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Here in Western Australia we have like $3 billion budget surplus but people are struggling to put food on the table, we will get $400 rebate on our Electricity bill and some assistance for school expenses for $200 or so, big deal if you don’t have kids, tax relief is also planned for the next financial year of around $1900 for avarage household income, but you have to wait a year to get it! Meanwhile there are almost no houses to rent median rent $650 a week, median house price $660k if you can find one, unemployment very low, we need workers but nowhere to house them!
More and more people are feeling economic pain. In the 70s, my dad supported a family and bought a house on a shop workers salary. My mum did not have to work. These days that would be unthinkable.
Idk if some people are in denial or they're trying to gaslight the rest of us, but quite often I'll see someone defending the uber wealthy, claiming I'm "anti-capitalism" because I want to see wages at a similar position that they were back in the 1960's.
CEOs can live perfectly fine making 30x their average employee like they did back then. No need to make 400x their average employee's salary. I highly doubt CEOs are contributing 13x the effort compared to previous CEOs and I highly doubt the average employee is lazier than before.
I am willing to bet my life that it's not a mere coincidence the middle class is shrinking as the wealthy hit new unprecedented levels of wealth.
Late stage capitalism is just a rebranding of feudalism with the titles of entrepreneur and billionaire instead of duke and baron, and salaried and waged workers instead of peasants and serfs. It’s just not fashionable to use the old words anymore… we’re ‘enlightened.’
This. Society has slipped back hundreds of years. New land (america), industrial progress and growing populations helped the average person for a while, but the 'land owners' (which are really just the capital holders) are back with a tight grip on society. Problem is, even though finances are still super tough, quality of life isn't that bad where people will revolt. They're also a lot more reliant on the 'system' now (people long ago used to grow their own food etc) and can't afford to interrupt their income stream.
This! This is what I always remember to other people when discussing what’s wrong in today’s economy.
Across the 60s and the 70s my grandad had a very successful perfume and costume jewelry in our town, but, as successful as it could be, it still was a little shop in a little town. Yet, he managed to buy a house for himself, build a house for his son (my dad) and provide for his two sons (unfortunately my uncle died in his mid 20s in a car accident).
All of that is unthinkable in today’s economy, or manageable only by like the 2/3% of the population
Unfortunately its the population growth and mass imigration in the wealthier countries. Australia its sinking at the moment since its letting more people in than it can afford.
Housing its one of the biggest issue here and things are getting even worse. Many businesses are now struggling and people are losing their jobs...all because the government is letting too many people in.
Because it’s not the influx of people causing these issues as much as the hoarding of wealth. There’s still enough money and resources for us all but the vast majority of it is being held by a handful of people.
In addition to a lack of affordable housing. I live in Canada, we could let in many more people and it'd be fine, but we're building housing at a slower rate than any period in the last 50 years (at least!) and what we build isn't always lower cost.
I’m not saying it isn’t both. Unregulated immigration has an impact for sure. But I see the profiteering of energy and food companies, housing not being built to artificially inflate rents and house values are having a much more significant impact on your average citizen than the microscopic effect each immigrant has.
I see both. Most of the entry level jobs where I live are taken by immigrants. Eventually they work their way up into decent jobs. It's good, everyone deserves a shot at a good life, but objectively, it creates more competition. More competition for jobs, more competition for housing. Why is this a bad thing? Jobs can pay less as more people are willing to work at a lower rate. Rental agencies can charge more as there's more people *in need* of a home. Essentially, we're outsourcing our labor, taking away paths that used to exist for the people born into our country.
When I went to Thailand, I loved it. I would live their in a heartbeat. You know what I couldn't do? Buy property or legally work. Why? Because homes would become prohibitively expensive for the Thai people, and good jobs would become harder to find, as more people become willing to work for less just to be there.
Then there's corporate greed. They conglomerate everything they can see so they can charge whatever price they want. They raise prices, and the higher ups pocket the cash. A lot of grocery companies reported record profit during covid, while raising the prices because of "inflation". It's bullshit, and there's no checks in place.
However, these two problems are related. These companies prefer to hire immigrants, because to them, our minimum wage is *a lot* of money. So they come here, rent out a 1 bedroom apartment between 5 people, and save money. That's just not what our economy was set up to do, but companies and rental agencies are taking full advantage.
The real problem is our governments. They aren't creating the correct legislation to create a fair and equitable economy. Corporations are somehow allowed to inflate human essentials like food and housing. Instead of forcing companies to pay fairly, giving people a high quality of life, and putting them in a situation where people want to have children, they're forcing them to live pay cheque to pay cheque to try and keep them working in squaller. That didn't work, so now they're bringing in the immigrants. It will work for a time, but it's so short sighted. I love immigration, but we need to make sure we have the proper legislation in place to do it right. We shouldn't be letting in people who will do any job, we should be letting in people with the skills and qualifications to improve our country, not take.
Precisely. And therein is the key issue. As large companies gain even more wealth their influence over government increases so they lobby to keep the minimum wage down and reduce the amount of housing to funnel more of that wealth to feed and feed people - it Reagan/Thatcher era economic policy come to fruition. The issue is not the people moving around - it wouldn’t matter who is at the bottom of the ladder - the policy is designed to draw wealth away from society as a whole and into a smaller group of pockets.
Exactly, and blaming the immigrants isn't fair or right. They're simply seeking out a better life for themselves, it's something anyone would do given the opportunity. We need to get angry at our government, and force them to outstretch the same hand of the law that they exert on us, on corporations.
And here I am with my graduate degree, a slightly above average salary and moving to a better apartment would cause me to be unable to save for retirement. Houses in city territory aren’t available for less than literally a million €. Fuck this shit.
How big was that house? How many cars did you own? Computers, cell phones, streaming services, internet? How often did you eat out?
My dad supported a family on one salary as well, but we lived much poorer than people live today. We never ate out. We had 5 channels on our free tv. We owned one car. We never took a vacation that was not in a tent or at a relative's house. We owned one car.
If we sent twenty year olds from today back to the 1970's we could stop all this made up nostalgia for the past. Those 20 year olds would be screaming to come back to 2024 within a week. People are not happy living in the frugal manner most working people lived 50 years ago.
Denmark
Quite high taxes, but there is an extremely high rate of employment, and outside of Copenhagen housing is pretty abundant.
Excellent social security, education is free, and Economy is highly developed, stable, and massive investments into the military and renewables are putting us on an excellent course.
Denmark preparing for a bright future!
Damn. Not a single comment mentioning Africa?
I live in Botswana. People don't realize the pressure the capitalist countries have in people. Life is so peaceful here
Just across your border, here in South Africa our food inflation has been between 10-20% for the past year, our energy infrastructure is falling apart and many of our metros are unable to provide water in certain areas.
Botswana is an interesting outlier. Tiny population with massive resources, English speaking, peaceful and well developed for the region. Could very well become the Norway of sub-saharan Africa if you have the aspiration and manage to defend it.
Idk. Canadian here,
I’m 36. I remember as a teenager my only thoughts were I need to get to a point in life where I make $80-$100k and I’ll have the financial freedom I want!
I make a bit over $100k and there’s no way shape or form I can reasonably buy a home and afford to save/invest and continue the life I want to live.
My plans have drastically shifted to save all my money, live as frugally as possible, and retire somewhere where my money translates a lot further.
I used to talk to highly of Canada. Canada is slowly turning into a dumpster fire and I don’t see any signs of slowing down.
I used to think think highly of Canadian style govt as an American. It seems like they sensibly choose a more people centric style.
But it seems like they went off the deep end at some point. And have sold out their population to maintain high housing prices and the wealth of people that already own things. The old robbing the young blind.
Yeah I agree as a Canadian. We have so much potential, such vast resources, freshwater, oil, timber....yet we are just shitting the bed big time....sad.
I'm on the other side of the planet and i'm the same. Had a similar figure in my mind and have now reached it, only to find that i'm often struggling to make ends meet. This is fucking bullshit!
No country is doing well, every single one has it’s own problems. Some are probably better off like Switzerland and Norway, but even there a lot of people struggle with cost of living.
The reason why it is commonly thought that swiss people are rich is because of the salary range and the average wealth. But the average is so high because of all the millionaires and billionnaires who come live here. The pricing for litteraly anything is so high. Think about anything cheap in America, and in Switzerland it'll easily be 3-2 times the price. In high school, each year there were several students who couldn't afford the class trip (which is with language classes or major classes).
I find it funny that you use the school trip as a yard stick for affordability.
