Originally posted by Davidparis No, it's 5 weeks vacation (25 days), you pay for healthcare directly and indirectly it is absolutely not free (but probably 99% less expensive than the American medical mafia), public education is free but useless, therefore you go private and that costs a lot, etc...How about a 4 dollar expresso, an 8 dollar gallon of gas, and so so, the list is endless. The terrorist attacks however are free of charge.
I live and work in France, like every country that's a mix of good and bad things...
- You have 5 weeks of vacation (minimum) if you work 35hours a week. If your contract say you work more per week (that the most common case) and then you get compensated with more vacations. All the job I got I had arround 7 weeks per year. My last contract say I work 214 days a year if you want to be precise.
- Buying a car you may buy a tax if it polute a lot (almost nobody do it), but there no tax for car ownership at all. I heard that it can be quite expensive in US. But in France you pay for most highways.
- The salary you actually get in your bank account, you already have great social security bundled... A friend of mine said he add to pay 400$ a month for his couple.
- Apparently the local taxes bound to a flat are much more expensive in US.
- School is free from the worst to the best in the country. Private might be helpfull if you live a shitty place but if you make an effort in the place you live, you get the best for free. I agree this is not fair as you have to plan to live in area with good schools.
- in France, you get an unlimited mobile plan + mobile internet for €15 and you can cancel at any time.
- ADSL price is 15€, 30€ if bundled with illimited wired phone and TV access to a hundred of TV channels.
- The terrorist are for free, terrible psychologically sure, but the 130 persons killed in Paris last time are rather small compared to the few thousand in the world trade center and in both cases you are much more likely to die out of car accident than to die in a terrorist attack but people are not affraid of their car...
- Overall life expectancy is 4 years more than in US (81 vs 77). Counting that nobody know what is here after and time is the most precious resource you have and never can go back, getting 5% longer life on average is not negligible.
- If you have no money and are legaly there, there lot of social help so you can get almost free flat, you get money to buy things, free public transportation, more money if you have childs etc.
I don't know what is better and don't want to go into political argument. But I'am not sure either US or France people are in a bad situation. I know that if I look the money per inhabitant in France and US corrected of what you can buy is almost the same in France and US and that we are among the most wealthy country in the word.
Sure as an engineer I seen that in the same company I work for, if I asked to go to Boston instead of staying in Nice French Rivieria, I would be paid double and pay far less taxes. That's an issue because many decide to leave for just that reaon but that's another topic. But on the opposite, I get to work in 15 minutes, I can go to sky for the day in winter, I can go to the beach in summer, do hiking in the back country and I'am near my familly...