Tarnport1d ago
Europeans here may know this, but many Europeans on the streets seem not to: Yes Americans are rolling in discretionary dollars. Their salaries are stratospheric compared to ours, sometimes triple for the same jobs. BUT please note that in that pay there's no healthcare, no college tuition, no retirement, no job security day to day, little vacation and few benefits. Add car insurance that can run over 200/mo, and most are in debt (average mortgages are 30 years!) Those big bucks are an illusion.
Show threadNilaJones

@Tarnport

I had no idea people in Europe thought we were rolling in the dough

In the US of course, the misinformation is the opposite -- 'super high taxes' with no acknowledgment that all the money goes back to you, in the form of real benefit

It's not like taxes in the US, which all go to the military

In the US, we are used to taxes being a unidirectional transfer of funds

And then of course there is the propaganda, that pretends the money isn't going to the military, but instead it is going to People Who Are Not Like You, and therefore you should hate them

Mar 29 at 6:16pmWeb
Show threadJürgen Hubert1d ago

@NilaJones @Tarnport

It's not exactly that most of us Europeans are rich.

But the situation in the USA is more horrible than most of us can imagine. We really shouldn't see the USA as a "developed country". Sure, they have a number of wealthy "islands" where all the amenities are available.

But, well, so has Thailand. And this doesn't change the vast swathes of poverty in between.

Show threadTarnport1d ago
@juergen_hubert @NilaJones I believe this is true. I wish more Americans could see it sooner, too.
Show threadTarnport1d ago
@NilaJones it's a mess. I sympathize. I know all that's true and I hear you loud and clear. In Europe alot of those seemingly high taxes are split with the employer so as a percentage it actually feels about the same, except of course for the employer (that's a whole different story) and for the fact that you get all those benefits.
Show threadd.rift1d ago
@NilaJones @Tarnport The salaries on american job postings look outrageously high. And the media portrays average life as approximating that. But this doesn't take into account how many people don't make that kind of money, or how much of that money goes straight down the hole of a society tailored to take it away.
Show threadNilaJones1d ago

@d_rift @Tarnport

Yes, exactly

First of all, most Americans don't get a salary

We get hourly wage, only for the hours that we are actually working

No sick pay, no paid holidays

Any job that lists a salary is already only talking about, what, the top 25%? Maybe less when we count immigrants and migrants

Show threadTarnport1d ago
@d_rift @NilaJones yes. Not even to get into the quality of life about being surrounded by depression and poverty even if you are doing okay yourself, like the violence and ignorance. E.g., one of my neighbor's daughters is not someone I would describe as bright. She was taking the bac last year to graduate from H.S. and just to be polite at dinner one night I asked how it was going. Among other things she lectured me on Schopenhauer! I value that the least among us get a full education.
Show threadNilaJones1d ago

@Tarnport @d_rift

Here it is so class-based. If she were upper middle class, or owning class, she would probably get that education. And get into Harvard

But boy have I talked to some brilliant US people who didn't finish high school