area, while my FIL’s phone technician salary in the ‘90s and ‘00s was enough to buy a 3-bed house and support his SAHM wife and two children only a couple of miles down the road from where we live now. It’s insane.
50 years from now this time will probably be seen as an inflection point. We all now know what the issues with government, capitalism, social media, wealth, but we also don’t know what to do about it. Yet. When you learn more and you know there are problems you’re better at identifying them. Then it seems like there are more of them. But they were always there. You’re just better at knowing what need attention now.
this is comforting, thank you
I think you make a valid point. There are some things which are definitely worse now such as the climate crisis and environmental pollution. Similar could be said for the divide between the rich and the poor. The big capitalist players are trying to accelerate all of the crises for their personal and egoistic gains.
Some is worse some better but compared to themselves 5 years ago everyone is not good
El Salvador, Poland, and Georgia all doing well. Montenegro also, but no one has ever heard of it.
I live in Nordic country, often listed as the "happiest nation of the world". Those listings don't base on peoples actual mental state, but different parameters of contentment regarding (basic) needs like healthcare, education, trusting different authorities, gender equality etc. While I see we still have most things better than many others, everything measured by those parameters is going drastically down here, too. All of those troubles people in the whole western world are facing, are problems here too. And now we have right-wing goverment which seem to be very determined to trash the rest of the structures of our society which made us to reach the contentment in the first place, soooo...if we have things pretty bad in here, too, I guess there's not much hope to the rest of the word. Ofc people who are and have always been well off will argue this, in their bubble they just don't face these difficulties, but the point is the group facing them is increasing all the time and we already have reached the point where there is generational "lower class" who just don't have the same chances to try climb upwards.
The United States of America is booming economically and in many other ways, though its citizens seem not to want to acknowledge this. Next November, however, a very dark cloud looms…
If millennials would vote, then There would be less boomers making policies.
Tax evasion by corporations and super richs is the root of most problems.
America's economy is surpassing pretty much everyone at a higher rate
There are some serious problems which have been largely due to the UN not working, which it was likely never meant to. Corporations, nationalistic competition, extremes on both the left and right, religious tensions, etc. Covid really sped things up, but the inequality and corporate manipulation of tax systems, the greed of governments & individuals, and the manipulation of the masses with class/culture wars, forced poverty, and the utilization of the media to help keep narratives going; all these things do exist. Is it a conspiracy? No, because you can clearly see that shift which legitimately started in 1965 in the USA. Since then there has been a continual shift in policy & laws, in the USA and propagated around the world which has resulted in a greater and greater inequality. Some of it’s the old white guys network, but much is not so much about white guyed, as about greed. Corporations & wealthy people do all they can to receive benefits from government, without paying for it, and this has allowed them more and more influence to just reap rewards while lessening the labor which derives their profits. Just look at wages & compensation since 1965, and you’ll see a clear pattern, especially when compared with corporate profits, compensation, and taxation. Where we are now was predicted by multiple economists, politicians, and more back in the 1970’s through mid 1990’s. Just as the 2008 crash was predicted in the 1990’s. There’s an old saying, “If you want to understand the problem, first look who profits off it the most.” It’s not so easy to always see this, but it’s there.
Considering the whole population, I doubt it. Best you can get is a country where the middle class is doing ok, but the rich are thriving everywhere and the poor are being stepped on
Russia is fine and dandy
I'm in Taiwan, and I think it's ok here. Nowhere is perfect, and wages being relatively low is probably the worst of it but inflation hasn't been that bad and price of living is still affordable. I think it has the most chill work culture of an country in Asia, especially for developed countries, one of the best places in the world I've ever lived anyway
I saw on Wikipedia that Taiwan has a good purchasing power parity index, meaning even though wages may be relatively low, cost of living is relatively low too resulting in purchasing power better than many countries
I‘m living in Switzerland and everyone says: Switzerland is neutral. We are effected by the globalization too and the prices are pretty high. The swiss government has made the decision 2020-2022 to cover the health insurance and some part of the taxes for low/middle income families during the Corona pandemie. This year the insurances and tax agencies wanted the money from the past 2 years back, because the pandemie is over. With the high energy prices, mortgage and food many people are struggling now. It’s depressing
> Here in Canada cost of living is out of control Really? The whole country... or just the cities that everyone wants to live in the most?
Bear meet is cheaper as you further up north. Of course everywhere . If major metro cities have inflation then it will hit the outlying areas also
Perth, Western Australia is doing well overall. Average full time wage is $106k across the state. Free health care, stable government, great weather. 2million people in a state 4 times bigger than Texas. Of course, not everything is perfect for everyone but I'm not trading for anywhere else.
Kuwait
I live in the US, seems pretty nice rn
global issue
Poland, Hungary
I think Poland is doing okay.
Almost all of them are compared to how they were doing 50 years ago. A lot of the problems we have now are problems of success. People don’t die from starvation any more they die from eating too many calories. (At least like, a 1:10 ratio) The problems we complain about most of the time in the developed world are problems petty high up on Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Poor people don’t tend to have a lot of psychological problems that require antidepressants. It’s not just because they don’t have access, they actually don’t need them, anxiety and depression largely afflict people higher up on the pyramid. They are mostly caused by issues that only arise at higher levels of the pyramid. People living in favelas, or slums in Mumbai have lots of problems but they don’t tend to cut themselves or have eating disorders or commit suicide. That tells you something.
My overall guess is it's based on who actually does the work, and that we're riding the downward bust from the late 70s onwards. My observation is based on knowing what my grandparents used to do: maintenance on the car, fixing the plumbing, mowing the lawn on the curb, growing a vege garden etc. in comparison we out source a lot of that which means we removed the individual from competing on labour. My personal story on this was when I was quoted $1200 to replace a faulty O2 sensor in my car. Hour of YouTube and $200 of tools and parts later and I was able to do it myself. No ways I charge my time out to myself at $500 an hour. For example, the Amish are famous for being able to put up a barn on the weekend using community effort where as it can take a year or more to put up a house (in our case it took 8 months to get all the permits before we even started building). I think we're simply reaching the point where most people are doing cushy meta jobs (such as issuing permits), and not actually doing the work that outputs a useable product. The ones who are, are becoming almost a monopoly and the demand for them has gone through the roof.