Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Links

Good rebuttal to a pretty snobbish article on being an expatriate in Europe.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I had read Diane Johnson's editorial in the Post this weekend-- I thought that rebuttal was a refreshing perspective. The whole time I was reading the initial editorial, I was thinking, "wow, you poor baby, giving up croissants at expensive cafes while people in the U.S. are trying to put food on the table." The author of the rebuttal piece scored some major points with me about the whole $2,000 emergency room visit thing. People just can't afford basic necessities in this country, let alone luxuries. I know living anywhere is a choice (for the most part), but her insensitivity to people in more dire economic circumstances really irritated me. Oh well-- thanks for sharing the rebuttal piece. I'm interested in your perspective, Ben, as not only someone who doesn't have a hugely successful bestseller or two (sorry! Maybe someday, eh?), but as someone who has spent a lot of time in both Europe and the U.S. What did you think of her piece?

Ben said...

Arista -- I very much agree with your assessment. I was curious about the article since the current exchange rate means that I will leave my US$ savings in the US for the meantime and so can't use them here. Luckily, I will get paid in Euros, so I really am doing the 1 Euro = 1 US$ calculation in my head when judging prices.
That being said, I think it's rather ridiculous to talk of going out to eat for $800 a month, or of regularly spending $7000 for business class tickets. Unless the article was supposed to be a parody, it simply shows someone who is out of touch with most people, both in Europe or in the US.