Strings of Unknown Forces

By far the most often response we get when we tell people we meet—especially younger generations currently hard at work—that we left America to come to Italy is one part equal measure 🫶 of course you did to 🤌🏼 what is wrong with you? The latter opinion usually coming down to a difference of understanding between income and cost of living. And it’s true. In most studies, the US ranks number two on the list of average salaries. 

What they often don’t understand, however, is how much of that salary goes toward the basic costs of living (food, housing, healthcare, etc). Here, too, the US appears in the top ten, as do all of the top ten with the exception of Belgium (#29), Denmark (#14), Austria (#22), Netherlands (#17), Canada (#22), and Germany (#32), making it a pretty exclusive and expensive list (i.e. the opposite of something to brag about). 

 I wrote about this a while ago and is a topic I find myself often returning to, sharing again and again the breakdown comparison between our home in Troina, Sicily and America. 

If you find yourself somewhat shocked by the average U.S. Salary shown in the chart above, well, that, too, is a pretty exclusive club, as roughly half the states fall below—and in some cases well below—that national average. 

If you’d like to learn more of our experience in terms of dollars and cents, I invite you to take a look at that breakdown I mentioned above ☝️as it still holds water today, perhaps even more so as inflation has further eroded the spending potential of every paycheck.

Anyway, I haven't much more to add to this. Sometimes a picture or graph says it all. They prove to me, and to the friends we make here, that there are always two sides to the coin, so to speak.

Sometimes though, the only way to know a thing is to experience it and so when those people we meet persist with the wish to one day live in America, we don't fault them for it. In fact, we encourage and recommend it. We simply want them to know that good things often come with strings attached and those strings can be controlled by a host of unknown forces.

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