Last night, Lewis and I dined with a great friend who enjoys traveling around the world. He regaled us with his tales of visiting Spain, Portugal, and Denmark. It made America pale in comparison. Americans pay too much in taxes and receive too little--often too much crappy quality of life.
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Airlines in the U.S.A. rip off their own customers! They charge Americans 1.5-times more for the same journey, than someone buying that roundtrip ticket in Europe and coming here! It's price-gouging robbery!
Our friend knows that America's airlines are crappy/dirty/unreliable, so he flew to Europe on Norwegian Air, which uses new/clean jets with more spacious legroom in Economy Class than their greedy American competitors.
Too bad most Americans are ignorant and haughtily believe that "buying American" is best. They tolerate this...
Once there, our friend had another fine experience. Thanks to the European phone app, Veuling, he flew on clean/new airplanes to each country for only $30.00 or less! Unlike American "legacy" airlines which are tight-fisted and merely give out ONE tiny bag of "peanuts or chips", those airlines include free meals, as many snacks as you want, and complimentary wine.
Crossing Spain, he only paid $80 for speed-trains, which included champagne, appetizer, lunch entree, Nespresso, and dessert. Does Amtrak do that for that price in America? Not even in your dreams! (and Amtrak is pathetically slow).
The acceleration (and train track) was so smooth, he barely noticed them.
Lewis and I love "rail travel" because it lets you arrive in the heart of the city, instead of having to get an additional ride from a distant airport. At least Europe's airports are connected to their cities by railways... unlike most of America's thoughtless cities.
Barcelona is an efficient bike/tram/Metro metropolis.
Does their Metro look better than the last subway you saw in America? How does America--a wealthier country--NOT have a nice subway system? Where did the money go?
Instead of a hotel, our friend stayed in a hostel that looked like a trendy boutique hotel. It's rooms were affordable, yet it featured an urban-chic restaurant, interior courtyard, full-size bed (no room-sharing needed), and a roof deck.
In our so-called "first-world" country, an "affordable hotel" is like a seedy motel: plastic furniture, plastic-tasting food, and cheap toilet paper that rips down the middle instead of the perforations. If it advertises to have "refreshments", that usually merely involves vending machines and stale-tasting coffee... as seen below.
(Yes, those places still exist in America in this modern era).
Nightly, the city of Barcelona puts on a FREE concert, in conjunction with an illuminated fountain display! The water is very high at Montjuic Magic Fountain; it's better than Las Vegas.
Next, our friend went to Lisbon for coastal pleasures. Costa de Caparica is a 20-kilometer beach that offers a free tram ride to each section: surfing, gay area, volleyball, nude area, and a family-oriented area.
Many trams continually traverse the sand--doing no harm to the dunes--and making it convenient for beachgoers. How thoughtful! Portugal wisely kept its efficient streetcar system, so taxpayers have convenience. America dismantled its streetcar systems for no good reason, other than to enrich the sale of cars, gasoline, tires, and mechanic repairs.
Another $30.00 airplane ticket got our friend into the Kingdom of Denmark. Copenhagen is a beautiful capital city!
Unlike overworked/overtaxed Americans, tax-payers in Denmark have amazing maternity leave: 4 weeks before birth and 14 weeks afterwards. Danes believe that fathers should also be present for their newborns, so dads get paid paternity leave. By law, Danish citizens get 5 weeks of paid vacation, as compared to most Americans receiving only 2 weeks per year! (In fact, there is no state or federal law in America to compel employers to provide any vacation. There is no law to insist that employees have paid-days-off for Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. There is no law that makes employers pay Holiday Pay for employees who work on those holidays. It is considered "a luxury" if companies provide those... and that shows America's uncaring attitude towards its people that is unchanged since the Industrial Revolution of the 1860s).
