Bob

Depends on the town, in mine it is.

School buses have all been outsourced to save the school districts having to offer benefits like health insurance and holiday pay....it's all minimum wage stuff mostly.

Oh and they charge $380 a year per kid.

Mummy in the foothills

Ouch. I honestly think a lot of government official think we are all bottomless money pits.
I'm getting nickled and dimed to death here. another $380 a year for school (soon to be two kids in school) would be a real hard ship with the cost of one in Uni. Help I'm sinking.

Mummy in the foothills

Dh put up red and orange reflectors out first year here, he would keep going around the block and couldn't find the driveway in the dark. Now he put white fence posts with solar lights on top of each, so we stand out.

meauxna

That's why the expensive Aveda products are must-have.. I smell fanTAStic!

lansbury

You live in a city run by Sam and Randy incorporated

meauxna

grrrr, Randy. He's on my list right now.

Bob

Aye, give 'em a shitty $50 bike from walmart and a helmet and hedge your bets I say

Is a little bit mental.

It's not like that in all the towns mind, but is the case in a few where I am...scary as it's not all that poor of an area.

hereandthere

In my view the US is still worth moving to. It offers a good standard of living compared with nearly every other country in the world. However, I am less optimistic about the US in the near to middle future. Its debt is eye-watering and the healthcare system is a farce that certainly cannot be fixed now in the post GFC world. In 2009 it's 13th best place to live according to the world's only real index measuring this sort of thing (health, life expectancy, education, etc.) which is a good place to be ranked IMO.

So I would say give it a shot, basically, but have some kind of provision for healthcare.

Englishtart

Well, if this last page or two doesn't open a few eyes of those thinking of coming to the US, not much will

We pay around $200 a month for water/elec combined, and then $79 every quarter for trash pick up, we get street lights but pay housing association fees for them $375 a year. School bus charge is part of property tax.

Sally Redux

Inter-library loans are free

StaryandStripey

Once again, many thanks for all the posts to this thread.

I have to admit I am rethinking some of my plans.

I contacted an old friend who is a British expat living in LA who has now decided to return to the UK. I posed the same question to him as I posted here. Below are extracts from his response:

"If you are a single, relatively young person... smart. energetic, and ambitious... then come here for the time it takes you to amass the money you need to live well on. Then, go to a less frenetic, dangerous, and bigoted place, with decent health care. Right now, this country is in the throes of finding out that it no longer runs the world, and never will again....this is a hard blow for these people ( or any people, for that matter) to accept... and some very foolish efforts are, and will be, made to avoid or reverse this".

"Here, people are squandering their future for a good quarterly report! The greed, the feeling of entitlement, by the few at the top, is palpable, and sick. The ordinary Joe is being screwed over, and is slow to understand by who, and how. But when the middle class here finally finds out what happened to their country, it will be a good time NOT to be here.. especially with a family".

"Americans are easy going, generous, friendly and pretty open. Angered, frightened or offended, they are ferocious, and very dangerous. Right now this country is so polarized, with the right wing conservatives SO bigoted, and viscious, the country is pulling apart.
By all means come here and make your money... and have a good time doing it... it's a lovely place... you can pick the climate you want, and they have it here. But I would not have children in this country , and , unless you are a multi-millionaire, don't get seriously sick here, and for God's sake, don't get old here".

"That's my advice, based on observations over nearly 40 yrs here. I've been in different parts of the country, and done many different things. I've been married twice, and I just feel that it is too crowded for me where I want to be, and there is a feeling of desperation in the air... and they are looking for someone to blame...and it doesn't take much to put troops on the streets here".


Some people do well in the US and some don't. I guess all I can do is risk it and still have an escape route back to the UK, although that would be admitting defeat.

Englishtart

I wouldn't worry too much about the 'troops on the street', we don't have that many left in the US these days

another bloody yank

Like your friend says, not if you made your fortune before you gtfo. Then it would be a successful hit and run raid.

another bloody yank

He's right, and I haven't had my coffee yet.

Do you feel lucky?

Well do ya?

Xebedee

You are fortunate to have a friend who is this experienced.
It doesn't sound as if his heart is ruling his head either.