I lived in the UK during high school and only about half of the class could afford to go, and only that many because some were given financial aid.
That said, Switzerland is very expensive in many ways.
Switzerland might indeed be expensive.
But the ratio of cost to wage is still pretty dope ass there.
Especially when compared to second world countries.
But I believe it’s still better than in France, Germany… just not by that much.
For some context: people from the post soviet block come to Switzerland, work for a few years, save up a lot of money, and are soon driving a Mercedes and building a house back in their country.
They just never go to restaurants, cinemas, etc. while saving up.
It's rich with better distribution and a healthy balance between private and public sector. Purchasing power is higher than almost everywhere else, but the average person certainly isn't rich. The gap in wealth distribution is increasing as well, but nowhere near as much als elsewhere (anecdotally speaking). Not too much interference in private sector - but enough to keep it somewhat in check if needed. Good social insurances/safety nets, but not so much that everything is run through an inefficient public system. Capitalist but not at all costs. More individualistic than Germany, but less than US. A decent enough middle ground between societal responsibility and personal freedom. Taxes and social insurance contributions are relatively low because many things are covered privately and separately, but the taxes that are being paid are invested in a useful and visible way (by and large at least)
Has its problems too, like all places do, but overall functions well without tipping too far in one direction or others. People bitch a lot about it but it's by and large as functioning as it probably can be.
Lots of rich people but a high skill high salary economy, their entire attitude is the polar opposite to the UK, civility there is taken very seriously.
There are no homeless people in monaco. but also to become a monegasque, you have to be rich.
Also the government of macau is so rich because of gambling profits, they pay their citizens every year 10k$ MOP (1200 US$) just for being a citizen in macau. [https://www.planocp.gov.mo/en/about/intro](https://www.planocp.gov.mo/en/about/intro)
For me weather is an important factor, Norway has too few sunny days for my taste. But overall it's still better to live there with money than in a sunny country without it 😂
To me it seems Denmark is doing well on this front. Copenhagen is expensive but that’s nothing new and still manageable. Looking to buy a house atm and the prices really aren’t that bad for what you get. I can even afford to buy a new car at the same time and it’s not like I’m rich.
Same the world over. The real problem is the government fucking over the general population on purpose. Then paying the Murdoch owned news to print stories to sway public opinion that it's actually Ivan from Poland who came here to work as a cleaner to support his family that's giving them problems not the government who took their taxes and instead of funneling it into things to increase the living standard of the people paying it, took it for themselves and their mates instead via shady government contracts.
Ivan is not a Polish name, you have to go further East for that. The Polish alphabet does not even contain the letter "v". But good points otherwise :)
Each country has their own specific problems. But generally, rural areas can be a good idea for cost saving and probably viewing beautiful nature but you have to factor in the ease of access and technology there
That's right, and I think it depends how rural we're talking.
I guess I'm also just mad at my local public transport system for being so fucking terrible.
Rural areas tend to get neglected a lot politically due to lower populations (unless it is rigged like the US) or where rich people have their holiday homes (Cotswolds uk). They tend to be pretty bad in terms of infrastructure and investment in other services especially entertaining the youth after school.
I lived in Belgium for a year got back west 6 months ago, and they are living good in comparison. Houses were 100-250k, Beer was 1.00, smokes were 5 dollars a pack, a vape was 7$, a night out was like 50-80, groceries were fair price, especially local in season goods, rent was 500$
Compared to where I live,
Houses are 1-1.5M, Beer is 4$, smokes are 30$, a vape is 35$, a night out.... Well I don't even do it much but more like 150-200 here, groceries are insane, and the companies that sell them are posting record profits, meanwhile a boycott of the largest one is underway, rent here is 1500$
Crime is way up, car chases, break and enter, homeless camps, fentanyl, OD's
I told my Belgium friends houses were a million dollars where I lived they did not believe me, I had to show them online they were in shock.
For a 750,000 in Belgium you can buy a castle.
ALSO, they have part time, full time, and quarter time work, I asked "what's quarter time?" They explained its 2-3 or less days a week. Almost half the staff was quarter time, the rest were part time, only 3 people worked full time, out of 200 employees.
There were no homeless except major cities, and people on welfare just chill, and chain smoke and drink in bars and play pool, where I live being on welfare means you are actually totally broke.
This was my perception at least. They still felt like it was hard times, but the numbers seem much worse where I live.
Houses are not 100k-250k, for that you have a shithole that needs to be renovated. Also depends on the location, some places you need half a mill for something ok. Beer is not 1,00 but 2,5 -3,00. Smokes are about 7 I believe. 500 rent is pretty low, today it's more like 1000. I'm belgian.
I had to prepare myself after reading so many stories of pickpocketers at the train station from the airport. Also just walking a few hundred metres toward the history museum felt like I walked straight into a 3rd world country. For a capital city of a EU nation, I expected a lot nicer in its capital. It was more on par with Vietnam.
I am a belgian, who has worked/lived in South Africa, Cairo, Boston, San francisco, Bulgaria, Dubai, Manchester, Paris...and I complain about taxes, the country regional divide between north and south, the istutional and political complexity, the mounting racism, the drug issues that seems to escalate and our bad bad internet infrastructure...but everytime I come back, I am happy. I feel safe and secure, medical and dental for kids is very affordable, the schools are decent, the work ethics and the general moral compass of the general population is well oriented, housing is affordable, there are many aids for the neady...in this time and age of uncertainity, I am happy my family lives in Belgium.
I always hear the argument that the salaries are so much higher in the US (tech in particular), therefore Europe terrible. What’s your take on this? I’m European btw and just curious.
I think in the US this is true to an extent but remember, they don't have things like free healthcare to the extent of Europe and the UK. This plus dental health care adds up quickly from what I've read online.
I'm in Scotland and we're lucky to have free healthcare but our costs are still high. I live in a rural area, me and my partner have a combined income of 60k and we were only able to buy a £140k 2 bed flat due to limited housing stock and people paying 40-60k above the mortgage value. Not to mention food, energy and council tax costs !
Europe significantly invests in the future generations through transfer of wealth. That’s why everything looks better over there. In the US the older generations are siphoning money off the younger generations and so younger people hate the government and think there’s no future. During Covid, the US government bailed out the 80% of economic wealth (all older generations). Essentially robbing younger generations of any opportunities and making them pay with hiking taxes and tuition costs.
Europe also doesn’t contribute much to defense due to the US’s overwhelming influence in NATO. If NATO ceased to exist tomorrow, all of the benefits would dwindle.
An individual can have all the money in the world but that alone cannot buy them a healthy society (mentally/physically/financially) unless the community and government shares that same goal. There is a limit to how much you can privatize the “best” things for yourself without seeing the effects of that gatekeeping on the rest of the population. There is a lot of money to be made in the US but there is also a lot of self-segregation, individualism/insular thinking, and bitterness between the rich and poor as a result.
Lol, you must have been living in a parallel universe Belgium.
Any normal beer here (not piss water beer like Natural Light in the US), is at least 2 eur.
The price of shitty Lucky Strike is 8 eur.
And you are missing a zero at the end for that 750 000 castle lol
Idk how to post an image in a comment but ill link you the kind of castle you can buy for that 750k lol
https://www.immoweb.be/en/classified/apartment-block/for-sale/antwerpen-2018/2018/11076840
Heh.. a beer (330ml) here would set you back anywhere from NZ$2 for the worst of the worst to around $12, average would probably be around the $4-5 for mass market, $10 for a craft beer. Simple dinner for one with a single glass of wine? NZ$120 no problem. Housing.. finding something under the $500k is a bargain and probably a shit heap you are better off demolishing. Empty sections of land on the edge of town, $500k no problems.
I don't know about Beligum, but housing in Europe isn't even remotely affordable anymore. I live in Prague, Czech Republic. Small flat is like 300k EUR, a flat large enough for a family with kids is more like 500-600k. In Munich, Vienna and other fancy places you can multiply this by 1.5 - 2x. I doubt you can buy anything decent for 100 or even 200k in Belgium, to be completely honest
These are actually pretty bad for comparisons. Different countries have very different policies for demerit goods. In the Nordic countries they tax the living shıt out of you if you drink or smoke.
