14471696:Casey said:
To your last point- I mean we don’t talk about it in these terms generally but Western European democracies generally have immigration policies that mirror what the far right advocates for in the US. Oh you’re fleeing genocide? Are you rich? No? Whelp sorry fuck off this country is full. This is a very different nation than the rest in that regard, but the consequences of that in one regard are that we have a fuck ton of poor people, comparatively speaking. At it’s best, the “land of opportunity” is a place where people don’t stay poor, if you work hard you can pursue happiness in any form you choose, which you could never do in Europe. It’s just not culturally built that way and you can’t just show up and say hey I want to be Danish, please spend your tax money on me.
I would much rather be an immigrant in a European city than an American city at this point simply due to the ease and cost of commuting to work...
For one, I won't require all the expenses of maintaining, fueling, and insuring an automobile - and thus being a slave to it just in order to get to my place of work. That creates an undue burden of stress on a person - something that I never realized until I didn't need to spend 2 hours of my day in a car, stressing out in traffic or struggling to find a parking spot - and then paying for parking.
In Europe there are places you need a car, but theyre generally pretty damn rural - where people are less likely to need to commute super far to work as the industry is usually agriculture... and you usually don't need to drive very far to find the nearest train station in order to take a trip someplace.
A car costs, on average, about 10000$ per year (or 900$ a month) to own, operate, and commute within the USA (this is according to AAA). If you make 50 grand, that means youre paying 20% of your income just to your car and your commute. That's more than you'd ever pay in taxes, and at least as much as you'll end up paying in rent.
Sure, you can save a lot of money if you work remotely, but a lot of companies are starting to require people to work in the office again, as they want to have oversight over their employees' productivity. And Immigrants are less likely to be able to get remote jobs like that (plus they still have expenses such as the cost of a good computer for whatever it is you can do remotely)
However, Lets just for example, say I'm a fresh immigrant, living in London... in a more humble area that's actually affordable, say like... Croydon or whatever, and I had a job in SOHO or somewhere else in the thick of the city doing some job working in a restaurant or whatever... And I'm commuting by the tube every day (even on my days off, because I want to go out to cool areas and flirt with hot English babes), I'd still only pay about 3-3.5 grand annually in commute (high-end).. that's upwards 7000$ in savings over maintaining and operating a car in the US these days... that's 7 grand more per year that I can either put towards weekend alcohol benders getting into all sorts of trouble at the pub, or saving towards something important.
In Tokyo, it's about the same cost as in London, but you get the added benefit where usually your company pays for your commute expenses anyway - saving you the whole 10 grand... which at 2-2.50$ for a humble Asahi Super Dry at an izakaya... that's a LOT of beer you can buy...
If I'm an immigrant I'm saying FUCK the USA, I'm going to go right to somewhere in Spain or Portugal, where I'll commute by train every day, and feed myself by eating delicious oranges right off the trees that grow seemingly everywhere in the country.
The USA is awesome if you're privileged to have been born into a healthy household like I was as well as the grand majority of people on this site (you're skiers - shut up, you're privileged as fuck lol), but it can be a nightmare if you're an immigrant trying to move up the ladder... there are just too many things that could impede your progress toward living a fulfilling life - and auto-dependent infrastructure and the cost burden taken on by daily commuters are surely one of them.
