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Forums - General Discussion - I'm Moving to America :-)

d21lewis said:
cfin2987@gmail.com said:

How much is your health insurance, or how much does you and your employer pay for it, and then how much per year is your co pay, max out of pocket and co insurance + deductable? How much is it to attend a University for a year in Georgia? How much are property taxes on a 1,200 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath house? Georgia is a lot different to NJ too. But you can't tell me there is no racism there. I'm also guessing that everything applies except the racism.

-No idea what my health insurance is. My company provides it. I just pay like $30 out of pocket whenever I've gone.

-I have a great job. Made almost $75k last year and didn't even go to college. I joined the Airforce instead. Got out, became a cop, and then applied for a job at a nuclear power plant and got it. AND I'm among the lowest paid people there. 

-I carry my wallet everywhere I go. I sit outside on my porch at night and look at the stars. I own my own land and I'm buying my own house. Should be paid off in about a decade.

-The only debt I have is my home and basic utilities. Everything else is paid off except for my fiance's (she's white) engagement ring. I can pay it off right now but I like how the money looks in my bank account.

 

-I rarely, if ever, get sick. Sorry. My daughter (with my ex--she's black) goes to the hospital all of the time, though. Almost weekly. She has "Peach Care" so it's not expensive at all.

 

-Never been beaten up by a racist. People seem to love me and they're pretty nice. Not saying it didn't exist. I just don't see it, personally.  Then again, I don't go looking for it.

 

-I love meat. I may eat too much of it. My fiance is an excellent cook.

 

-I own an acre of land. My taxes were about $900 last year. 4 bedroom, two bath. Well water.

-*edit*: I made a thread a long time ago called "What's the poorest you've ever been".  My family was dirt poor. I just kept a good attitude, worked hard at every job I ever had, and avoided stupid mistakes. I can pay virtually all of my bills in a single paycheck. My fiance dropped out of school, went back and got her GED, and she's successful, too.  The only thing keeping me from moving into a better home is that I have a 30 year mortgage that began in the year 2000 and I don't want to rent my home out and haven't tried a realtor. It'll probably happen soon, though.

Again, I'm not very religious but I do feel blessed!

You're very fortunate. I lived in the US for 5 years as I met the woman of my dreams. I worked my ass off. Bought a 1,200 sq ft house with property tax of $3,200 a year. Commuted an hour to work every day. Worked for the state as I stupidly thought it would stop people from telling me that my kids should carry a passport around with them as "Der daddy don't have no american assent".  Instead I put up with ridicule on a daily basis and was often told to go home and give my job to a young american. Some interviewers asked me things like "What makes you think you can come in here and take a job", on more than one occasion.

I paid $100 a month for insurance at the begginign with my employer paying $1,200. That was their excuse to not give me a good raise. 6 promotions in 5 years and I was earning less than when I started with increased state taxes, health insurance of $400 a month and an employer contribution of $1,500 monthly. The last straw was when we had our second kid and we had to pay $3,000 out of pocket. Meanwhile our property tax increased to $4,000 a year. They cut 4k in the local public school and they were threatening to lay off people at my University while cutting the budget massively. Land of opportunity? Not for everyone.  And those are just a few of the issues I had. Not to mention that half the people I knew were popping pills to deal wth life. Very sad.

I stole away a good american. My wife. And we moved home.  She wanted to go 5 or 6 years ago and I didn't listen. Working 70 hour weeks and 2 jobs has probably aged me 10 years. Thanks America. We are very happy and life is so good now.

It really depends on the state. Like Ireland V Poland. All the states are different.



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d21lewis said:

I concur. My biggest worry is him making disrespecting other countries. I fear him "putting up walls" (not even literally) rather than building bridges. No matter how tough the US may be, were significantly less without our allies.

You're right on that.

Europe is seeing its own rise of nationalist-populism. HK is getting worse, too. I notice a lot more people staring at me now who didn't before, hell I had some guy physically attack me on the train the other day, out of nowhere. My girlfriend, mainland Chinese, was frequently called a "locust" by the local HK students when she was at Uni here.

I think some of the commenters in this thread need to take a good hard look at the political shifts in their own country, before criticizing America for Trump. Similarly, Americans need to take note that it's not just happening to them. It's a global shift. If more people realised that, maybe we could get further along in understanding why.



cfin2987@gmail.com said:
d21lewis said:

-No idea what my health insurance is. My company provides it. I just pay like $30 out of pocket whenever I've gone.

