As a 9 year old from the seamier sides of Manila, my first step outside of the Philippines' confines was a small town in Germany near Heidelberg. The contrast between the chaos I came from and the relative order and cleanliness and trust was overwhelming. And all this was made possible by the US denying my little family a tourist visa. Two years later, I stepped onto US soil and noted its distinct lack of charm, aside from the obvious attractions of Disneyland. Now I live here and I still miss the beauty of Europe.
In the U.S. we were a struggling family with two small kids. We avoided going to the doctor until we absolutely needed it, and we were never going to afford to buy a house. We moved to Amsterdam, and our kids have gone to amazing public schools (without active shooter drills). My husband and I both got master's degrees that cost a few thousand dollars, and my daughter will graduate from university debt-free in a couple of years. We bought a little house, because we didn't need a downpayment, just a permanent work contract (which by the way means your employer can't just fire you at will). We've had two life-threatening medical emergencies--either of which would have bankrupted us back in the U.S.--and we were cared for wonderfully in Dutch hospitals, and never received a single bill. From where I sit, the eye-watering taxes we pay in the Netherlands are absolutely worth every penny.
And yes, we bike everywhere and use excellent public transport, and walk to the grocery store or one of a dozen neighbourhood cafés for a cappuccino on Saturday mornings. So I greatly appreciate the aesthetic side too, but for us Europe has meant a very practical improvement in our quality of life.
It all boils down to the progressive destruction of our currency. In 1981 when i turned 18 you could sit in a 4bs and drink coffee all day for $2.00. As broke as all of us were we could still hangout in cafes or cheap restaurants. They were very commonplace in my small town where we had our choice of at least 1/2 a dozen cheap cafes to eat in or hangout. Starbucks ruined the coffee shop experience by elevating the cost to the point that it wasn’t something you could do all the time and destroying any local competition. Now the only cafes left are stupidly expensive and have been turned into some cultural advertisement for a place that never existed, oh and it’s $10.00 for a coffee and a donut.
I don’t drink anymore but can’t imagine what these prices have done to that industry. We use to have a rule that you never spent more than $5.00 cover charge as that would buy you a couple more beers somewhere else, a couple more not just one. I saw an ad for a local brewery charging $25 cover charge and $17.00 a beer. Must be Aerosmith or ac/dc since that’s what I paid to see them in the 80s. So by the time I went drinking and then maybe have a bite to eat after I am in it for $100 for one evening of maybe passable enjoyment not some epic adventure. This is why American life sucks now, normal social activities have become monetized to the point that they are no longer viable options for most people to engage in. Our standard of living has cratered severely and many people of the younger generation don’t realize how bad it has become. It’s incomprehensible to me that people aren’t rioting in the streets regarding this. Anyone over 60 knows exactly what I am talking about, I try to explain to my son that I lived on minimum wage with one job in 1982 and he just doesn’t believe it. Our currency has been made worthless because of the billionaire bankers hoarding all the wealth and getting government bailouts to prop up the dollar instead of being forced to pay the debts back. Because all the money is being hoarded, we have to print more and more, ultimately making it worthless for everyone, if it’s too big to fail it needs to be crushed. This is all a direct result of the wealthy gaming the system, for every Bernie Madoff that got caught there were 10 more still getting away with it. We didn’t have billionaires in the 60s or 70s and really only one, Howard Hugh’s, he was it. Now we have thousands of them and each one represents another rung of economic destruction for thousands if not millions of normal citizens. It’s the money that’s the problem it’s not the cafes. Ask yourself why is it that so many formally functioning industries that use to make up a large part of normal American life for the previous 50years are no longer viable like small businesses, it’s directly tied to the rise and abuse of the oligarchs. Kill a billionaire save a million jobs.
Believing that the US is more into individualism is a very US thing to think.
US school has far more communal (and semi-fascistic) aspects than most European ones. Religion and race (both communal) are much more obviously in your face in America. And so far, the only place where someone has stopped me in the street to question what I was wearing (a yellow Sex Pistols t-shirt) was Flagstaff, Arizona.
Hmmm.......another take on this although I much prefer Chris' views and many others who responded here. The fellow who wrote this seems to have no actual experience working in the US.
The Great Divergence
America is now way richer than Europe.
When I recently spoke to Paul Krugman on his interview show, for example, I casually mentioned the astonishing economic divergence between Europe and the United States. Whereas both continents were similarly affluent a few decades ago, America is now nearly twice as rich as Europe.
Cue a flood of outraged emails. Lots of people wrote to me to say that I must have the facts wrong, or at least must have failed to understand what really is important. Nominally, some correspondents conceded, the GDP of the United States might now be much higher than that of France or Germany. But that’s only because America lacks a welfare state and is so vastly unequal. In reality, the average European is doing just as well.
Largely unnoticed by the general public on both sides of the Atlantic, America has pulled away from Europe. The average American is now vastly more affluent than the average European. And this difference in life quality is not only reflected in the overall size of the economy; it is also evident in much more practical metrics such as the disposable income, the living space, or the services accessible to the average person.
