How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years.. (American Reacts)

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[kimbirch]

An American tourist on holiday on a Greek Island, engaged in conversation with a local fisherman, who was sitting on the harbour wall, watching the world roll by.
The American asked him of he'd been out fishing today, and he replied that he'd been out for a few hours in the morning.
The tourist then asked him why he didn't fish all day.
The fisherman asked why he should do that.
" well, then you could catch more fish, and buy a bigger boat, and make lots of money " said the tourist.
" And then what? " asked the Fisher man.
" Well then you could retire, take it easy, and enjoy life "
" But that's just what I'm doing now " said the Fisherman.

[coot]

I'm a brit who was married to an American for 15 years.
One Christmas we went to her dads real estate partners house.
One the very first questions the guy asked me is what do I do as a job.
I told him I'm a trucker.
Then he asked me if it paid well.
I said it payes the bills and allowes us to take 2 trips to Florida a year.
He asked how we could afford to take that much time off work.
I told him it's law to give employee's 4 weeks a year payed vacation and that all our health care is free.
He didn't ask any further questions after that.
✌❤🇬🇧

[lucypembroke]

I love videos of Americans who moved to Europe. To a large extend, they appreciate our work/life balance, our health system, our "freedom" that they have been taught only exists in We western Europeans complain a lot about our countries. Then we watch these videos and are reminded how good life is in Europe

[zyoninkiro]

I moved to Europe over two decades ago and have lived for almost twenty years in Italy. Somethings that I love about Europe which I can't get in the US:
1. Good quality public transport - I don't need a car and can easily move around with buses, trams (streetcars), metro and trains.
2. Convenient shops - Since Europe does not have stupid "zoning" laws, shops can be in the same area as houses. Supermarkets, tobacco shops, news stands, convenience stores (bodegas), hardware stores etc an easy five to ten minute walk away.
3. Excellent quality food - Ingredient lists are short and you don't need a chemistry major to read them. Preservatives are very rare as are artificial colors and flavors. Many foods are produced within a day's drive of my city.
4. Public health insurance - I don't have to worry about bankruptcy just because I had to goto the ER. The most I ever pay is around €30 which includes EVERYTHING including tests. Wait times are typically less than wait times for seeing a specialist in the states. GP visits are free and appointments are quick.
5. Shops are human sized. While hypermarkets (Carrefour, Auchan, etc) can be found, most shops are small. Even supermarkets are pretty small, maybe twice as large as a Dollar General for many larger supermarkets. Even hypermarkets are smaller as a Wal-Mart Supercenter is a behemoth in comparison.
6. Things are genuine - So many places in the US feel like movie sets. In Europe, what you see is what you get and does not feel like a facade to evoke some type of feeling.
7. Work is just less hectic. - I work as a school teacher. My work feels valued and I am not pushed to meet artificial goals. I have worked for private language schools and even there, I more relaxed than when I worked in the States.
Overall, I have no plans to return to the US anytime in the next few years. Here I work to live, not live to work.

[T.O.P.]

In The Netherlands they say: I work to live, I don't live to work.

[DViLThOrY]

I used to earn a lot of money (this isn't a brag or anything) and I was TERRIBLY unhappy, then I suffered massive head trauma and I am now on disability benefits and I'm the happiest I've ever been! - my dad used to say "there's no point being the richest man in the graveyard!" Happiness comes first! 💜

[LalaDepala_]

A teacher of mine once said in highschool "the United States offers unlimited freedom to the rich and big corporations. This includes the freedom to scam and steal."

[juwen]

What's good on thousands of food options, when every single one is a bad choice.

[Chuulip]

I'm from Germany. I meet my best friends since childhood (3 ppl) every weekend. We're all in our mid-30s now, and I have no idea what exactly the job of 2 of them is and where they work. I know one guy is in IT, the other in physics. And for the 3rd one I know her job and employer only because I helped her apply for it back then and proofread application.

But we just don't talk about these things, they're irrelevant.

[wizardm]

I am a former german police officer and police trainer. The problem with US policing is that they are underfunded, badly selected and badly trained. The major police tactics is self protection and enforcing. The result is a kind of war against citizns.
In Germany a police officer has to pass a difficult assesment before being hired for training. The training is about three years fulltime and is paid.