-I have a great job. Made almost $75k last year and didn't even go to college. I joined the Airforce instead. Got out, became a cop, and then applied for a job at a nuclear power plant and got it. AND I'm among the lowest paid people there. 

-I carry my wallet everywhere I go. I sit outside on my porch at night and look at the stars. I own my own land and I'm buying my own house. Should be paid off in about a decade.

-The only debt I have is my home and basic utilities. Everything else is paid off except for my fiance's (she's white) engagement ring. I can pay it off right now but I like how the money looks in my bank account.

 

-I rarely, if ever, get sick. Sorry. My daughter (with my ex--she's black) goes to the hospital all of the time, though. Almost weekly. She has "Peach Care" so it's not expensive at all.

 

-Never been beaten up by a racist. People seem to love me and they're pretty nice. Not saying it didn't exist. I just don't see it, personally.  Then again, I don't go looking for it.

 

-I love meat. I may eat too much of it. My fiance is an excellent cook.

 

-I own an acre of land. My taxes were about $900 last year. 4 bedroom, two bath. Well water.

-*edit*: I made a thread a long time ago called "What's the poorest you've ever been".  My family was dirt poor. I just kept a good attitude, worked hard at every job I ever had, and avoided stupid mistakes. I can pay virtually all of my bills in a single paycheck. My fiance dropped out of school, went back and got her GED, and she's successful, too.  The only thing keeping me from moving into a better home is that I have a 30 year mortgage that began in the year 2000 and I don't want to rent my home out and haven't tried a realtor. It'll probably happen soon, though.

Again, I'm not very religious but I do feel blessed!

You're very fortunate. I lived in the US for 5 years as I met the woman of my dreams. I worked my ass off. Bought a 1,200 sq ft house with property tax of $3,200 a year. Commuted an hour to work every day. Worked for the state as I stupidly thought it would stop people from telling me that my kids should carry a passport around with them as "Der daddy don't have no american assent".  Instead I put up with ridicule on a daily basis and was often told to go home and give my job to a young american. Some interviewers asked me things like "What makes you think you can come in here and take a job", on more than one occasion.

I paid $100 a month for insurance at the begginign with my employer paying $1,200. That was their excuse to not give me a good raise. 6 promotions in 5 years and I was earning less than when I started with increased state taxes, health insurance of $400 a month and an employer contribution of $1,500 monthly. The last straw was when we had our second kid and we had to pay $3,000 out of pocket. Meanwhile our property tax increased to $4,000 a year. They cut 4k in the local public school and they were threatening to lay off people at my University while cutting the budget massively. Land of opportunity? Not for everyone.  And those are just a few of the issues I had. Not to mention that half the people I knew were popping pills to deal wth life. Very sad.

I stole away a good american. My wife. And we moved home.  She wanted to go 5 or 6 years ago and I didn't listen. Working 70 hour weeks and 2 jobs has probably aged me 10 years. Thanks America. We are very happy and life is so good now.

It really depends on the state. Like Ireland V Poland. All the states are different.

I believe you.

I've moved away to different areas a few times--never on my own--to different parts of the country but my family is in Georgia so I always came back home.  When my daughter was born in 2001, I knew I was never leaving again. It's pretty good, here.

I was actually born in Chicago when my mom went there for college. She lived with her sister (who told me the story about how she was so dumb to the world, she thought the garage was somebody else's house!). Anyway, my family from Chicago just retired to Georgia and they were shocked how cheap everything is. It's like they've found some sort of promised land!

 

Most of what we know is based on our experiences. Even I can't pretend to know much about the rest of the world aside from what the media tells me. I'm glad you guys are happy, though! I really am sincerely sorry about your experience, here.

 

*lost my cousin/best man on Saturday to a heart attack. He was only 43. Has nothing to do with this thread but I've been much more sincere and understanding about a lot of things lately. Take care, brother. :)



spurgeonryan said:
Degrees in many areas though are becoming a second thought^
They want experience now. Like they would die if they had to spend a month training someone, yet some jobs sit empty for up to a year. My GFs job was vacant for 7 months!!! Just hire someone and train them!

Yep internships are hugely important to getting a job in the field you want.  But to get a internship 90% of the time you need to be in school. 



pokoko said:
I think one of the more ignorant things I see on forums is when people try to paint the United States as one experience. Living in one state or city can be radically different from living in another. It's a massive country. Economics, attitudes, and cultural makeup can differ greatly.