Free universal healthcare, free childcare, and free college education are all impressively top-notch... which you'd expect from a first-world country (that actually cares about its citizens' quality of life). Dutch and Danish cities and waterways are clean, and there is a push for organic foods, tolerant acceptance, and gay rights.
Yes, they pay a lot in taxes, but they got a heck of a lot more than Americans do. For example, the state pays $5,000 when you have a child, and another $1,000 every three months until the child is 18-years-old. The state pays the wages of sick employees until they recover. Despite that, the roads, highways, and infrastructure are superb.
Yes, they pay a lot in taxes, but they got a heck of a lot more than Americans do. For example, the state pays $5,000 when you have a child, and another $1,000 every three months until the child is 18-years-old. The state pays the wages of sick employees until they recover. Despite that, the roads, highways, and infrastructure are superb.
Just like Amsterdam, the Metro system in Copenhagen is immaculate. As in Japan and Singapore, people wait in an orderly fashion. Markings on the ground indicate how to let passengers off first (unlike NYC's push/shove).
Glass doors along the station platforms keep trash/people from falling on the tracks. America needs that.
Their Metro isn't embarrassed to let passengers see out the front/back windows.
Metros and trains are bike-friendly, just like Switzerland and China. America lags behind on that investment, too.
Our friend recommended that we visit Denmark, but he is confidant that we will bond with the Netherlands even more. We often hear about how happy citizens are in the Netherlands, and travel/tourism segments about Dutch cities highlight it. Consider that the Dutch pay 52% income tax--one of the highest in the world. But, they're rated as a happy population (probably because of the "return on investment")!
*To learn about our wonderful experiences in the Netherlands, please go here:
Examining taxes as a share of Gross Domestic Product, our current president claimed that Americans are the highest taxed. In reality, America is 17th below average because the richest people and corporations avoid paying taxes, which is allowed by our federal government. Thus, only the "middle class" is overtaxed. Without all entities paying their fair share, America is far below Japan, the United Kingdom, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland, Portugal, Poland, Estonia, and Australia. The highest taxed was Denmark (yet we've seen that they're happy), followed by France, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Germany (all happy places)!
Recently on the News, the world's "2017 best & worst cities to live in" were announced... computed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. 30 criteria included cost of living, average salary, recreation, quality of public transportation, stability, crime rate, healthcare, culture, education, infrastructure, and environment.
Recently on the News, the world's "2017 best & worst cities to live in" were announced... computed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. 30 criteria included cost of living, average salary, recreation, quality of public transportation, stability, crime rate, healthcare, culture, education, infrastructure, and environment.
Here's the Top Ten (which remained the same as last year):
Melbourne, Australia won for the SEVENTH year in a row! Vienna, Austria
Vancouver, Canada
Toronto, Canada
Calgary, Canada
Adelaide, Australia
Perth, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Helsinki, Finland,
Hamburg, Germany
*Incidentally, I just wrote about Hamburg here: http://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2017/05/look-elsewhere-for-how-to-live-like.html
*Six of those belong to the Commonwealth of Nations.
The news anchor asked where New York City landed in the rating. "Because it doesn't really fit the requirements," she laughed sarcastically. Her co-anchor laughed, "No it certainly doesn't." (Why laugh at that? DO something about it!) She said, "NYC declined over the last decade in terms of livability... it's nowhere near the top. Its public transportations problems are too severe to put it higher on the list."
I have a problem with that--aimed at the overpaid swindling politicians who condone NYC's descent. Since the 1700s, it seems like NYC is always falling from any resurrection its given. That goes for the nation it occupies.
I have a problem with that--aimed at the overpaid swindling politicians who condone NYC's descent. Since the 1700s, it seems like NYC is always falling from any resurrection its given. That goes for the nation it occupies.
Since Lewis and I get so little vacation time per year, we tend to plan it in advance (to get better travel deals). So, our trips for 2018 are already booked/paid. But, we will arrange trips to the Netherlands and Denmark as soon as possible in 2019.
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