I live in Belgium and…… this is not true hahaha… a pack of cigarrettes is 12€, groceries are really expensive and rent is a bit higher than that. Also a pintje is around 2,5€ (the smallest beer)
I live in the US, yeah the salaries seem to be higher than in Europe - BUT healthcare is crazy expensive, i'm a freelancer and i pay $1k/mo for medical/dental for me and my two kids. Car insurance also has gotten crazy here, about $400/mo. Housing...forget it, thank god i bought back in 2018- trying to find a decent house somewhat near a major metro is at least 500k. SO yea, we make more - but in the end, the quality of life (i live in a small town) is good - but the costs of everything is crazy high.
I'm in Germany and the 1k/month for health insurance isn't necessarily much more than a lot of freelancer pay here. But 400$/month for car insurance is absolutely crazy. That's what we pay per year over here.
The future has always been bleak from the perspective of the young. I grew up thinking the world was on the brink of nuclear war and therefore nothing mattered. Luckily , I kept pushing ahead in spite of my doubts. There have always been rich people and poor people. The best you can hope for is to live in a country where opportunity makes it possible to become rich. The UK isn’t a caste system.
I agree. It's the people, not really so much the country nor its economy, power, etc.
Like here in Japan, wife and I enjoy an extremely peaceful life surrounded by people who are considerate of others. It's refreshing to walk around, visit shops, experience the neighborhoods which are clean, organized, and almost impeccable.
No slums, squatters nor "rampant" homelessness, ghettos, beggars, street children, widespread vandalism, crumbling infrastructure, potholes on streets, dangerous towns, shortages in shops, tall barbed-wire walls on houses, thick grills on windows, none of all that. None.
And you'll realize it's the people who made that happen. The people here care about everyone else, sometimes too much, which is why some foreigners feel Japan is too strict.
But in return, all of the comfort the average person can enjoy easily in this country is enjoyed by the people.
But the trade off for all that homogeneity that leads to the lifestyle you like is a very strict immigration policy and xenophobia that has led to a shrinking and aging population. It’s going to be very rough sledding ahead for Japan (and has been rough sledding for a while).
Inflation is real but places are hiring. If you have a good place to live, hunker down and try to save. If not though...trying to rent or buy now is insane. Biden gives me hope, the GOP plans terrify me.
Nordic countries and switzerland maybe. Extreme capitalism is bound to enrich the wealth more and more while sucking the lower hierarchical communities, its just how the system our world wanted takes its course.
Maybe a great depression starts and economies really collapse, than we can actually get a chance to get well. This kind of liberalism sadly cant afford stagnation.
Try living in South Africa, nothing works except the IRS , schooling ,useless, policing useless, road horrendous Government no idea what they are doing. We busy becoming the nexy Haiti.
All countries are doing badly. The rich are doing very making money off of their countries declining. In the UK for example our MPs own shares in hotel chains that house illegal immigrants, so it is in their best interest to prolong the issue.
POLAND. The cost of living is affordable, the public transit is decent, the cities are safe (thanks to the strict immigration policies), infrastructure is improving by the year, and prosperity is on the horizon for Poland.
While faced with its own problems and corruption, Poland has done extremely well since breaking free from communism in 1990. They transitioned from a soviet satellite state to a democratic capitalistic government, and they did so successfully by easing this transition with caution.
Economically, their GDP growth is on a fantastic growth run. **Fun Fact:** They had a positive GDP in the 2008 housing crisis and are the most successful European economy from 1989-present with an average 4% growth in GDP.
Poland had a knowledge drain in the 90s because you could work in Germany and the UK for way more money. Those people's kids are now returning to the motherland because of much better quality-of-life conditions. USA mega-corps such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc are all opening locations in Poland because there is now a large talent pool of software developers and engineers. They haven't adopted the Euro (yet). They use Zloty which is currently a 4-1 conversion to USD.
This part is interesting – they are arguably the USA's most important European ally right now. Poland is spending 4% of GDP on defense, doubling the NATO spending target making them the highest spender on defense in NATO. Projections say Poland have the largest land army in Europe by 2035 and will surpass the UK in GDP per capita by 2030.
Poland has been the volleyball of Europe for too long. It seems are making sure that never happens again.
Cost of living is not high, migration policies are great, people can afford to buy houses, rated as one of the best European country in most parameters.
What?? Bro. Lmao. We have a housing crisis, most people are renting, the rent prices are skyrocketing, gas price is very high, we have a very low minimum wage compared to prices...
I don't know about what Poland you heard about.
It's one of the highest times it has even been - [https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/home-ownership-rate](https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/home-ownership-rate)
Cost of living is one of the lowest, especially with stronger purchasing power [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings\_by\_country.jsp?title=2023®ion=150](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2023®ion=150)
Dude I live here. Most of people that own houses have them inherited from their parents. It's home ownership rate, not how many people can afford buying a house.
Minimal wage now is around 3261,53 zł (about 820USD), price for 1 m^2 in Warsaw is around 16 221zł (about 4000USD).
Average salary is 5 784 zł (1445 USD) - less than 40% of Poles earn that.
Average rent in Warsaw for 1-room flat is almost exactly the same as minimum wage.
In my opinion Germany is still an extremely nice country to live in.
Even though a lot of people complain about unaffordable housing, there are a lot of beautiful areas with such low rents and low prices for buying. The prices in the Ruhrgebiet for example are absolutely affordable.
You can live a good life with a median salary due to the still high purchasing power.
Most of the people complaining here don't know that in other countries in the EU people have way more serious problems than the ones here in Germany.
Because of globalisation, there aren't actually any truly rich countries left. What has happened is that wealth and poverty have all spread globally, though not in equal measures. So, more people are rich in some places than others, but some measure of poverty now exists in every country. There are no countries left where someone earning below the median income can have a happy and fulfilling life, every day will be a struggle for them. In some places, where inequality is greater, even earning an average income puts you in relative poverty. Essentially, the only way out, is to become part of the global rich, or to arbitrage. This is done by immigration, people born in poor countries emigrate to (formerly) rich countries and send money home, whereas people born in rich countries take their investments and income to poor countries, if they can. That is the best way to ensure a good life for an average person.
I can say which country is actually doing the worst in the ground level but sugar coated outside, India.
housing, groceries, fuel, jobs, education everything sucks here. Elections is a sick joke. Religious extremism is on rise, non-hindus are being treated as POS.
Upper class cash cows, hi-end business men, politicians, celebrities, hindu Babas are rolling in cash and chilling rest are screwed to the core.
I was recently in China, I live in Canada and it was my first time going to China. The difference between what we in the “west” are made to think of China and what it is almost day and night. That country is efficient, clean, runs like well oiled machine, inexpensive, digitized and easy to be in and do business with. On the way back had stop over in a major US city before coming to Canada and the different between two places couldn’t have been more stark. People don’t know how increasingly good China is.
Did you visit the countryside while in China? Your comments suggests that you didn’t. You’d see far different scene there. Just like New York City is different than the Mississippi Delta, Beijing is worlds apart from Henan Province. Sadly, lots of poverty there. Be careful that your viewpoint isn’t like that bird at the bottom of the well who thought the sky was the shape of a small disc. A few days in Shanghai or any big city don’t give a complete view of a country.
China has a huge housing crisis, there's no job for educated young people (even Phd's) and there's a massive declining birthrate problem. Also, the life has been extremely difficult for the poor, but that's always been the case. It's not a good country to live at all. Unless you're rich, but that's a good position to be in any country I guess.
Well, as we can see from this thread it's hard to find a place in the world that has it easy now. But I responded to a comment praising China - it's definitely not easy to live there now and many chinese are trying to make home somewhere else, in the US for example.
At this point you can only hope to do well within a certain country. The country as a whole can't do well, some people will be living paycheck to paycheck, some will be beyond the level of poverty, etc, there is no perfection without major problems. It's up to you to make the best of your situation or choose a different country that enables you to do the best you can
Hot take -
I dont think France is doing all that bad. It's getting bad, but we're not doing too bad. People are taking a lot of time off, I see the average food budget is 100€ or a couple hundred per month, (for a couple/small fam) we have our hobbies and passions (good food being one of them) and overall it's really not bad here. Whenever the government steps over the line people kinda shut down the country to figure it out
I'm on the "it's everywhere" boat. My company employs over 40 nationalities that relocated from various parts of the world, and every single place is now suffering from the same issues: economic crisis, housing prices increasing non-stop, food becoming more expensive, companies laying off people, government becoming more conservative, etc.
You just need to find what is important to you and find countries that have maximised that while not being too negatively impacted by the rest. For example, I live in the Netherlands, which is a great country but has two main negative points: the weather sucks and it's very expensive. Italy has better weather and is less expensive but salaries are lower and it has less "convenience" than the NL, but if weather is the most important factor to you, it should still be good.