[diegoapalategui]

I was offered a six figures job in the US....NO WAY. Almost no vacations, no liveable downtowns, superlong distances, police issues, safety issues, superexpensive medicine, bad food, ....i stay in Europe.

[uli]

"Are you happy?" Best question ^^

[tussk.]

Whenever I talk to Americans about the poor work/life balance, they always say that it's worth it because the USA has the best and strongest economy in the world, but at what cost? The obsession with being the biggest and the best has come at the expense of health, family, wellbeing and peace of mind. What's the use of earning more than the next guy if you're working 60 hours a week? When do you get to take a breath and enjoy what you've worked for?

We don't work ourselves into the ground, rushing around and exhausting ourselves, and we still enjoy a pretty good lifestyle. When we take a holiday, we typically go to one place and spend a week or two there, safe in the knowledge that we can go to that other place later in the year. We don't have to cram everything into the one week we get because we'll get fired if we take a single hour longer. Our job is what we do, it doesn't define who we are. When I go home, I don't spend a second thinking about work until 9am the next day. You have been told that this is socialism and will lead to the collapse of the country, but we are doing just fine. Come try it. You might like it.

[JamanWerSonst]

I worked in IT in Germany making about 60k a year. If I looked at similar jobs in the US they often easily paid more than double that. But thats not all there is to it.
I have a month of paid vacation, free healthcare and education(no student loan debt, no worries about getting kids through uni). I never worked for more than 40 hours a week on average and no one expected me to be available outside of my regular hours. And I get paid sick days whenever I am sick and no one looks at me weird, on the contrary, people look weird when you cough all over the place in the office.
When I decided to switch jobs I didn't lose my health insurance and I was paid 60% of my last salary in unemployment benefits during the months I was looking for a new job. (that is only for a certain amount of time, but plenty of time to find a new job and you get tons of assistance in finding one if you need it)
The new job pays even less than the last one, and I am fine with that and expected it, I was just tired of working in IT for e-commerce and wanted to do something with more "purpose".

[higgolini]

To put it succinctly, in Europe, they have culture. In the US, they have consumerism.

[tkxdjsz]

I had a history teacher who once said that the USA is a third world country. All the students in the classroom was shocked by his statement but after I have seen a lot of YT-videos with poor and homeless people I am starting to understand that he was not wrong. Greetings from Sweden!

[dutchman]

Americans have thirty kinds of toilet paper in a shop a half hour car drive away, which is nice.
I am Dutch and have thirty supermarkets, at the same distance, which have only eight kinds of toilet paper.
So within five to ten minutes cycling, I have four supermarkets with eight choices, makes thirty two to pick from.
The claim Americans have more choice is an illusion! I can even walk to Aldi, Jumbo, Albert Heyn, Coop, or Lidl.

[fablb]

The only thing about Europe that Americans must understand is that it is not a country…. But 50 totally different countries with different cultures, languages, religions, climates, ethnicities, ways of life and level of economy. Some european countries are high income like the US, but other are much lower economically, and some are poor. You can’t say « i know Europe », europe is like this or like that… if you have lived in just one country. The same way you can’t make generalisations about the americas if you have just visited the US. Is Bolivia the same as US ? albania, montenegro or Moldova are nothing like Iceland. Portugal is nothing like Finland or Sweden, , ,

why u want more money if u dont have the time to spend it?

[teroholopainen]

I am a Finn (Finland, the happiest country in the world seven year in a row) living in Australia. I did live in Germany for a year late 90's, and a few months in California in 2002. So I see where the guy in the video, the one being reacted to, is coming from and I agree. In Australia I work 40 hours a week, in US I worked 60, and in Finland I worked 37.5. What I miss in Australia are the extra 3.5 weeks of vacation time we had in Finland, as in Ozzie we only have 4 weeks a year. And here in Australia, same as in Finland, no one was really concerned about who you work for, but they do ask how you're doing. And then they are surprised when I tell them how I really am doing, as just like in US, they really don't want to know. Unlike in Finland, that question would not be asked if they really would not want to know.