7. Things are expensive because we don't have low wages for simple unskilled jobs. And the term unskilled is not that much used any longer. It you want to start working as a cleaner... you need skills and certifications. If you want to drive a truck at a warehouse... a certification is more and more common. You also need a license to drive the different forklifts.
Because of the wages it is still not common to give tips in bars, diners or restaurants. The waiter is making at least 18-19 dollars an hour. And when you don't make a lot of money the taxes are lower too. If you make a lot of money - you can contribute to the society, they a waiter.
Oh... almost forgot this. We also have a few tickets thats based on income. That is about as fair as it could be. All fines/tickets should be like this.
An example. If you get caught driving under the influence of alcohol.. you'll have to pay 1/12 of you income as a fine. If you make 12 million dollars a year. The fine will be 1 million. That stings even for the wealthy.
Think about Hollywood. Driving while drunk could save California's economy. You real about it all the time when a movie star gets waisted. Drive a car, crash and spend a few hours in lock up.. at the most. A movie star would have to pay 10 million in fine each time :-)
You could pay for a few teachers each time.
We are a family of 5, and we use about 18500-2000 dollars a month. It covers food, housing, the OLD and crappy car, the boats and our sports equipment and hobbies. Phone, fax, Internet, membership to the gyms, clothing and so on.
I get to go to a gym 2 hours every day - with pay from my employer. But that is because I sometimes have to work late to finish up some work. I pay for the gym myself.
The kids (2 in kindergarten and 1 in school) is going to kids gym - which is just a place where they can play with all kinds of sports equipment. It cost about 10 dollars each a month. I pay about 50 dollars a month for my gym. My wife is not interested in fitness and training. I also pay about 40 dollars a month on my martial arts class. I pay 10 dollars a month at the shooting range with my pistol. Excluding the ammunition (which is not that much since I usually use my Benelli 22 caliber pistol).
I also pay 10 dollars a month on the diving membership (which include all the air a can fill).
We use about 600-700 dollars a month on food. A few hundred dollars on clothing. 150-200 dollars for diesel. 150-200 dollars for car repairs (since it's so expensive I do most of the work myself. I had a free mechanical course for 6 month once. It has really paid of). We pay 620 dollars a month for the flat we rent. The rest is for internet, phone and so on.
I have lived in the US for a few month since I have family all over the US and Canada.
I rented a small house. I could rent a gardener which was dirt cheap. I could go out to eat, and it was cheap. Often 1/4 of the price in Norway. It was cheap to rent a car, and to drive it. It was cheap to buy most of the alcohol - except expensive/exclusive wines (that was actually cheaper in Norway). But there was more crime in the area. Nobody walked alone at night there. Police stopped me (to me they behaved very rude and aggressive) at night, when I was walking an hour to stay in shape. I had to empty my pockets, lay on the dirty sidewalk (and get stains on my 250 dollar clothing) and wait for a long while - with handcuffs, and a fat officer with his knee and weight on my back - just because I didn't have my ID with me. I didn't have any good pockets in my pants, and I was not going to buy anything so I didn't have the wallet with me. If police had acted like this in Norway I would have said: What the fuck is wrong with you. I'm taking a walk after supper so I will not become a fat guy like you.
I understand they take a lot of caution, because they see a lot of stuff each day - but as a tourist I found it quiet shocking. Nobody paid for my damaged clothing either.
I also had a lot of good experiences in the US. And the people is in general more easy to talk to then anybody in the world (I've traveled to almost every country). Two other things surprised me. People working in stores and restaurants are very polity and is almost always smiling. I'm not used to that from Norway. Some smile, some don't. Not necessary because they are not polite - because the tone of voice is used more often than a smile. But I think we have a LOT to learn about customer care in Norway. I think many US firms has a LOT to learn about how to take care of their employees.
I was also a bit chocked about general knowledge. I talked to people that was very smart, and who had a good overview of the world and the news - and a lot of other that was totally "offline". They knew some local news, but general facts and world information was just like a black hole. You noticed they had seed a few minutes on Fox News.. that was all. And I have to say Fox News are special. It's almost like some sort of propaganda. And several times the reporters made error after error talking about situation in the world.
When there is nobody that has really low wages everything will be expensive. Production costs are higher, and for every sale the price will increase. It's just a fact of life. But if you work in Norway, you will make enough money to compensate for the high prices. And it gets cheap to travel to other countries.
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