It's possible to have your Milan experience in several in-town Atlanta neighborhoods, and it's possible to have your Atlanta-adjacent experience at many, many chain hotels surrounding Europe's major airports.
I really like your writing and perspective, usually. This is not one of them. Lazy and cherry-picked.
The dirty little secret of America is that nobody likes it, they just think there's nothing better, or they know there's something better but can't leave because they're stuck, financially, professionally, familially. It's why the population lives a shorter, more depressed, more physically unhealthy life despite paper wealth beyond the dreams of Croesus.
The main thing never mentioned: European living on an American salary is vastly preferred to living in America on that same salary, this creates an optical illusion however for the American traveler who imagines living there on his current salary because most American jobs pay 2-3 times the equivalent of their European counterpart and Europe’s economy provides very few good paying jobs (obviously I’m speaking more of Spain/italy/greece and not really Northern Europe ). Also unmentioned is that America is largely an immigrant nation in which many Americans themselves feel very alien in their own towns and cities, that is something that Europeans will likely never have to deal with. Lastly it should be said that In the 1950s the soulless housing tracts were actually quite idyllic communities full of young families who interacted with their neighbors, joined civic organizations, and had lots of kids who played with each other. Now in the bowling alone era these are just depressing suburbs full of mostly old people who sit inside watching TV with few kids (and the kids are inside watching a screen rather than playing outside)
I do wonder at what point does the crazy amount of tourism to Europe become a detriment to quality of life though? I have relatives in many of the beach towns of Southern California (Laguna beach, Balboa island, etc) which even by European standards are very hard to beat in terms of great quality of life, at least in theory—- in reality though the towns tend to get overrun by tourists to the point where it can be quite unenjoyable for many of the people living there.
Several locales in Europe - Spain, Greece, parts of Italy - are getting tired of the summer high season that rolls in every year and the increasingly difficult time of finding affordable housing with so many apartments/small houses being bought as investments to rent out for the short term tenants and those on vacation. Airbnb is a dirty word in Greece.
Really amazing post. You do a great job explaining “culture hopping” by elites.
As a 9 year old from the seamier sides of Manila, my first step outside of the Philippines' confines was a small town in Germany near Heidelberg. The contrast between the chaos I came from and the relative order and cleanliness and trust was overwhelming. And all this was made possible by the US denying my little family a tourist visa. Two years later, I stepped onto US soil and noted its distinct lack of charm, aside from the obvious attractions of Disneyland. Now I live here and I still miss the beauty of Europe.
In the U.S. we were a struggling family with two small kids. We avoided going to the doctor until we absolutely needed it, and we were never going to afford to buy a house. We moved to Amsterdam, and our kids have gone to amazing public schools (without active shooter drills). My husband and I both got master's degrees that cost a few thousand dollars, and my daughter will graduate from university debt-free in a couple of years. We bought a little house, because we didn't need a downpayment, just a permanent work contract (which by the way means your employer can't just fire you at will). We've had two life-threatening medical emergencies--either of which would have bankrupted us back in the U.S.--and we were cared for wonderfully in Dutch hospitals, and never received a single bill. From where I sit, the eye-watering taxes we pay in the Netherlands are absolutely worth every penny.
And yes, we bike everywhere and use excellent public transport, and walk to the grocery store or one of a dozen neighbourhood cafés for a cappuccino on Saturday mornings. So I greatly appreciate the aesthetic side too, but for us Europe has meant a very practical improvement in our quality of life.
It all boils down to the progressive destruction of our currency. In 1981 when i turned 18 you could sit in a 4bs and drink coffee all day for $2.00. As broke as all of us were we could still hangout in cafes or cheap restaurants. They were very commonplace in my small town where we had our choice of at least 1/2 a dozen cheap cafes to eat in or hangout. Starbucks ruined the coffee shop experience by elevating the cost to the point that it wasn’t something you could do all the time and destroying any local competition. Now the only cafes left are stupidly expensive and have been turned into some cultural advertisement for a place that never existed, oh and it’s $10.00 for a coffee and a donut.
I don’t drink anymore but can’t imagine what these prices have done to that industry. We use to have a rule that you never spent more than $5.00 cover charge as that would buy you a couple more beers somewhere else, a couple more not just one. I saw an ad for a local brewery charging $25 cover charge and $17.00 a beer. Must be Aerosmith or ac/dc since that’s what I paid to see them in the 80s. So by the time I went drinking and then maybe have a bite to eat after I am in it for $100 for one evening of maybe passable enjoyment not some epic adventure. This is why American life sucks now, normal social activities have become monetized to the point that they are no longer viable options for most people to engage in. Our standard of living has cratered severely and many people of the younger generation don’t realize how bad it has become. It’s incomprehensible to me that people aren’t rioting in the streets regarding this. Anyone over 60 knows exactly what I am talking about, I try to explain to my son that I lived on minimum wage with one job in 1982 and he just doesn’t believe it. Our currency has been made worthless because of the billionaire bankers hoarding all the wealth and getting government bailouts to prop up the dollar instead of being forced to pay the debts back. Because all the money is being hoarded, we have to print more and more, ultimately making it worthless for everyone, if it’s too big to fail it needs to be crushed. This is all a direct result of the wealthy gaming the system, for every Bernie Madoff that got caught there were 10 more still getting away with it. We didn’t have billionaires in the 60s or 70s and really only one, Howard Hugh’s, he was it. Now we have thousands of them and each one represents another rung of economic destruction for thousands if not millions of normal citizens. It’s the money that’s the problem it’s not the cafes. Ask yourself why is it that so many formally functioning industries that use to make up a large part of normal American life for the previous 50years are no longer viable like small businesses, it’s directly tied to the rise and abuse of the oligarchs. Kill a billionaire save a million jobs.
