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I recently went on a road trip from Halifax to Boston. I thought an outsider's perspective might be interesting. I've been to the US many times, but haven't been in five years and noticed a few things that I hadn't before, and some older impressions were reinforced. In general, the US is really quite different than Canada in many ways, and you notice it the second you cross the border, starting with the accents.
The first thing I noticed crossing the border into Maine (after the border guard's heavy eastern New England accent) was that the US is clearly a richer country. Almost every car looks new and the houses are in good condition. I didn't see any old run down cars or houses that needed to be painted. I realize this might be because of the particular area of the US I visited, since my train ride from Montreal to New York City six years ago left a very different impression. Upstate New York has a lot of shabby looking buildings.
The second and even more striking difference was the amazing condition of the roads. I hardly encountered a pothole and the ones I did were tiny. In Canada, many of the roads are covered in them, some of them being several years old, even in heavily trafficked areas. In New England, almost all the roads look freshly paved.
The driving habits are very different, even than Quebec, where drivers are a bit crazy. New England drivers are universally quite selfish and aggressive. They never ever let you in if you're trying to change lanes. Even if it seems like you have plenty of time and give them warning, they won't so much as let off the accelerator a little bit to help you out. They often don't even stop for pedestrians even if it means running a red light very late. But they're fairly predictable and even though they all go way over the speed limit, they mostly drive around the same speed and don't do anything too stupid. They don't tailgate as badly as Montrealers or Torontonians do. And they don't honk.
By the way, I like the use of toll roads, but it's a bit ridiculous how many times in Maine you have to come to a complete stop from 70 mph just to pay a human being $1 and then get back up to speed again. How much gas does that use? How much is that person paid?
The next striking thing is the obesity. Nova Scotians are fat, but there seem to be a higher number of Americans who are at an absolutely shocking level of obesity that I've rarely seen in Canada. And there are a lot more really fat young people.
In general, there seems to be a wider distribution of human capital in the US. There are a lot more thin, good looking, highly energetic people, but there are also a lot more who seem to be doing really badly. I saw a beggar who was missing an arm! The homeless people seem more like truly desperate people. There is also more variation in other dimensions. I don't know how to describe it other than to say they have unusual physiognomies, and there are more strange characters doing odd things.
The people are oddly very friendly but somehow without ever smiling or adopting a friendly demeanour. It's almost disturbing how little people smile unless you're their customer, in which case they're extremely extraverted. Everyone walks around with a frown, and we had many encounters with New Englanders who expressed some friendly words that seemed sincere, but without smiling or adopting a happy tone of voice.
The other thing I noticed how is how white New England is. Canada's enormous population of recent immigrants from India (which seems to be about half the population in my neighbourhood) is noticeably absent.
In general, it was a good experience. The food is excellent. Americans have a lot of energy, and many girls in Boston are quite attractive, despite the reputation. Maine is beautiful and Boston is an interesting city, but a bit boring given its size. The traffic is a mess and the subway is really slow. There doesn't seem to be much nightlife.
The US really feels like a rich country. I know there has been some divergence between our two countries in the last few years, and coming from the poorest province, it is noticeable. I should note that the people from my home province are known for their friendliness and for being very laid back, even lazy. The US feels like a much more exciting country with more opportunity, but the people seem inordinately unhappy given their material success. The Uber drivers I've talked to and on this and other trips seem unreasonably negative about their situation - complaining about how much they work - given they've escaped from much poorer countries (Sudan and Haiti).
A friend of mine moved to Boston from Philadelphia and the boredom and lack of nightlife was his only real complaint.
He calls Boston “The City that
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Indeed us Americans don’t grasp how rich we are, even the relatively poor among us when compared to the rest of the world. My European coworkers are noticeably poorer and have much less wealth than our US-based employees, working the exact same job and sometimes even lower-ranked. To them, a 100k euro salary is “living like a king” even though it really isn’t and that salary is just about middle class in America these days.
It’s actually odd to me how little their 100k goes in their countries. The average salary is way below, closer to 30-40k, maybe 50k. And yet they still don’t seem to meaningfully be able to stay ahead of the curve and create wealth. It strikes me that a lot of this is due to the tremendous amount of old people that are living high on the hog with generous government assistance (and the required taxes), or maybe just tons of competition for prime European real estate with global capital? I can’t seem to find a definitive answer, it’s odd to me that if you’re making 3x the average salary you’re not able to put a lot away in wealth. That should persist even after taxes, which really are not much worse than VHCOL cities in the US these days.
Yeah, 100k euros would be a very high salary here. I don't know many people earning that much, especially not in Nova Scotia. Despite that, our cost of living and our taxes are very high. To earn that much, you'd have to either be a specialist in medicine, one of the more highly paid university professors, or a very successful lawyer. In other parts of the country, the salaries are a bit higher and you can also make a lot in the trades.
One reason it's hard to get ahead is probably that the economy is set up to favour old people. It's a problem here and it's probably worse in Europe. The population in my city is exploding and rents are insane. But there has been an emergency rent cap since Covid and so people with new leases are paying way more than people who have lived in their apartments since before covid. So a huge share of your salary goes towards rent and income taxes.
Something else I noticed in Boston when I was Bumble was that so many young women around 30 years old had fancy titles and seemed to have really good careers. I think old people here don't like to give people opportunities, or maybe they just don't exist. Most young people leave after they graduate.
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The problem isn't demand for real estate, it's the limitations on the supply which are unnecessary and should be disposed of.
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The issues with housing exist with or without competition from international capital. The issue is the combination lack of construction with massive credit expansion.
This has mostly benefited older people but that wealth is now starting to trickle down so it's more looking like big city house owning natives Vs everyone else division where the former have been handed an immense pile of wealth the last 30 years or so for no reason at all. Unless you're part of the housing owning class it's incredibly hard to compensate with a high salary (especially given the compressed wage distribution) but if you are, even a low salary is enough to live very well on.
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I have noticed this as well. It is literally crazy! If you have a normal USA wage you're a king in Spain.
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I haven't been to Boston in years. I used to take the Amtrak there from DC once a year for PAX East, and it was extremely depressing. Passing through Baltimore, all you see are the ruins of brownstones as far as the eye can see. At some point, I think north of New York, it's more ruins along a bunch of eroded shoreline that comes almost up to the rail tracks. A few mostly abandoned and hollowed out downtowns (and this was pre COVID) at various Amtrak stops along the way in small and dying towns. Then finally you get to Boston, and it's pretty nice. I do remember seeing a bit of nightlife along the street I took back to my hotel from the convention center. Lots of pretty girls in itty bitty dresses in near freezing temperatures. At one point I took a shortcut down a side street and ended up near some strip clubs while a hobo began accosting us for a light and then money. Then they followed us for 3 blocks ranting and raving while we tried to ignore him and avoid eye contact.
At one point we did the whole "Freedom Tour" I think it was called, where you visit a bunch of famous Bostonian's houses from the Revolutionary period and walk up the Bunker Hill monument. That was fun. It was also fun visiting the Sam Adams Brewery, and trying everything they cook up. Highly recommend it.
The areas we went to, including Boston had a lot of tourists, which might have skewed things. There were lots of licence plates from all over New England, plus Quebec, New York, and a surprising number from Texas. And lots of racks and trailers. Maine obviously benefits enormously from being so close to the Northeastern US, otherwise I think its economy would be a lot more like ours. Every trip I've made to New England has been short and I hope to be able to explore more in the future. Everything is very expensive though.
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