To those who want to go to America, dedicated

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 16:23

Do you dream to escape from cold and gray Russia and start a new life in hospitable America? Even though Trump has a terrible allergy to migrants, somewhere in the region of a million "guests" become legal residents of the United States every year. You are not alone, I also thought of the category “I wish I could go to the USA” until I was there.

The area of America is 3.806 million square meters. The area of Europe is 3.931 million square meters. From such a huge selection of places where you can live and work, eyes run up.

There is only one snag that little attention is paid to - tales of a luxurious life in the prosperous West are born against the background of a comparison of their incomes and ours. If you evaluate life in America from the point of view of the average American, then things are not so much fun.

Average American Income

Since in the USA the skill (English skill - skill, mastery) of finding many sources of income, in addition to the main job, is very encouraged, individual income is defined as all income received by one person. It includes:

• wage;
• business - income;
• investment income (for example, dividends from stocks are not wages, but still income);
• creation;
• Other income.

Official statistics say the median wage income in the US is $ 40,100.00. The total individual income for the year is $ 58,379.45.

Very worthy from the point of view of the average Russian guy. Although, if you take Moscow, the salary of about 200K rubles is no longer so impressive. True, despite the fact that we have not yet considered the main thing - costs.

Average American spending

There are many cost-of-living ratings. The problem is that every American state is a mini-state with its own taxes and living standards.

Federal agencies use data such as family size, income, occupation, diet, and more to estimate the "true cost of living". In general, all expenses are grouped by category (take the average American family of three):

• food (there are several "grocery baskets" depending on whether the person cooks himself or eats in the snack bars). The family will spend $ 500-600 a month on food, eating at home, with several trips to the supermarket for a “test purchase”.
• residence. The family has a mortgage on a house with a loan of $ 120 thousand at 4.6% for 30 years), the cost of the mortgage itself is $ 600 per month, then real estate tax is about $ 100 and home insurance is $ 40 per month. Total $ 740.
• utility bills (electricity, heating, water and sewerage, garbage disposal), depending on the season, will cost $ 210 on average per month.
• clothes. Things are inexpensive, frequent sales, on average $ 100-150 per month.
• transport (a loan for a car $ 250 per month and a transport tax of $ 120 per month, gasoline $ 175 per month).
• personal hygiene (toilet paper, detergents, shampoos, soap, etc.) will cost the family $ 400 per month.
• an entertainment program (an amusement park, concert, cinema, cafe no more than a couple of times a month) costs about $ 200.

• medical insurance. For a family, insurance will cost from $ 400 (it is very expensive to pay for medicine in the USA), medicines $ 50 per month, dental treatment insurance - at least $ 120.

• telephone, television, internet (all together about $ 180 per month).
• private kindergarten - from $ 600 per month Education in a public school is free.

Total came out $ 4195. And also the costs of various services. And, of course, taxes on income (in addition to basic transport, land, property) - at least 7% and the higher, the more earnings (up to 40%).

The United States has a differentiated tax system. Much depends on the total family income, place of residence (suburb, city, village), family composition and others.

In addition, when entering a store or dropping into a gas station, you will have to take into account that the prices are indicated without added value, when paying at the checkout the amount will be 12 percent higher, depending on various categories of goods. Alcohol and tobacco are subject to a particularly high purchase tax (up to 50%).

According to recent statistics, the average family of four spends per month: $ 4,502.

Monthly expenses per person without family - $ 2, 585.

The living wage in the United States is tied to the minimum wage. In the US it is now 7.25 USD / hour or 1160 USD / month. or 34800 USD / year. The average earned income, as we recall, is $ 40,100 or $ 58,379, together with additional bonuses such as dividends, interest and other non-core income.

Now take a look and see for yourself that the average American never gets fat. Moreover, in the ranking of the most expensive countries to live in, the United States ranks 15th out of 95. That is, living in America is more expensive than in 85% of countries in the world.

How do they live there

America has its pluses and minuses. The advantage is mobility. If you, for example, save up for business or education, you can even move to a garage or a trailer, but not crawl on your knees in front of local officials.

You will be given to open a bank account, bring mail, and provide access to all the rights and privileges of a US citizen. But for those who are tired of travel and want to settle down, it will be more difficult to put down roots. US housing is monstrously expensive.

The National Association of Realtors states that millions of Americans are stuck in rental housing. Statistics say that the number of private households in the country has dropped to 63.7%, down from almost 70% in 2004 (the date of the last large-scale survey).

That is, today 36, 3% or almost 120 million Americans live in rented houses and do not have their own homes. Moreover, the trend is getting worse. Many people who live in their apartments and houses lose them by paying off their debts. Didn't you know that 55% of Americans have credit card debt?

Everyone loves to “find fault” with evil Russian collectors who are hard-hitting Russian mortgage and ordinary debtors. There are no problems with collectors in America.

If you owe the bank a couple of payments, then it includes a penalty, and if you continue to ignore it, then, if desired, he receives a decision of the district court in 2 hours to evict you from your own household, and after another 2 hours they can be “thrown out into the cold” together with belongings.

And if you owe a lot, then without them. Do you still think that Russian reality is the bottom, and there is paradise?

Beautiful fairy tales

That stratum of the population, which can be called pro-Westerners, is very fond of singing the praises of the free market and its absolute embodiment - the United States. But in practice, such a system is never humane. Even though I think it is fairer than ours.

There is the splendor, luxury, and misery of state capitals and big cities. Behind the screen are scary and dirty ghettos (and moving to one of these places is much easier than it seems, I myself got into this out of ignorance when I was in Los Angeles for the first time).

Delayed your mortgage a couple of times or got out of insurance - “sell your kidney” or move out into the street. Yes, in the West it is about the same as ours - the same difficult life, in which nothing is given for nothing.

Money is not distributed on the streets, the roads are not diamond and the toilet bowls are not gold. Therefore, I propose to all brainy and hardworking people to think 10 times whether it is worth it and whether it is not better to realize their potential on the spot. Still, going there to live when there is a lot of money is one thing, but working there and making your way is not the same thing at all. What do you think?