Reply to I know why Millenials can't afford houses and pay off their student loans..

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]European here. A lot of Americans don't appreciate the finer things in life, even though they can afford so much more. A Frenchman is fine renting, a small space too, because they want to be able to buy a niece piece of cheese and wine and fresh fish and a beautiful jacket. So if the millennials are doing what you say they are doing, kudos to them. [/quote]

You really cannot compare Europe to the US.  You have cradle to grave social benefits - we do not.  What happens when these folks who have screwed off their entire life arrive at retirement with no money?  They become a burden on their children or the state.[/quote]

Those benefits are paid for by significant taxation and coupled with much lower salaries. I think net net it evens out over a life time. In any case, I think it's a philosophical difference. As I mentioned, given X amount of disposable income, a Frenchman will chose to rent vs. owning, in order to afford small luxuries/quality. Many Americans overemphasize housing or cars to the detriment of many many other things that make life pleasurable. I am most surprised by the very well educated and well off couples who seem to squirrel away millions while leading Spartan lives. Many post here. So no I don't judge a millennial, who is saddled with debt and facing crazy housing costs for not buying in to the current scheme.[/quote]

Another European here.

Do you really know many young European folks paying $40 for a stupid candle?

I don't think so.

Not even for wine or cheese or whatever little "luxury."

The difference is that over there most people you can get perfectly good wine or cheese or candles for $10, and the rest is American-style marketing BS :-)[/quote]

I'd say a bigger part of the difference is that there are much more limits on corporations there and as a result, a much stronger artisan culture. Speaking about France, in particular, there's a much stronger present tradition of small businesses than there is in much of the US, especially in rural areas, where your choices are WalMart and WalMart. The tide is turning in the US, especially as the word gets out of how many toxins are in our profit-at-all-costs food chain, but as the PP noted, we're much more willing to spend our money on gaudy than on quality. I remember when reading FKEE how the author quoted a lady noting that there, they were more likely to want to choose between 10 ice cream flavors, compared to here, where most Americans would prefer to have a store with 50 options. The lady in France basically stated that the quality couldn't possibly be as good if there were that many options.

Until we have more protections for small businesses and a lot more demand for quality over quantity here, it'll continue to cost a lot more to offer alternatives to the mainstream. A quick example involves milk. To avoid the hormone-ridden "milk" from poor cows that are chained to overcrowded stalls and literally fed sawdust, candy, and chicken poop (yes!), we recently switched to Oberweis milk. The cows are humanely raised and humanely fed, and it's worth it to us to have them treated well and fed well. However, that means we now spend about $11.58 a gallon instead of the $2-3/gallon milk we used to buy. We do get $3 back with returning the bottles, but it's still much more expensive. It's also the only option for milk we can trust.

In France, in comparison, it would be much easier to buy milk directly from farmers or even in the stores with much tighter restrictions on how they're fed and treated. The more you learn about what we're putting into our bodies if we eat things from the regular food supply here, the less it'll surprise you why folks are willing to try other things, even if they aren't as affordable as they would be overseas.[/quote]

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