Slightly better/worse than Bloaty’s Pizza Hog from Invader Zim?
OMG, there is a Gir eating pizza funko pop…
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Financial points for returning expats to consider, as well as budget tips:
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Thanks, such a clear-eyed view from an outside perspective. USians really should listen to such views about their country!
The US financial system isn’t built for simplicity, it’s really built for extraction.
Exactly.
Americans think that prices are fixed. They’re not.
It’s true. I and everyone I know never negotiate prices, except maybe at a yard/garage sale. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
I wonder just how much cheaper life is for her in Spain, and in what ways.
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Same here. I plan to ask for more content about Spain in the comments. Most articles I’ve noticed with tips about negotiating seem to be for medical bills:
https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/medical-debt/how-to-negotiate-medical-bills
The way credit works in the US, I’m not sure how people paying less than the full amount don’t still get dinged for it in the future. We’ve got scam companies who threaten people with things they’ve already paid (hoping they don’t have proof of payment*) or make up debt that leaves people trying to prove a negative. When it comes to things like cable bills or Internet providers, if there’s an alternative the client can walk away. That’s not always the case for utilities.
For example, my area has electric choice. However, people shopping for rates and switching to smaller providers are warned to beware of contracts where rates might spike at the end or renewal terms aren’t favorable to the client. Stories of people getting hit in the wallet because of that make headline news, which discourages people from shopping around (on average, fewer than 25% of individual customers in most regions of the state use alternative suppliers). 
When it comes to insurance, things are getting more expensive so brokers are a more popular option. In theory, customers should comparison shop every year. In practice, most probably don’t until the rates go up or their policies are dropped.
*I keep proof of paid off student loans and car loans in a safe, because these attempts can go back decades.
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I am not a natural negotiator, and had to read up on it for work reasons. In one book I liked [1], the author - who teaches at Wharton business school - mentions that a class assignment he gives is for his students to haggle about the price of something in their life; maybe a dentist bill, maybe a subscription service, whatever. They almost always return surprised at how negotiable prices are.
These are people at a prestigious business school, so one assumes they have enough social privilege and clout to ask for lower prices. And even they are shocked at how un-fixed prices are.
[1] Bargaining for Advantage - Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People, by G. Richard Shell.
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It’s not common, but it depends on where you are. The Hamburger Mary’s in Chicago (now closed) had a decent poutine. There’s also a food truck featuring it that shows up across the street from the library where I work. Unfortunately they don’t seem to keep a regular schedule so I have yet to score lunch from it and determine the quality.
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More on the economic power of cooperatives as an alternative to supporting corporations owned by billionaires:
To avoid reinventing the wheel, it might be better to search for existing ones in an area before working to start one from scratch. Here are a few links on that:
Worker Co-ops:
https://www.usworker.coop/directory/
Food Co-ops:
https://www.localharvest.org/food-coops/
Electric Co-ops:
Housing Co-ops:
https://betterworld.coop/sectors/sector-housing/
ETA
Healthcare Co-Ops:
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Read very carefully before signing up for a healthcare co-op. We have a few around here and the “coverage” is miserable. The ones here, and I can only speak to these, are religious based, require you abide by their “beliefs” clause, have clauses that if you or your kids exceed a certain amount, they can drop you without notice. They frequently do not cover well checks or vaccines, and as they are not technically “insurance,” they are not subject to the regulation of the ACA. In short, they are great if you don’t need them much, if you suddenly need them, they will drop you like a hot potato. YMMV, but the ones here I would not give a plugged nickel for.
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Yeah, I lean more towards the groups based on location or professional organizations than religious ones. Those you described sound like a nightmare.
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An argument for staying and fighting against Trumpism…
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I don’t currently have a choice about staying, but wanted to point out that this whole article ignores whether the USA was worth staying in before Trump. Even if Trump croaked tomorrow and Project 2025 ground to a halt (not that those two things would necessarily go hand in hand), we would still spend the rest of our lives trying just to repair some of the damage he did in a few months, without making a dent in achieving actual progress that should have happened decades ago, because the same billionaires, bigots and apathetic morons would be blocking all of it, just as they always have. The USA has been declining my entire life, and Trump is a symptom of it as much as a cause. I’m past forty, have almost no savings, have been consistently denied an actual progressing career rather than merely a job, am single with no children, and will have ever-diminishing opportunities and declining health in a country where a single hospital visit can leave you homeless. Leaving the country is the only way I will ever own a home, afford to care for a pet, or survive the first serious illness that hits me after middle age, and that was true even before 2016. I only have one life to live and I’m not such a martyr that I’m going to sacrifice what’s left of it trying to repair 3% of the damage that was done during my lifetime by people outside my control, over my protests and objections. Not when I could simply move to another country even slightly more sane and decent and live a life a third as good as my parents’ but still dozens of times better than what I’d have if I stayed. The article describes the USA as “a battered nation still worth the imagination and effort.” I’m not so sure it is worth it any more.
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On the subject of co-ops.
As some of you may recall, I bought an apartment just before the pandemic hit. It’s a co-operative building, meaning we all own a percentage.
It is so much better than renting in every possible way. Landlords are just spooky and evil.
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I’m fighting. And will continue.
But I also know that for many of us the lesson from history is that “the optimists died in the gas chambers; the pessimists survived.”
Knowing when to leave is a dangerous game. But we play it.
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Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I get what he’s saying, but lots of it comes from a place of privilege, I think. The question should be about whether or not a sinking ship is worth saving… I don’t have an answer for that.
Yep, me too. We haven’t pulled up stakes yet here in suburban ATL…
Yep.
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