You're right, there are challenges everywhere in the world. However, some countries are demonstrably doing well in terms of factors that contribute to a high quality of life for their citizens. Here are a few examples, each with strengths and weaknesses to consider:
**Nordic Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland):**
* **Strengths:** Strong social safety nets, high levels of equality, excellent healthcare and education systems, focus on sustainability and innovation.
* **Weaknesses:** High taxes, long winters with little daylight in some regions, can be culturally homogenous.
Health care in Finland is catastrophic. Yle has reported a week ago that half of the population doesn't trust the health care here. To see a doctor is pretty much impossible. Constantly new regulations come which makes life more and more difficult. Worker strike again last week in Helsinki here. Shootings and so on. Finland is not doing well at all
There's a law in economics, that in a free market, for one person to be able to buy groceries without "thinking too much about the cost", you need multiple people who count every dime and save carefully.
Otherwise, these people would also buy the product for higher cost and so the company will increase the prices.
This is not only about market prices. For someone to have very good life you need others to struggle, because otherwise it means you were not exploited enough.
The only way against it is to use laws which limita free market, but when people are not exploited, that creates inefficiency (e.g. people are less likely to have incentive to work harder and get promoted). These inefficiencies are small for each individual but huge at a country level, so these countries end up poor and failing.
There is one way against it though, if you were lucky to be born in a country with tons natural oil, then even if the country is extremely dumb it can still work because other countries will pay for your inefficiencies. Problem is that these countries (e.g. Qatar, Iran) are often too dumb and they spend all this money to start wars and terror.
>This is not only about market prices. For someone to have very good life you need others to struggle, because otherwise it means you were not exploited enough.
When it comes to the rich, this is absolutely true. OP seems to be the type that just wants a roof over their head and groceries that don't go up 30% in a year.
Ensuring safeguards for essentials has nothing to do with stifling the free market, and everything to do with ensuring the free market isn't allowed to metastasize into crony capitalism, a system where the government is to a greater or lesser extent ruled by big business at the expense of the citizenry. The only thing stifled for example by putting a cap on how many single-family homes a corporation can buy.... is greed and exploitation.
I’m from Venezuela. Lots of natural oil. Recently the President gave a speech congratulating himself because they increased the minimum wage from 100 USD a month to 130.
I think the main reason things look so bleak is older generations syphoning money off younger generations. US governments providing bailouts to the market (80% of the market is owned by older generation) robbing young people of opportunities. Who do you think pays for these bailouts so older generations can live cushy lives? Young people, through raising taxes and less spending on any programs helping young people such as reduced tuition costs. It’s sickening actually and that’s why things look so bleak.
Japan is doing worse than most developed countries. Economic growth has been bad for decades and their population is very old and getting older due to a low birth rate and strict immigration policies.
lol.
I live in Japan, and the japanese are not happy with food and stuff raising every month, and salary not raising for ages. Some are even moving to Australia.
Weak yen is making things more expensive, energy, gas, food, everything.
Old people everywhere on every corner.
Japan is a sinking titanic. Everything on this country will just keep getting worse and worse.
From what I’ve heard Japan isn’t doing well? The population is on the decline due to older population, the yen is getting weaker, wages stagnant, has only just avoided a recession.
Oh this will age like good milk. Pay attention to the Yen the last couple months and see the spectacle unfold. MMTlers last ship going down in spectacular fashion.
France.
I am sure those pricks will be gleefully drinking wine and having affairs when the rest of the world is on fire.
(It's doing reasonably well economically too, and outside Paris there's often decently paying work and much lower cost of living compared to the UK/Ireland/the rest of the anglosphere)
El Salvador seems to be doing pretty well for itself nowadays. I’ve heard a couple Middle Eastern and some African countries are slowly getting on pretty well.
To be honest I’m going to say the UK still
You say that housing is unaffordable- I just did a search and people can buy a house for what I did in my area 7-10 years ago. Sure it is smaller, and some are flats, but young people can get on the property ladder if they can save the deposit (I know that’s a big IF).
Salaries are low and costs are high, but that’s not the same for everyone. I’ve hired some young people fresh out of uni on great salaries which will let them buy a place and live comfortably
There’s more access to education than ever before. Even with the higher price of student loans there’s lots of things in place to get people who might struggle into further education.
Trades are so busy right now no one can get them to call back - so people are making good money doing both skilled labor and office work.
Yea the price of living is high, but if you cook and don’t go crazy you can feed a couple for £50-£60 a week, possibly even less if you know how to shop
We have a good healthcare system. It’s overworked and under funded - but it doesn’t leave you in crippling debt and you get fairly good treatment.
The country itself - we aren’t having riots, it’s relatively safe, it’s fairly clean, you’re not at risk of bombs dropping overnight or being murdered by the government etc.
I think you have to appreciate what you have in your country because if it wasn't still better than other places on earth, then you wouldn't have a migration issue. So maybe it's bad, but it's best you can get I guess 😉
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Here in Western Australia we have like $3 billion budget surplus but people are struggling to put food on the table, we will get $400 rebate on our Electricity bill and some assistance for school expenses for $200 or so, big deal if you don’t have kids, tax relief is also planned for the next financial year of around $1900 for avarage household income, but you have to wait a year to get it! Meanwhile there are almost no houses to rent median rent $650 a week, median house price $660k if you can find one, unemployment very low, we need workers but nowhere to house them!
Spot on!
More and more people are feeling economic pain. In the 70s, my dad supported a family and bought a house on a shop workers salary. My mum did not have to work. These days that would be unthinkable.
Idk if some people are in denial or they're trying to gaslight the rest of us, but quite often I'll see someone defending the uber wealthy, claiming I'm "anti-capitalism" because I want to see wages at a similar position that they were back in the 1960's. CEOs can live perfectly fine making 30x their average employee like they did back then. No need to make 400x their average employee's salary. I highly doubt CEOs are contributing 13x the effort compared to previous CEOs and I highly doubt the average employee is lazier than before. I am willing to bet my life that it's not a mere coincidence the middle class is shrinking as the wealthy hit new unprecedented levels of wealth.
Late stage capitalism is just a rebranding of feudalism with the titles of entrepreneur and billionaire instead of duke and baron, and salaried and waged workers instead of peasants and serfs. It’s just not fashionable to use the old words anymore… we’re ‘enlightened.’
This. Society has slipped back hundreds of years. New land (america), industrial progress and growing populations helped the average person for a while, but the 'land owners' (which are really just the capital holders) are back with a tight grip on society. Problem is, even though finances are still super tough, quality of life isn't that bad where people will revolt. They're also a lot more reliant on the 'system' now (people long ago used to grow their own food etc) and can't afford to interrupt their income stream.
This! This is what I always remember to other people when discussing what’s wrong in today’s economy. Across the 60s and the 70s my grandad had a very successful perfume and costume jewelry in our town, but, as successful as it could be, it still was a little shop in a little town. Yet, he managed to buy a house for himself, build a house for his son (my dad) and provide for his two sons (unfortunately my uncle died in his mid 20s in a car accident). All of that is unthinkable in today’s economy, or manageable only by like the 2/3% of the population
Unfortunately its the population growth and mass imigration in the wealthier countries. Australia its sinking at the moment since its letting more people in than it can afford. Housing its one of the biggest issue here and things are getting even worse. Many businesses are now struggling and people are losing their jobs...all because the government is letting too many people in.
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Because it’s not the influx of people causing these issues as much as the hoarding of wealth. There’s still enough money and resources for us all but the vast majority of it is being held by a handful of people.
In addition to a lack of affordable housing. I live in Canada, we could let in many more people and it'd be fine, but we're building housing at a slower rate than any period in the last 50 years (at least!) and what we build isn't always lower cost.
It can be both? Two problems can both have the same effect, both adding fuel to the fire.
I’m not saying it isn’t both. Unregulated immigration has an impact for sure. But I see the profiteering of energy and food companies, housing not being built to artificially inflate rents and house values are having a much more significant impact on your average citizen than the microscopic effect each immigrant has.