Also, I just saw 93% lean ground beef for $4.39 a pound. I didn't buy it, though, because ground chicken is cheaper and healthier.

As far as Trump being elected President, I'm guessing a lot of people don't realize that the President has very limited powers and Trump couldn't do half of what he has promised. He's even talked about changing laws that aren't even federal, which isn't going to happen unless Congress lets him rewrite the Constitution.

This post 100%. People who say that either --actually I'm going to delete what I wrote from here onwards. I dont want to get banned over the ignorant.

And while the US isn't my fave country, it certainly isnt the worst. And like this user said, its completely different depending on location. Lived in 4 states and visited about 50% of the country. Every area is vastly different in terms of attitude, atmosphere, culture, etc. Like you can't compare a place like New Mexico to a place like Oregon, it's like night and day. Basically those who generalize the entire country are just ignorant (totally just repeated what I said originally)



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d21lewis said:
cfin2987@gmail.com said:

You're very fortunate. I lived in the US for 5 years as I met the woman of my dreams. I worked my ass off. Bought a 1,200 sq ft house with property tax of $3,200 a year. Commuted an hour to work every day. Worked for the state as I stupidly thought it would stop people from telling me that my kids should carry a passport around with them as "Der daddy don't have no american assent".  Instead I put up with ridicule on a daily basis and was often told to go home and give my job to a young american. Some interviewers asked me things like "What makes you think you can come in here and take a job", on more than one occasion.

I paid $100 a month for insurance at the begginign with my employer paying $1,200. That was their excuse to not give me a good raise. 6 promotions in 5 years and I was earning less than when I started with increased state taxes, health insurance of $400 a month and an employer contribution of $1,500 monthly. The last straw was when we had our second kid and we had to pay $3,000 out of pocket. Meanwhile our property tax increased to $4,000 a year. They cut 4k in the local public school and they were threatening to lay off people at my University while cutting the budget massively. Land of opportunity? Not for everyone.  And those are just a few of the issues I had. Not to mention that half the people I knew were popping pills to deal wth life. Very sad.

I stole away a good american. My wife. And we moved home.  She wanted to go 5 or 6 years ago and I didn't listen. Working 70 hour weeks and 2 jobs has probably aged me 10 years. Thanks America. We are very happy and life is so good now.

It really depends on the state. Like Ireland V Poland. All the states are different.

I believe you.

I've moved away to different areas a few times--never on my own--to different parts of the country but my family is in Georgia so I always came back home.  When my daughter was born in 2001, I knew I was never leaving again. It's pretty good, here.

I was actually born in Chicago when my mom went there for college. She lived with her sister (who told me the story about how she was so dumb to the world, she thought the garage was somebody else's house!). Anyway, my family from Chicago just retired to Georgia and they were shocked how cheap everything is. It's like they've found some sort of promised land!

 

Most of what we know is based on our experiences. Even I can't pretend to know much about the rest of the world aside from what the media tells me. I'm glad you guys are happy, though! I really am sincerely sorry about your experience, here.

 

*lost my cousin/best man on Saturday to a heart attack. He was only 43. Has nothing to do with this thread but I've been much more sincere and understanding about a lot of things lately. Take care, brother. :)

Life is short. America, much like most of Europe has good and bad spots . It's just nice that you appreciate yours. People in mine don't. Drives me nuts. After living in Wisconsin, I'll cherish Ireland in all its glory til my dying day. Also turned down a good job in Chicago. I was too spent to hope it was any better. 

 @hodor_dog 



You should probably hold off until we see what's happening to Trump lol



I wish you the best and I hope you will love USA ;)

--------

I wonder if it is true that people spent a lot of time working and have much less vacations in USA compared to Europe.

I often pictured americans like people that work too much and don't enjoy life enough. I even heard that often in USA people are afraid to take lunch break because of their boss. However this sounds like total cliché to me.

In the future I will maybe need to leave Europe for some years and this is one of the points that scares me.





Yay! I haven't spent much time in NY (despite not actually living that far away) but I love living on the east coast. Be sure to travel up to Boston sometime! It's great!



Bet with Adamblaziken:

I bet that on launch the Nintendo Switch will have no built in in-game voice chat. He bets that it will. The winner gets six months of avatar control over the other user.

Love all of the people posting about how horrible the U.S is and probably haven't had any type of first or even secondhand account of life here in various regions. @Op Congrats! NyC might dissapoint ya as a libertarian, but you should definitely explore the country. New Hampshire is a few hours away and probably the most libertarian minded place in  the country.