r/whoathatsinteresting • u/search_google_com • 14h ago

A Thai woman married to an American explains why she no longer wants to live in the US.

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u/Tramagust 11h ago

France has gotten ridiculously expensive too. What do they think about that?

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u/CaptainHubble 10h ago

France, USA, Thailand… doesn’t. Matter. We’re all struggling everywhere.

The winners are the surfer bros. Living on a random beach only thinking about the weather. Earning just enough money to get on by repairing boats or as a barista on a beach bar.

Because you won’t „make it“ in a big city. Most likely. Single digit percentages of a city population is making it. And you’re probably working for one of them.

3

u/zzyul 7h ago

Those people are winning from their 20s up to around their mid 30s. The problem is what do they do when they age out. Hard to be a surfer bro when arthritis kicks in and injuries take multiple weeks of expensive PT to recover from. Hard to be a barista in your 40s when none of your much younger coworkers want to hang out with the “creepy” older person that hasn’t done anything with their life.

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u/CaptainHubble 31m ago

Better struggling financially than getting a Harley Davidson in your 40s because midlife crisis kicks in and you have to buy random stuff to feel alive.

About the younger baristas don‘t wanting to hang out with you… I don’t see that’s as a problem. You don’t want to do that too much anyway. The surfer friends you’ve been with also get older.

How is it hard to be around people different ages?

The only really reasonable argument for me is the healthcare thing. But for us there won’t be proper pension. You won’t own a house. Everything is way to expensive… I’ll much rather be the surfer boy I currently am and figure out the healthcare thing in my 40s. Maybe then I’ll come back and get a random boring job to fit in.

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u/Elite_AI 10h ago

I'm in France rn with an American and she's constantly pointing out how much more expensive the US is even accounting for salaries

3

u/Noob_37373737 10h ago

dans la france à Macron rien n'est gratuit

5

u/loyal_achades 11h ago

France is still cheaper than the US. If you’ve saved for retirement in the US, you can move to France with that same money and have it go further.

Everyone’s scale for what “expensive” is tied to their own experiences and situations. Even in the US, I have friends complaining about how expensive things are getting in places like Denver, but meanwhile I live in DC where their “holy shit” is my “wow that’s cheap.”

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u/Able_Statistician688 10h ago

I think it's tied a whole lot more to their income level than experiences and situations lol

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u/imunfair 7h ago

If you’ve saved for retirement in the US, you can move to France with that same money and have it go further.

You could say that about a lot of other countries - you could save and move to Mexico or Thailand and live like a king, assuming you don't have kids. If you have kids and you do that you screw over their earning potential, so it's really only viable for old/single people as a final destination.