Believing that the US is more into individualism is a very US thing to think.
US school has far more communal (and semi-fascistic) aspects than most European ones. Religion and race (both communal) are much more obviously in your face in America. And so far, the only place where someone has stopped me in the street to question what I was wearing (a yellow Sex Pistols t-shirt) was Flagstaff, Arizona.
There are other aspects, but check your premises.
As someone who spends over a dozen nights per month in random places, mostly in the USA but other countries as well— your observations resonate.
Often I comment that kind treatment is experienced more when outside the US. This might run in parallel with knowing “how” to live.
Message for the non-traveler—one might not understand a culture until experiencing their food, art (architecture) and music.
Hmmm.......another take on this although I much prefer Chris' views and many others who responded here. The fellow who wrote this seems to have no actual experience working in the US.
The Great Divergence
America is now way richer than Europe.
When I recently spoke to Paul Krugman on his interview show, for example, I casually mentioned the astonishing economic divergence between Europe and the United States. Whereas both continents were similarly affluent a few decades ago, America is now nearly twice as rich as Europe.
Cue a flood of outraged emails. Lots of people wrote to me to say that I must have the facts wrong, or at least must have failed to understand what really is important. Nominally, some correspondents conceded, the GDP of the United States might now be much higher than that of France or Germany. But that’s only because America lacks a welfare state and is so vastly unequal. In reality, the average European is doing just as well.
Largely unnoticed by the general public on both sides of the Atlantic, America has pulled away from Europe. The average American is now vastly more affluent than the average European. And this difference in life quality is not only reflected in the overall size of the economy; it is also evident in much more practical metrics such as the disposable income, the living space, or the services accessible to the average person.
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-great-divergence?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
An Italian cafe has better food than an airport hotel chain in Atlanta. Great insights 👍🏻
Everything spot on. In my opinion. By the way, regarding Muroran, I liked it a lot . If I may
https://open.substack.com/pub/igorf9c/p/walking-muroran-hokkaido-japan-sept?r=4zs6g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thanks, Chris. A lot to chew on here. Sorry about your sunburn.
It's possible to have your Milan experience in several in-town Atlanta neighborhoods, and it's possible to have your Atlanta-adjacent experience at many, many chain hotels surrounding Europe's major airports.
I really like your writing and perspective, usually. This is not one of them. Lazy and cherry-picked.
Struck a nerve, clearly.
A friend and I would like clarification on what you meant by the following:
“It is primarily we intellectuals and elites who culture shop, picking and choosing what works best for us.”
I have more life behind me than ahead of me and so far I never regret spending my time reading about your travels.
This is all so tiresome. You like Europe - go live in Europe. You like America - go live in America.
Nobody likes anyplace. 🙂
The dirty little secret of America is that nobody likes it, they just think there's nothing better, or they know there's something better but can't leave because they're stuck, financially, professionally, familially. It's why the population lives a shorter, more depressed, more physically unhealthy life despite paper wealth beyond the dreams of Croesus.
The main thing never mentioned: European living on an American salary is vastly preferred to living in America on that same salary, this creates an optical illusion however for the American traveler who imagines living there on his current salary because most American jobs pay 2-3 times the equivalent of their European counterpart and Europe’s economy provides very few good paying jobs (obviously I’m speaking more of Spain/italy/greece and not really Northern Europe ). Also unmentioned is that America is largely an immigrant nation in which many Americans themselves feel very alien in their own towns and cities, that is something that Europeans will likely never have to deal with. Lastly it should be said that In the 1950s the soulless housing tracts were actually quite idyllic communities full of young families who interacted with their neighbors, joined civic organizations, and had lots of kids who played with each other. Now in the bowling alone era these are just depressing suburbs full of mostly old people who sit inside watching TV with few kids (and the kids are inside watching a screen rather than playing outside)
I do wonder at what point does the crazy amount of tourism to Europe become a detriment to quality of life though? I have relatives in many of the beach towns of Southern California (Laguna beach, Balboa island, etc) which even by European standards are very hard to beat in terms of great quality of life, at least in theory—- in reality though the towns tend to get overrun by tourists to the point where it can be quite unenjoyable for many of the people living there.
Several locales in Europe - Spain, Greece, parts of Italy - are getting tired of the summer high season that rolls in every year and the increasingly difficult time of finding affordable housing with so many apartments/small houses being bought as investments to rent out for the short term tenants and those on vacation. Airbnb is a dirty word in Greece.