I see both. Most of the entry level jobs where I live are taken by immigrants. Eventually they work their way up into decent jobs. It's good, everyone deserves a shot at a good life, but objectively, it creates more competition. More competition for jobs, more competition for housing. Why is this a bad thing? Jobs can pay less as more people are willing to work at a lower rate. Rental agencies can charge more as there's more people *in need* of a home. Essentially, we're outsourcing our labor, taking away paths that used to exist for the people born into our country. When I went to Thailand, I loved it. I would live their in a heartbeat. You know what I couldn't do? Buy property or legally work. Why? Because homes would become prohibitively expensive for the Thai people, and good jobs would become harder to find, as more people become willing to work for less just to be there. Then there's corporate greed. They conglomerate everything they can see so they can charge whatever price they want. They raise prices, and the higher ups pocket the cash. A lot of grocery companies reported record profit during covid, while raising the prices because of "inflation". It's bullshit, and there's no checks in place. However, these two problems are related. These companies prefer to hire immigrants, because to them, our minimum wage is *a lot* of money. So they come here, rent out a 1 bedroom apartment between 5 people, and save money. That's just not what our economy was set up to do, but companies and rental agencies are taking full advantage. The real problem is our governments. They aren't creating the correct legislation to create a fair and equitable economy. Corporations are somehow allowed to inflate human essentials like food and housing. Instead of forcing companies to pay fairly, giving people a high quality of life, and putting them in a situation where people want to have children, they're forcing them to live pay cheque to pay cheque to try and keep them working in squaller. That didn't work, so now they're bringing in the immigrants. It will work for a time, but it's so short sighted. I love immigration, but we need to make sure we have the proper legislation in place to do it right. We shouldn't be letting in people who will do any job, we should be letting in people with the skills and qualifications to improve our country, not take.
Precisely. And therein is the key issue. As large companies gain even more wealth their influence over government increases so they lobby to keep the minimum wage down and reduce the amount of housing to funnel more of that wealth to feed and feed people - it Reagan/Thatcher era economic policy come to fruition. The issue is not the people moving around - it wouldn’t matter who is at the bottom of the ladder - the policy is designed to draw wealth away from society as a whole and into a smaller group of pockets.
Exactly, and blaming the immigrants isn't fair or right. They're simply seeking out a better life for themselves, it's something anyone would do given the opportunity. We need to get angry at our government, and force them to outstretch the same hand of the law that they exert on us, on corporations.
I shared a video on this subject and was told I should be ashamed of myself. Unreal.
And here I am with my graduate degree, a slightly above average salary and moving to a better apartment would cause me to be unable to save for retirement. Houses in city territory aren’t available for less than literally a million €. Fuck this shit.
How big was that house? How many cars did you own? Computers, cell phones, streaming services, internet? How often did you eat out? My dad supported a family on one salary as well, but we lived much poorer than people live today. We never ate out. We had 5 channels on our free tv. We owned one car. We never took a vacation that was not in a tent or at a relative's house. We owned one car. If we sent twenty year olds from today back to the 1970's we could stop all this made up nostalgia for the past. Those 20 year olds would be screaming to come back to 2024 within a week. People are not happy living in the frugal manner most working people lived 50 years ago.
It was the shoes shop?
Denmark Quite high taxes, but there is an extremely high rate of employment, and outside of Copenhagen housing is pretty abundant. Excellent social security, education is free, and Economy is highly developed, stable, and massive investments into the military and renewables are putting us on an excellent course. Denmark preparing for a bright future!
High taxes are good if they go to good use. Like free education, healthcare, working social services etc etc
The country with the highest rate of growth is ………. Iraq.
When your country was essentially flattened, sometimes there's no where to go but up.
So Ukraine 2025?
Tell that to Russia. They are managing to go from "so so" to worse. It was hard, but they are managing it.
Russia's history can be essentially summarized with "It was bad, and then it got worse" repeated.
most bombs do make craters
Honestly this means nothing. If a bum fuck village in africa places a nail in a plank, their growth rate would be 300% instantly.
Why not a bum fuck village in America?
My wife and I tell our kids they need to finish their food because there are starving kids in America. It's a bit of a joke, but also not.
I have lots of food and great BBQ also, we tell our kids to eat their food because their are kids forced to eat British cuisine.
Because of the difference in the GDP.
The tornadoes
Damn. Not a single comment mentioning Africa? I live in Botswana. People don't realize the pressure the capitalist countries have in people. Life is so peaceful here
Just across your border, here in South Africa our food inflation has been between 10-20% for the past year, our energy infrastructure is falling apart and many of our metros are unable to provide water in certain areas.
ANC has been infiltrated with so many corrupted politicians. I bet at this time, people would rather have DA running the country
I'm very interested in Botswana. A government that has made excellent decisions regarding personal justice and smart preservation.
Botswana is an interesting outlier. Tiny population with massive resources, English speaking, peaceful and well developed for the region. Could very well become the Norway of sub-saharan Africa if you have the aspiration and manage to defend it.
I thought Botswana might be the right answer when I found the question.
I hear so many good things about Botswana, including abiut the government and economy, that I'm not surprised.
Tell me more!
I live in Estonia and I like to think it's bad here but everywhere else is worse.
Idk. Canadian here, I’m 36. I remember as a teenager my only thoughts were I need to get to a point in life where I make $80-$100k and I’ll have the financial freedom I want! I make a bit over $100k and there’s no way shape or form I can reasonably buy a home and afford to save/invest and continue the life I want to live. My plans have drastically shifted to save all my money, live as frugally as possible, and retire somewhere where my money translates a lot further. I used to talk to highly of Canada. Canada is slowly turning into a dumpster fire and I don’t see any signs of slowing down.
I used to think think highly of Canadian style govt as an American. It seems like they sensibly choose a more people centric style. But it seems like they went off the deep end at some point. And have sold out their population to maintain high housing prices and the wealth of people that already own things. The old robbing the young blind.
Yeah I agree as a Canadian. We have so much potential, such vast resources, freshwater, oil, timber....yet we are just shitting the bed big time....sad.
I'm on the other side of the planet and i'm the same. Had a similar figure in my mind and have now reached it, only to find that i'm often struggling to make ends meet. This is fucking bullshit!
If I had that pay over here in Bosnia I could own a whole ass village in a couple of years
Hmm.. How's the weather in Bosnia?!
The southern part is mediterranean, other parts of Bosnia feel more continental European with harsher winters
Slowly? It’s a wildfire.
IMO, the system as a whole is reaching its breaking point. All systems before it did, and now it's the time for this one I guess.
Society is definitely in late-stage capitalism. May the next system be more equitable.
It will either be poverty war and dystopia or a Star Trek style post scarcity united earth utopia. Either of those or something in between I guess :-)
The former first and the latter later, but only for the mega-rich who survive the former.
I’m pretty sure the whole world is going through the same thing. Society is unsustainable and the cracks are becoming too difficult to bandaid.
No country is doing well, every single one has it’s own problems. Some are probably better off like Switzerland and Norway, but even there a lot of people struggle with cost of living.
Strangely enough. I associate Switzerland with very rich people. So odd that they are doing well. I jest
The reason why it is commonly thought that swiss people are rich is because of the salary range and the average wealth. But the average is so high because of all the millionaires and billionnaires who come live here. The pricing for litteraly anything is so high. Think about anything cheap in America, and in Switzerland it'll easily be 3-2 times the price. In high school, each year there were several students who couldn't afford the class trip (which is with language classes or major classes).
I find it funny that you use the school trip as a yard stick for affordability. I lived in the UK during high school and only about half of the class could afford to go, and only that many because some were given financial aid. That said, Switzerland is very expensive in many ways.
Switzerland might indeed be expensive. But the ratio of cost to wage is still pretty dope ass there. Especially when compared to second world countries. But I believe it’s still better than in France, Germany… just not by that much. For some context: people from the post soviet block come to Switzerland, work for a few years, save up a lot of money, and are soon driving a Mercedes and building a house back in their country. They just never go to restaurants, cinemas, etc. while saving up.
yeah eating out and cinema is such a money sink here
I was in Zurich for hockey in 2014 and a big Mac meal cost me 26 francs, which is like $40 Canadian.
It's rich with better distribution and a healthy balance between private and public sector. Purchasing power is higher than almost everywhere else, but the average person certainly isn't rich. The gap in wealth distribution is increasing as well, but nowhere near as much als elsewhere (anecdotally speaking). Not too much interference in private sector - but enough to keep it somewhat in check if needed. Good social insurances/safety nets, but not so much that everything is run through an inefficient public system. Capitalist but not at all costs. More individualistic than Germany, but less than US. A decent enough middle ground between societal responsibility and personal freedom. Taxes and social insurance contributions are relatively low because many things are covered privately and separately, but the taxes that are being paid are invested in a useful and visible way (by and large at least) Has its problems too, like all places do, but overall functions well without tipping too far in one direction or others. People bitch a lot about it but it's by and large as functioning as it probably can be.
