• solstice@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m traveling in Europe right now and the prices everywhere are so reasonable it really pisses me off. Inflation my ass, I’m convinced it’s just American corps squeezing us for everything we got.

      • solstice@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Spain and Germany this trip.

        Very nice hotels for €100 in downtown areas that would cost easily $300/night in USA. Food in restaurants and cafes very reasonably priced, I got a couple coffees and pastries for like €8 and the coffee alone would be that much in the states let alone multiple pastries. €5 felafel. I can’t remember the last time I paid less than $15 for lunch.

        Gas is super pricey but who cares when your cities are designed to be walkable and you have great public transport everywhere.

        I get that I’m on the tourist route so this doesn’t represent true cost of living, but I understand rent is far cheaper in general, plus availability of healthcare and education leads me to believe COL in general is lower and some googling supports this.

        I don’t know anything about their tax policies so I can’t comment on that either.

        Comments welcome.

    • enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Inflation has hit us too, but not nearly as bad as the US. My grocery bill has essentially doubled and we’re paying €2.25/liter for gasoline ($9.14/gallon!)

      But I saw a bag of chips for $12 in Chicago last year and I still haven’t recovered from the shock.

      • solstice@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah gas is expensive for sure. But who cares when you have all that sweet public transportation and nice walkable cities that are genuinely pleasant to be in. I can see how it would be a much bigger issue if you roads looked like this

        • enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Well I’m from the US so I’m unfortunately familiar with shit infrastructure. Also unfortunately, our public transportation in NL is a total joke (extremely expensive, dwindling , and unreliable) thanks to privatization and conservative politics. We are very lucky to have excellent bike infrastructure, but the weather makes it extremely inconvenient.

          • solstice@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s surprising to hear, I’ve been all over NL and have a real high opinion of it (except the weather heh). It’s always kind of comforting though to hear that once you get past the surface there’s issues everywhere.