And here are two other — albeit somewhat older — pieces on the same subject. The first, from 2005, is by New York Times reporter Bruce Bawer. The second, from 2007, is by me.
Are Europeans as Wealthy as Americans?
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Hi,
I am a U.S. citizen, and a legal resident of Spain, currently living and working in Spain, because it was my spouse’s turn to decide where we were going to live.
My observation of both sides of the Atlantic, which also happens to be confirmed by my own personal experience, is that salaries are much lower, even half, for the same work, and not even the current exchange rate of euros-to-dollars makes up for the difference. A little bit more vacation time also does little to make up for it.
The size of living space, and its price, over here in Spain, makes for a much lower standard of living. I really don’t believe that the people who calculate the standard-of-living ever give enough value to the square-footage of a home, and the impact that it has on well-being. Nor do they calculate the distance between neighbors, and the ill-effects population density.
I pay over half my income on housing, something I’d be ashamed to admit in the U.S., and ever since the internet I can easily compare the price I would pay for household electronics, vehicles, gasoline, etc., and Europeans are paying significantly more.
There are days that I miss a nice long commute, a decent traffic jam, an automatic transmission, watching an iTunesU video lecture, or a Netflix release, and not knowing whether or not my neighbors are at home.
P.S. – the myth of superior European internet service is, well, a myth.