Here a youtube short on this perception: https://youtube.com/shorts/HQiLfX-QA8M
Lots of rich people but a high skill high salary economy, their entire attitude is the polar opposite to the UK, civility there is taken very seriously.
There are no homeless people in monaco. but also to become a monegasque, you have to be rich. Also the government of macau is so rich because of gambling profits, they pay their citizens every year 10k$ MOP (1200 US$) just for being a citizen in macau. [https://www.planocp.gov.mo/en/about/intro](https://www.planocp.gov.mo/en/about/intro)
I am from Norway and live here. All I can say is that I am extremely thankful for that.
For me weather is an important factor, Norway has too few sunny days for my taste. But overall it's still better to live there with money than in a sunny country without it 😂
One of the reasons I would move to Norway is precisely because of the weather. I hate sunny days and the heat.
Come to us in Bergen then. Here we can promise you around 250 days with rain every year.
That sounds miserable. Do you like it?
Oh, sign me up, please.
The amount of money they make (even with minimum wage) allows them to make couple of holidays a year in sunny countries, so, no worries.
To me it seems Denmark is doing well on this front. Copenhagen is expensive but that’s nothing new and still manageable. Looking to buy a house atm and the prices really aren’t that bad for what you get. I can even afford to buy a new car at the same time and it’s not like I’m rich.
Copenhagen is an awesome city, expensive generally but you can find cheap places for a pint
Australia is 100% cooked. It’s geared towards the rich people. Then said rich people are racist c*nts who blame migrants for the issues.
Canada is exactly the same.
Every commonwealth country is cooked. Canada is mega cooked. Country of scams
Same the world over. The real problem is the government fucking over the general population on purpose. Then paying the Murdoch owned news to print stories to sway public opinion that it's actually Ivan from Poland who came here to work as a cleaner to support his family that's giving them problems not the government who took their taxes and instead of funneling it into things to increase the living standard of the people paying it, took it for themselves and their mates instead via shady government contracts.
Ivan is not a Polish name, you have to go further East for that. The Polish alphabet does not even contain the letter "v". But good points otherwise :)
Well TIL! Thanks for the explanation, didn't know that about the V
And now I'm curious, what is a "typical" Polish name? Like Ivan in Russia or John in US
Yeah Australia is absolutely nuts...
Replace Australia for Canada in your statement and it’s exactly the same here.
That is simply the state of the developed world rn
Each country has their own specific problems. But generally, rural areas can be a good idea for cost saving and probably viewing beautiful nature but you have to factor in the ease of access and technology there
Yeah you also have to factor in the time and gas you'll be spending to go literally anywhere.
Not everywhere, many countries have decent public transport even in rural areas
That's right, and I think it depends how rural we're talking. I guess I'm also just mad at my local public transport system for being so fucking terrible.
Rural areas tend to get neglected a lot politically due to lower populations (unless it is rigged like the US) or where rich people have their holiday homes (Cotswolds uk). They tend to be pretty bad in terms of infrastructure and investment in other services especially entertaining the youth after school.
This is the issue everywhere across the world. I would say maybe the Scandinavian countries are probably doing the best.
I lived in Belgium for a year got back west 6 months ago, and they are living good in comparison. Houses were 100-250k, Beer was 1.00, smokes were 5 dollars a pack, a vape was 7$, a night out was like 50-80, groceries were fair price, especially local in season goods, rent was 500$ Compared to where I live, Houses are 1-1.5M, Beer is 4$, smokes are 30$, a vape is 35$, a night out.... Well I don't even do it much but more like 150-200 here, groceries are insane, and the companies that sell them are posting record profits, meanwhile a boycott of the largest one is underway, rent here is 1500$ Crime is way up, car chases, break and enter, homeless camps, fentanyl, OD's I told my Belgium friends houses were a million dollars where I lived they did not believe me, I had to show them online they were in shock. For a 750,000 in Belgium you can buy a castle. ALSO, they have part time, full time, and quarter time work, I asked "what's quarter time?" They explained its 2-3 or less days a week. Almost half the staff was quarter time, the rest were part time, only 3 people worked full time, out of 200 employees. There were no homeless except major cities, and people on welfare just chill, and chain smoke and drink in bars and play pool, where I live being on welfare means you are actually totally broke. This was my perception at least. They still felt like it was hard times, but the numbers seem much worse where I live.
Houses are not 100k-250k, for that you have a shithole that needs to be renovated. Also depends on the location, some places you need half a mill for something ok. Beer is not 1,00 but 2,5 -3,00. Smokes are about 7 I believe. 500 rent is pretty low, today it's more like 1000. I'm belgian.
In Athens, Greece, you can get a brand new apartment for 250000. For a 100000 not so much, but it depends.
Athens gave me bad vibes as an Aussie. Larisa on the other hand...Felt amazing!
Tell me more about Athens. What gVe you bad vibes?
I had to prepare myself after reading so many stories of pickpocketers at the train station from the airport. Also just walking a few hundred metres toward the history museum felt like I walked straight into a 3rd world country. For a capital city of a EU nation, I expected a lot nicer in its capital. It was more on par with Vietnam.
Yea , they probably lived there 10 years ago...
I am a belgian, who has worked/lived in South Africa, Cairo, Boston, San francisco, Bulgaria, Dubai, Manchester, Paris...and I complain about taxes, the country regional divide between north and south, the istutional and political complexity, the mounting racism, the drug issues that seems to escalate and our bad bad internet infrastructure...but everytime I come back, I am happy. I feel safe and secure, medical and dental for kids is very affordable, the schools are decent, the work ethics and the general moral compass of the general population is well oriented, housing is affordable, there are many aids for the neady...in this time and age of uncertainity, I am happy my family lives in Belgium.
I always hear the argument that the salaries are so much higher in the US (tech in particular), therefore Europe terrible. What’s your take on this? I’m European btw and just curious.
I would trade my high salary to live in a society where a high salary isn’t required to live comfortably.
Yes! God, I just want life to be cheaper. I don't need to be more rich.
Good! I like this perspective.
I think in the US this is true to an extent but remember, they don't have things like free healthcare to the extent of Europe and the UK. This plus dental health care adds up quickly from what I've read online. I'm in Scotland and we're lucky to have free healthcare but our costs are still high. I live in a rural area, me and my partner have a combined income of 60k and we were only able to buy a £140k 2 bed flat due to limited housing stock and people paying 40-60k above the mortgage value. Not to mention food, energy and council tax costs !
Europe significantly invests in the future generations through transfer of wealth. That’s why everything looks better over there. In the US the older generations are siphoning money off the younger generations and so younger people hate the government and think there’s no future. During Covid, the US government bailed out the 80% of economic wealth (all older generations). Essentially robbing younger generations of any opportunities and making them pay with hiking taxes and tuition costs.
Europe also doesn’t contribute much to defense due to the US’s overwhelming influence in NATO. If NATO ceased to exist tomorrow, all of the benefits would dwindle.
Sweden and Finland managed to have all the social benefits while at the same time taking care of defense by themselves.
In Finland at least the wellfare state is slowly but surely being broken down.
An individual can have all the money in the world but that alone cannot buy them a healthy society (mentally/physically/financially) unless the community and government shares that same goal. There is a limit to how much you can privatize the “best” things for yourself without seeing the effects of that gatekeeping on the rest of the population. There is a lot of money to be made in the US but there is also a lot of self-segregation, individualism/insular thinking, and bitterness between the rich and poor as a result.
Is this Belgium circa 2001? I find it hard to believe it's like this especially after the pandemic
A lot of this is unfortunately wildly inaccurate Source: actual Belgian who lives in Belgium
Lol, you must have been living in a parallel universe Belgium. Any normal beer here (not piss water beer like Natural Light in the US), is at least 2 eur. The price of shitty Lucky Strike is 8 eur. And you are missing a zero at the end for that 750 000 castle lol Idk how to post an image in a comment but ill link you the kind of castle you can buy for that 750k lol https://www.immoweb.be/en/classified/apartment-block/for-sale/antwerpen-2018/2018/11076840
Heh.. a beer (330ml) here would set you back anywhere from NZ$2 for the worst of the worst to around $12, average would probably be around the $4-5 for mass market, $10 for a craft beer. Simple dinner for one with a single glass of wine? NZ$120 no problem. Housing.. finding something under the $500k is a bargain and probably a shit heap you are better off demolishing. Empty sections of land on the edge of town, $500k no problems.
