|
|
|
|
|
|
by acabal
5783 days ago
|
|
|
From what I understand, wages and jobs are about even, given that Germans, Kiwis, English, and Australian pay much more tax than we do. Kiwis and Aussies do get more time off, but only a few weeks more than us; many take a year off to travel anyway. Come to England or Germany and talk to the locals who feel that outsourcing and foreigners are taking their jobs away; I met a Swedish person just yesterday who was talking about how it would take at least 2 months for him to secure a new job as a seasoned mechanical engineer, because since it's so hard to fire people there, it's super hard to get hired. We have it amazingly good here in America, for a lot of things. Travel is surprisingly cheap, provided you don't spend your time in 5-star hotels. This month in Belgium will cost me about 850 euros including food and rent, which isn't too far off from living with a roommate in Los Angeles, my previous home. Go to Vietnam and you'll live like a king on $500/month. Oftentimes the most expensive part of the trip is the plane ticket. Of course still not everyone can afford to do this; but if you can, then you'll find that doing so will be a landmark in your life, even if it seemed very scary at first. |
|
|
They pay more taxes but get more for their taxes (free health care, education, more unemployment protection, etc.).
>who was talking about how it would take at least 2 months for him to secure a new job as a seasoned mechanical engineer, because since it's so hard to fire people there, it's super hard to get hired.
But being unemployed in Sweden for two months is a completely different world to being unemployed in the US. Further, if he's working then he'll have a 2 month notice period anyway, so he probably wont have any time off at all.
One thing is not fundamentally better than the other. They are just trade offs. Personally I find the Swedish one a hell of a lot less stressful in bad times.