Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itaewonguy]

So whats so good about living in THE OLE US OF A????

seems to me, that the title of being AN AMERICAN is way over rated!
the government treats its citizens like crap, high taxes! over priced medical care! and no real benefits for the people..



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#Americas

check out USA... 0

hahahaha 3rd world african countries have better care than the so called number 1 country in the world...

[conrad2]

Parental leave is not mandated by the federal or state governments, but that doesnt mean that companies dont offer it. Also there is no law that states companies must give mandatory 5 or 6 weeks vacation time as you see in Europe. But American workers get vacation notheless.

[djsmnc]

[mistermasan]

am back in the US on vacation now.

two hour trip to emergency room cost? ("anxiety attack" in retrospect)

10,000 US $.

of course, i have no "stateside" insurance.

[NYC_Gal]

I love being American. Sure, there are some issues, but I wouldn't trade it for anything short of my own island nation.

Mind you, we don't usually use AN when saying American.

"I am American." Not "I'm an American."

Sometimes it's the case, but for the most part, we leave AN out.

Also, what hospital charged you $10,000 for a 2 hour anxiety stay? Trump Medical? I remember having my first migraine about 8 years ago, during an insurance lapse. I had no idea what it was. I was there for hours, and had treatment, and it was only $1,500.

[The Goalie]

I don't care about countries so much. I just wish I belonged to a different species.

[is so delicious]

Phew... another one of THESE threads...

[Quack Addict]

My wife is South African and thought the U.S. was overrated until we lived there. Now she loves it and can't wait to move back. While there are alot of perks that aren't across the board for everyone like paternity leave....many companies offer this to their employees.

My friends wife got 90 days paid leave after her baby was born. I believe its a case by case situation. The good outweighs the bad when it comes to living in the U.S. if you look at the big picture.

[itaewonguy]

[laguna]

[oskinny1]

[NYC_Gal]

Yes, $1,500 isn't chump change for many people, but it's not going to break the bank. It was annoying, but it's far less than $10,000, and my taxes were fairly low. How high are taxes where YOU'RE from? The average salary for an entry level job? Hmmm. A grand doesn't hurt as much where I'm from, it seems.

I also had no wait whatsoever to see a doctor.

Also, maybe you've heard about the new health care legislation in the states? It's kind of a big deal right now.

[laguna]

Also, just for the record, there is parental leave in the US of A

It's called the FMLA (family medical leave act) and you get 90 days of unpaid leave.

For the record, I don't think it should even exist. I worked at a small company where the comptroller got pregnant and the company almost went out of business when she went on leave because she was so integral to the company.

[PatrickGHBusan]

The parental leave issue is a big deal to many young couples thinking of having kids.

I have to say that in many parts of Canada, the system is excellent.

I think the best system is in the province of Quebec (from what I read). Ontario does rather well too.

From what I read and from what friends in the Q told me, women get 50 weeks of maternity leave. This leave is compensated at 70% of their income for the first portion of the leave and eventually drops to 55%. They also have daycares at 7$ per day and these, while hard to get into offer a great environment for kids (from what my friends say). These are social choices the population makes of course. They trade higher taxes for better public services.

Where we live, daycare costs roughly 25$ per day. Were we to have another child it would cost us nothing in medical fees and my wife would get some paid maternity leave. I think this is a smart choice over the long run. I think healthcare should be free when it comes to essential things.

Healthcare being free also is something we as a family appreciate in Canada. I put free in italics because we do pay for healthcare through higher taxes but at the end of the day it is something I would not trade.

The US Healthcare reform is tailored on the American system. For the most part it is NOT universal healthcare but rather it aims at offer better insured coverage to Americans, mostly to those who have jobs. Healthcare costs for major surgeries will still be prohibitively expensive for most of the population and not all that well covered by insurance. It is their choice and their view of healthcare. I still think the reform was well overdue.

[itaewonguy]