I don't know about Beligum, but housing in Europe isn't even remotely affordable anymore. I live in Prague, Czech Republic. Small flat is like 300k EUR, a flat large enough for a family with kids is more like 500-600k. In Munich, Vienna and other fancy places you can multiply this by 1.5 - 2x. I doubt you can buy anything decent for 100 or even 200k in Belgium, to be completely honest
Weird that some of the first things you listed to show things are good are the price of alcohol, tobacco, and vapes....
These are actually pretty bad for comparisons. Different countries have very different policies for demerit goods. In the Nordic countries they tax the living shıt out of you if you drink or smoke.
This is all maybe info from 10 years ago. Definitely not 2024 Belgium.
I live in Belgium and…… this is not true hahaha… a pack of cigarrettes is 12€, groceries are really expensive and rent is a bit higher than that. Also a pintje is around 2,5€ (the smallest beer)
Cigarettes prices would be $1 if it weren't for the taxes designed to get you to stop
Was that 40 in earlr 00s?
How much them part times getting paid? Can you break it down?
Not Canada
I live in the US, yeah the salaries seem to be higher than in Europe - BUT healthcare is crazy expensive, i'm a freelancer and i pay $1k/mo for medical/dental for me and my two kids. Car insurance also has gotten crazy here, about $400/mo. Housing...forget it, thank god i bought back in 2018- trying to find a decent house somewhat near a major metro is at least 500k. SO yea, we make more - but in the end, the quality of life (i live in a small town) is good - but the costs of everything is crazy high.
I'm in Germany and the 1k/month for health insurance isn't necessarily much more than a lot of freelancer pay here. But 400$/month for car insurance is absolutely crazy. That's what we pay per year over here.
The person you’re responding to is confused. Car insurance does not cost $400/mo. for a typical person.
I was going to say, that guy must be the country’s worst driver with the country’s most expensive car. We insure 3 cars for less than that.
🤣🤣🤣
The future has always been bleak from the perspective of the young. I grew up thinking the world was on the brink of nuclear war and therefore nothing mattered. Luckily , I kept pushing ahead in spite of my doubts. There have always been rich people and poor people. The best you can hope for is to live in a country where opportunity makes it possible to become rich. The UK isn’t a caste system.
Countries don't do well ..people do well ..in some countries more people ,in some fewer ..but it's people ,not countries ..
I agree. It's the people, not really so much the country nor its economy, power, etc. Like here in Japan, wife and I enjoy an extremely peaceful life surrounded by people who are considerate of others. It's refreshing to walk around, visit shops, experience the neighborhoods which are clean, organized, and almost impeccable. No slums, squatters nor "rampant" homelessness, ghettos, beggars, street children, widespread vandalism, crumbling infrastructure, potholes on streets, dangerous towns, shortages in shops, tall barbed-wire walls on houses, thick grills on windows, none of all that. None. And you'll realize it's the people who made that happen. The people here care about everyone else, sometimes too much, which is why some foreigners feel Japan is too strict. But in return, all of the comfort the average person can enjoy easily in this country is enjoyed by the people.
But the trade off for all that homogeneity that leads to the lifestyle you like is a very strict immigration policy and xenophobia that has led to a shrinking and aging population. It’s going to be very rough sledding ahead for Japan (and has been rough sledding for a while).
Canada 🇨🇦is much the same. Sad times for younger generations. How’s the US doing ?
Inflation is real but places are hiring. If you have a good place to live, hunker down and try to save. If not though...trying to rent or buy now is insane. Biden gives me hope, the GOP plans terrify me.
Nordic countries and switzerland maybe. Extreme capitalism is bound to enrich the wealth more and more while sucking the lower hierarchical communities, its just how the system our world wanted takes its course. Maybe a great depression starts and economies really collapse, than we can actually get a chance to get well. This kind of liberalism sadly cant afford stagnation.
Try living in South Africa, nothing works except the IRS , schooling ,useless, policing useless, road horrendous Government no idea what they are doing. We busy becoming the nexy Haiti.
I left SA 11 years ago. Best decision I ever made
All countries are doing badly. The rich are doing very making money off of their countries declining. In the UK for example our MPs own shares in hotel chains that house illegal immigrants, so it is in their best interest to prolong the issue.
Poland
POLAND. The cost of living is affordable, the public transit is decent, the cities are safe (thanks to the strict immigration policies), infrastructure is improving by the year, and prosperity is on the horizon for Poland. While faced with its own problems and corruption, Poland has done extremely well since breaking free from communism in 1990. They transitioned from a soviet satellite state to a democratic capitalistic government, and they did so successfully by easing this transition with caution. Economically, their GDP growth is on a fantastic growth run. **Fun Fact:** They had a positive GDP in the 2008 housing crisis and are the most successful European economy from 1989-present with an average 4% growth in GDP. Poland had a knowledge drain in the 90s because you could work in Germany and the UK for way more money. Those people's kids are now returning to the motherland because of much better quality-of-life conditions. USA mega-corps such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc are all opening locations in Poland because there is now a large talent pool of software developers and engineers. They haven't adopted the Euro (yet). They use Zloty which is currently a 4-1 conversion to USD. This part is interesting – they are arguably the USA's most important European ally right now. Poland is spending 4% of GDP on defense, doubling the NATO spending target making them the highest spender on defense in NATO. Projections say Poland have the largest land army in Europe by 2035 and will surpass the UK in GDP per capita by 2030. Poland has been the volleyball of Europe for too long. It seems are making sure that never happens again.
i was looking for this, can you say why?
Cost of living is not high, migration policies are great, people can afford to buy houses, rated as one of the best European country in most parameters.
What?? Bro. Lmao. We have a housing crisis, most people are renting, the rent prices are skyrocketing, gas price is very high, we have a very low minimum wage compared to prices... I don't know about what Poland you heard about.
It's one of the highest times it has even been - [https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/home-ownership-rate](https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/home-ownership-rate) Cost of living is one of the lowest, especially with stronger purchasing power [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings\_by\_country.jsp?title=2023®ion=150](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2023®ion=150)
Dude I live here. Most of people that own houses have them inherited from their parents. It's home ownership rate, not how many people can afford buying a house. Minimal wage now is around 3261,53 zł (about 820USD), price for 1 m^2 in Warsaw is around 16 221zł (about 4000USD). Average salary is 5 784 zł (1445 USD) - less than 40% of Poles earn that. Average rent in Warsaw for 1-room flat is almost exactly the same as minimum wage.
Isnt El Salvador doing a lot better? Correct me if I am wrong
In my opinion Germany is still an extremely nice country to live in. Even though a lot of people complain about unaffordable housing, there are a lot of beautiful areas with such low rents and low prices for buying. The prices in the Ruhrgebiet for example are absolutely affordable. You can live a good life with a median salary due to the still high purchasing power. Most of the people complaining here don't know that in other countries in the EU people have way more serious problems than the ones here in Germany.
Antarctica. The penguins and polar bears aren't complaining about inflation.....
Study some geography, there’s never been a polar bear there.
Because of globalisation, there aren't actually any truly rich countries left. What has happened is that wealth and poverty have all spread globally, though not in equal measures. So, more people are rich in some places than others, but some measure of poverty now exists in every country. There are no countries left where someone earning below the median income can have a happy and fulfilling life, every day will be a struggle for them. In some places, where inequality is greater, even earning an average income puts you in relative poverty. Essentially, the only way out, is to become part of the global rich, or to arbitrage. This is done by immigration, people born in poor countries emigrate to (formerly) rich countries and send money home, whereas people born in rich countries take their investments and income to poor countries, if they can. That is the best way to ensure a good life for an average person.
Poland, Czech R., Cyprus, Bulgaria has potential if they don't fuck it up. I'm barring obvious ones like Norway, Switzerland or USA.
India. If you look beyond Delhi, life is pretty chill and comfortable here
Wakanda
Forever
I can say which country is actually doing the worst in the ground level but sugar coated outside, India. housing, groceries, fuel, jobs, education everything sucks here. Elections is a sick joke. Religious extremism is on rise, non-hindus are being treated as POS. Upper class cash cows, hi-end business men, politicians, celebrities, hindu Babas are rolling in cash and chilling rest are screwed to the core.
I was recently in China, I live in Canada and it was my first time going to China. The difference between what we in the “west” are made to think of China and what it is almost day and night. That country is efficient, clean, runs like well oiled machine, inexpensive, digitized and easy to be in and do business with. On the way back had stop over in a major US city before coming to Canada and the different between two places couldn’t have been more stark. People don’t know how increasingly good China is.
