Mallory

Really?

Manc

My grandparent's are.....

Silly Sod

You said it so well lol - better than my poor phonetics

gazzpfc

We always liked the USA Jackal (is that you Carlos) we came because with my job I had the chance to come.
We have the option after two years to go back and in all honesty right now will go back, to Europe that is, highly unlikely UK, as Spain was where I spent every summer etc growing up and my Mum is Basque so I want my daughter to experience that.
Think the comment made earlier about EU was a good one by a previous poster some great places to live.
My two cents worth after 3 months is simple.
Its nice where we are(weather is shit) and my daughter is in a great school that like for like, is same fee as we paid at home but is far, far superior to her UK school.
I get Euro holidays part of my deal so its fine but having 10 days for me is crap, its what you are used to I suppose, that pysche of loads of hours etc has always baffled me.Its about results and if you get them having 6 weeks leave and doing 35 hrs a week why not?
We have had friends go to Oz and love it but some who waited years to get in but left in less than 1 year found it too remote.
Canada having been a few times is a softer landing in some ways with the slightly more familiar touch.
However still have seen both there as well.
If seeing Glentoran play or Offaly win All Ireland for example are key as is proximity of the familiar forget it here and you know that from studying here.
Can you get on here?yes for sure more than in UK I think that perception of you can make it big here but not at home has faded and in fact the UK is very different in that aspect now.
My sole regret about coming here is arriving at 40 rather than 24 so from that aspect do it now if you are gonna do it think life has moulded you far less and allows you to be more flexible of thought and feeling.

snowbunny

I do not believe that this is the case.

The government is so much in bed with corporations and other special interests that I believe that it is impossible for individuals to change things via the ballot box. I hope I am wrong. Every country has this problem to a degree; but this country has it worse than many.

Then we (the people) have to agree on what we're voting *for*. Assuming the voters can combine to vote entire parties/groups out of office.... how do you achieve this when there's been so much divisiveness?

Here's one issue that seems relatively straightforward and yet we couldn't even accomplish it:

all the major socialised medicine systems employ competitive bidding and volume buying to keep down the price of prescription drugs. Yet Medicare, which is a *socialised medicine system* run by the government, was prohibited from doing the same thing, resulting to higher costs for both the government and the people on Medicare.

Why? Because Big Pharma replentishes the pockets of many in Washington DC, that's why. Pork, kickbacks, whatever you want to call it. But the trouble is that very few Americans *even know* about the situation, much less realise exactly how much money we could be saving.

Mallory

Yes, I know you said you were going to Portugal, but you also said you were going to the UK in 2008. You said you were going to rent a cottage in Cheshire, and your sons were going to school in England, to take A levels. You said you would buy a car while you were there.

I gather that you've never lived in the north of England, that you left Portugal when you were 7/8 years old. You've been living in SA and FL for all of your adult life.

I think you have to live somewhere as an adult to understand how things are. I think it's great that will leave the USA and go and try out other countries. I've lived in UK, Germany and USA. I like all 3 countries - all have good and bad - none is better than the other IMO.

Mallory

My grandfathers died young. My grandmothers scraped by, one helped by her 8 children, and the other had 5 children, and a very meager war widow's pension. My dad died when I was 20. My mum scraped by on 1/6 of a civil service pension, because he died before he was of the required age, even though he had worked there most of his adult life. All of my mum's trips to the USA were paid for by me. When she was over here I would buy most of her clothes. My siblings paid for her travel insurance. She traveled to SA, Germany and the USA - but couldn't pay for it herself - which she hated. So yes she traveled extensively, but not on the state pension. That just provided enough money to buy food and utilities. My mum played whist and bingo. and went on trips with the senior citizens, most of her friends were in the same boat as my mum - broke. She gave up her car because she couldn't afford the petrol. So your grandparents are lucky. It's like the US - some older people are broke, and some are rolling it. You cannot generalise.

http://www.euro.centre.org/data/1156245035_36346.pdf

another bloody yank

I agree with you (While inserting the obligatory "unless you were black"!).

snowbunny

as is my mother-in-law (Dutch) who has never worked outside the home, and my SIL who is my age and working is quite the globetrotter having trekked every continent save Antarctica. She gets five weeks of hols every year and I'm always hearing about where so-and-so is off to next. Hell, my MIL even beat me to Big Bend (I had to work).

another bloody yank

If all of our wrinklies are packing groceries wher did all of those people driving Cadillacs around Florida come from? FWIW, both my Paternal and Maternal grandparents traveled after retirement, both abroad and in the US. My Paternal Grandfather worked construction for forty years and my Maternal Grandfather (a child of Sicilian immigrants) retired after 20 years as a butcher, after first building a succesful meat/produce/grocery business from scratch. His family was extremely poor, and he began working full time selling fruit out of a street cart after completing the eighth grade. Now, both my parents and my In-laws travel. My Father is not yet retired, but has five weeks vacation and takes one two week trip (usually a road trip) a year with my Mom, my Mom is retired and is constantly going somwhere with her retired friends.


I don't think your "dull tool" scenario above is unique to America. Every country has unskilled labor. But just because you start off a janitor doesn't mean you have to stay a janitor. I think if anything, America has shown that even the stupid have a chance of success. As an American I know that if I was willing to do what it takes (I'm not, different priorities) I could be rich.

Elvira

What an utterly idiotic statement...

another bloody yank

Didn't you read the line before?

Rete

And why is that? I don't think it is idiotic.

Elvira

It is an insult to all the millions who toil and work extremely hard, without a snowball's chance in hell of ever being comfortably off, never mind rich.

ironporer

I can agree with this, and indeed think it will get worse for those with meager minds.

In years past, a person of below average inteligence could always count on a job at Ford, John Deere or the steel mill, making a decent living and being able to maybe see his kids off to college. In today's service/banking/healthcare based economy those jobs have been sent to China or the wages so dramatically cut as to allow only subsistance living.

In future years it can only get worse for those unlucky enough to be born dumb.