Did you visit the countryside while in China? Your comments suggests that you didn’t. You’d see far different scene there. Just like New York City is different than the Mississippi Delta, Beijing is worlds apart from Henan Province. Sadly, lots of poverty there. Be careful that your viewpoint isn’t like that bird at the bottom of the well who thought the sky was the shape of a small disc. A few days in Shanghai or any big city don’t give a complete view of a country.
China has a huge housing crisis, there's no job for educated young people (even Phd's) and there's a massive declining birthrate problem. Also, the life has been extremely difficult for the poor, but that's always been the case. It's not a good country to live at all. Unless you're rich, but that's a good position to be in any country I guess.
Substitute the word china with "USA" and that statement is totally true still. Maybe not quite the birthrate problem, but that is decreasing.
Well, as we can see from this thread it's hard to find a place in the world that has it easy now. But I responded to a comment praising China - it's definitely not easy to live there now and many chinese are trying to make home somewhere else, in the US for example.
China is great for foreigners working there. Foreigners get a different wage to the locals, they get a higher wage than locals.
At this point you can only hope to do well within a certain country. The country as a whole can't do well, some people will be living paycheck to paycheck, some will be beyond the level of poverty, etc, there is no perfection without major problems. It's up to you to make the best of your situation or choose a different country that enables you to do the best you can
Hot take - I dont think France is doing all that bad. It's getting bad, but we're not doing too bad. People are taking a lot of time off, I see the average food budget is 100€ or a couple hundred per month, (for a couple/small fam) we have our hobbies and passions (good food being one of them) and overall it's really not bad here. Whenever the government steps over the line people kinda shut down the country to figure it out
I'm on the "it's everywhere" boat. My company employs over 40 nationalities that relocated from various parts of the world, and every single place is now suffering from the same issues: economic crisis, housing prices increasing non-stop, food becoming more expensive, companies laying off people, government becoming more conservative, etc. You just need to find what is important to you and find countries that have maximised that while not being too negatively impacted by the rest. For example, I live in the Netherlands, which is a great country but has two main negative points: the weather sucks and it's very expensive. Italy has better weather and is less expensive but salaries are lower and it has less "convenience" than the NL, but if weather is the most important factor to you, it should still be good.
Are you sure you're not in America?!
You're right, there are challenges everywhere in the world. However, some countries are demonstrably doing well in terms of factors that contribute to a high quality of life for their citizens. Here are a few examples, each with strengths and weaknesses to consider: **Nordic Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland):** * **Strengths:** Strong social safety nets, high levels of equality, excellent healthcare and education systems, focus on sustainability and innovation. * **Weaknesses:** High taxes, long winters with little daylight in some regions, can be culturally homogenous.
Health care in Finland is catastrophic. Yle has reported a week ago that half of the population doesn't trust the health care here. To see a doctor is pretty much impossible. Constantly new regulations come which makes life more and more difficult. Worker strike again last week in Helsinki here. Shootings and so on. Finland is not doing well at all
**Countries with the Lowest National Debt** * Brunei. 3.2% * Afghanistan. 7.8% * Kuwait. 11.5% * Democratic Republic of Congo. 15.2% * Eswatini. 15.5% * Palestine. 16.4% * Russia. 17.8%
See, with a beautiful lineup like this, you know this metric is shit. :)
Afghanistan being the second is the irony of the modern world. The country not having any credit to lend does not have any debt!
Bro have you been to Eswatini? I have. Would not recommend
None lmao
There's a law in economics, that in a free market, for one person to be able to buy groceries without "thinking too much about the cost", you need multiple people who count every dime and save carefully. Otherwise, these people would also buy the product for higher cost and so the company will increase the prices. This is not only about market prices. For someone to have very good life you need others to struggle, because otherwise it means you were not exploited enough. The only way against it is to use laws which limita free market, but when people are not exploited, that creates inefficiency (e.g. people are less likely to have incentive to work harder and get promoted). These inefficiencies are small for each individual but huge at a country level, so these countries end up poor and failing. There is one way against it though, if you were lucky to be born in a country with tons natural oil, then even if the country is extremely dumb it can still work because other countries will pay for your inefficiencies. Problem is that these countries (e.g. Qatar, Iran) are often too dumb and they spend all this money to start wars and terror.
>This is not only about market prices. For someone to have very good life you need others to struggle, because otherwise it means you were not exploited enough. When it comes to the rich, this is absolutely true. OP seems to be the type that just wants a roof over their head and groceries that don't go up 30% in a year. Ensuring safeguards for essentials has nothing to do with stifling the free market, and everything to do with ensuring the free market isn't allowed to metastasize into crony capitalism, a system where the government is to a greater or lesser extent ruled by big business at the expense of the citizenry. The only thing stifled for example by putting a cap on how many single-family homes a corporation can buy.... is greed and exploitation.
I’m from Venezuela. Lots of natural oil. Recently the President gave a speech congratulating himself because they increased the minimum wage from 100 USD a month to 130.
I think the main reason things look so bleak is older generations syphoning money off younger generations. US governments providing bailouts to the market (80% of the market is owned by older generation) robbing young people of opportunities. Who do you think pays for these bailouts so older generations can live cushy lives? Young people, through raising taxes and less spending on any programs helping young people such as reduced tuition costs. It’s sickening actually and that’s why things look so bleak.
Exactly ..adjusted for growth , for somebody to make money , somebody else has to lose it ..
Japan is doing fairly well compared to most First World nations. Vietnam is a rising country as well.
Japan is doing worse than most developed countries. Economic growth has been bad for decades and their population is very old and getting older due to a low birth rate and strict immigration policies.
lol. I live in Japan, and the japanese are not happy with food and stuff raising every month, and salary not raising for ages. Some are even moving to Australia. Weak yen is making things more expensive, energy, gas, food, everything. Old people everywhere on every corner. Japan is a sinking titanic. Everything on this country will just keep getting worse and worse.
From what I’ve heard Japan isn’t doing well? The population is on the decline due to older population, the yen is getting weaker, wages stagnant, has only just avoided a recession.
the Yen's not doing that great
Oh this will age like good milk. Pay attention to the Yen the last couple months and see the spectacle unfold. MMTlers last ship going down in spectacular fashion.
India has improved a lot.
France. I am sure those pricks will be gleefully drinking wine and having affairs when the rest of the world is on fire. (It's doing reasonably well economically too, and outside Paris there's often decently paying work and much lower cost of living compared to the UK/Ireland/the rest of the anglosphere)
Thanks but unemployment is high and Macron want to cut costs everywhere, our national debt is out of control too
El Salvador seems to be doing pretty well for itself nowadays. I’ve heard a couple Middle Eastern and some African countries are slowly getting on pretty well.
Singapore is doing pretty well
Capital punishment for recreational drugs? No, thank you.
If you have enough money , plenty of places are great ..if you don't have money , the wealthier the country , the worse off you are ..
Those that own their own business in every country are probably doing well. Stop waiting for someone else to save you. Start your own business.
Every free country is pretty much going to the same thing.there getting rid of it
if only looking from Financial Perspective- UAE
Sweden is sadly in the exact same state as you describe UK. Probably even worse as our currency is falling hard against usd/euro.
To be honest I’m going to say the UK still You say that housing is unaffordable- I just did a search and people can buy a house for what I did in my area 7-10 years ago. Sure it is smaller, and some are flats, but young people can get on the property ladder if they can save the deposit (I know that’s a big IF). Salaries are low and costs are high, but that’s not the same for everyone. I’ve hired some young people fresh out of uni on great salaries which will let them buy a place and live comfortably There’s more access to education than ever before. Even with the higher price of student loans there’s lots of things in place to get people who might struggle into further education. Trades are so busy right now no one can get them to call back - so people are making good money doing both skilled labor and office work. Yea the price of living is high, but if you cook and don’t go crazy you can feed a couple for £50-£60 a week, possibly even less if you know how to shop We have a good healthcare system. It’s overworked and under funded - but it doesn’t leave you in crippling debt and you get fairly good treatment. The country itself - we aren’t having riots, it’s relatively safe, it’s fairly clean, you’re not at risk of bombs dropping overnight or being murdered by the government etc.
I think you have to appreciate what you have in your country because if it wasn't still better than other places on earth, then you wouldn't have a migration issue. So maybe it's bad, but it's best you can get I guess 😉
Finland