Is living in the U.S. better or worse than living in India?

Is living in the U.S. better or worse than living in India?

My Friend lived in India for 22 years, and USA for 8 years. I’ll try to explain the disregarding visa issues, location of family or where you grew up, to be as objective as possible.

Let’s break it down into some major factors that constitute a fulfilled life,

1. Family and friends,
2. Educational opportunities,
3. Economic opportunities,
4. Real Estate,
5. Food and culture,
6. Safety,
7. Infrastructure and cleanliness,
8. Healthcare,
9. Public transport,
10. General social life,
11. Reservation,
12. Weather

Now let’s rate each on a scale of 1 to 10 in each category.

1. Family and friends - India 8, USA 1
   Family is a central part in Indian society. Divorce rate is one of the lowest in the world. There is lot of extended family, and there is an overall strong community feeling. USA has an extremely individualistic culture, so family is not important. Parents and kids are not closely connected or at all after 18.
   
   Similarly, friendship is mostly for personal gains and fleeting in nature in USA. The fake ‘hi, thank you, sorry’ is always there, but not much beyond that. This is increasing in India too, but still not nearly at the same level especially if you leave the major metros. As a simple example, you cannot expect to borrow 20$ from anyone in America even if you have known them for 15 years.
2. Educational opportunities - India 5, USA 5
   India has relatively few universities to support its enormous population. Admission systems emphasize rote memorization through entrance exams and lack creativity. On top of this, the quality of education in most universities is mediocre at best. Many Indians have degrees but not the skills required to succeed. STEM education is highly regarded.
   
   USA has a huge number of universities, many of them world-class. Acceptance employs few objective measures such as standardized testing and a multitude of random parameters like sports, essays, extracurricular activities, recommendations making it extremely subjective. Non-Asians benefit unfairly from this. In addition, most universities are prohibitively expensive rendering them inaccessible to a majority of people. Most Americans are not very educated. Going to grad school is rare. STEM grads are outcast as anti-social nerds in middle and high schools, where the quality of education is poor. The anti-intellectualism reflects directly in the society as most cannot do basic calculations without a calculator, and are oblivious to external affairs. The media propaganda doesn’t help.
   
   The European model is ideal in this category.
3. Economic opportunities - India 6, USA 10
   Even though India still remains a difficult place to start a business, it has the advantage of scale through reaching 1.4 billion people just locally. There is still a shortage of quality jobs, low salaries, and too much competition.
   
   USA is the economic leader in most areas, especially STEM. Lots of jobs, highest salaries, lower taxes than other developed countries. No other country pays nearly as much (not true for low wage earners though). Minimal red tape in starting new businesses.
4. Real Estate - India 5, USA 10
   Buying a home, isn’t that the dream? Purchasing property in India requires jumping through a bunch of hoops. The interest rates are high, black money is involved, laws and procedures are not strong. Tenants can illegally occupy it and it can take years to get them evicted. Real estate is used to avoid taxes in India, illegally.
   
   USA has some of the beautiful real estate one can imagine. Can be bought for as low as 5% down payment. Interest rates are low (around 3%) and are locked for 30 years, laws and procedures are strong. There are strong landlord-tenant laws and illegal occupation can be dealt with very quickly and easily. Real estate can be used to avoid taxes in USA, legally. The tax code allows for a set of deductions, reducing effective rental income to zero or even negative.
   
   Both countries let you buy as many properties as you wish. Democracies.
5. Food and culture - India 10, USA 4
   Not much to be said here. India has a variety of authentic cuisine specific from state to state. Lots of culture, festivals, colors, vibrancy, noise, you name it. USA seems very homogeneous and doesn’t have too much of it’s own culture (country of immigrants). Authentic American cuisine is completely bland.
6. Safety - India 5, USA 5
   Answering as a guy, women may feel differently. India has a high volume of petty crime, very low life threatening crime. USA has a low volume of petty crime, but significant life threatening crime. This is due to gun culture.
   
   On paper, India registers far fewer firearm-related deaths and sexual violence per capita as compared to USA who ranks in the top 10 in the world in each subject. The difference is too significant to solely attribute to mere lack of reporting. Is USA really safer for women?
7. Infrastructure and cleanliness - India 3, USA 8
   Infrastructure is just abysmal in India, even to this date. The lack of facilities is only magnified by the over population. Cleanliness is non-existent. People lack basic civic sense. USA has very good infrastructure, as expected of a developed nation. Having said that, cleanliness in major cities is even worse than India. Homeless are seen everywhere. In such areas, it doesn’t look like a first world nation by any stretch.
8. Healthcare - India 4, USA 7
   Even though major metros in India have started to offer top notch facilities, doctors, treatment etc., world-class healthcare is still available to a select few. USA makes the best of the best available throughout the country. New York is not far ahead of North Carolina.
   
   For minor problems and injuries, in USA there are unnecessary processes that require waiting long times for appointments, unnecessary paperwork, tests etc. They literally check for everything that could go wrong. Visiting the doctor for a headache may mean taking a test for brain tumor as well. Local doctors in India can generally treat such issues in a day, and drugs can easily be bought over the counter.
   
   But what happens when it’s a matter of life and death? 911. Within a few minutes, a barrage of medical personnel is at your door as if there is a border invasion. If you make it to the hospital alive, they will not let you die. India is still light years behind in this regard, as the problem is only compounded by traffic and lack of etiquette.
   
   Neither country has universal healthcare. USA healthcare is very expensive, even after accounting for insurance. Many Americans are unsatisfied with it, and seek treatment in other countries, including India.
9. Public transport - India 10, USA 1
   This one is well known too. Strong railway network, buses, autos, rickshaws are all a central part of the Indian transportation system. USA: What is public transport again?
10. General social life - India 8, USA 1
    People, people, people everywhere, and most are easy to talk to in India. Neighbors, relatives are all constantly in touch. This can lead to lack of privacy. USA has an extremely individualistic culture. Neighbors don’t know each other for 20 years. Breakdown of family structure. One person, one car. Loneliness and depression are high because of this.
11. Reservation - India 5, USA 5
    India has an explicit reservation system based on SC, ST and OBC. USA has an implicit reservation system based on race and gender. Blacks, Hispanics and women get preferential treatment when it comes to educational and economic opportunities. People from these groups don’t have to be as good as say Asian or White men, to get the same opportunities. They call it ‘diversity’ for race, and ‘equal rights’ for gender.
    
    Explicit reservation caps the maximum amount of reserved seats, whereas implicit reservation does not have an upper limit. In theory, everything can go to prioritized groups with the implicit method. Merit is heavily discarded in both cases.
12. Weather - India 9, USA 10
    Both countries are humongous, and incredibly diverse geographically. One can find the type of climate they are looking for in each. India has the Himalayan mountain range for snow, the deserts of Rajasthan for killer dry heat, East and North-East for rain, parts of South India for that temperate climate, and the rest consisting of extreme climates (wet and dry).
    
    USA has extreme weather including snow in the North-East (think NY), hot and dry deserts in the South-West (think Las Vegas), 300 out of 365 days rain in North-West (think Seattle), hot and humid weather in South-East (think Miami). However, California has near perfect weather year round. I mean it doesn’t even rain. USA edges it because of that.
    
    In terms of a pure city living experience, USA has more diversity in this category. This is because USA has more major cities, that are well spread out.

Majority of the people leave India because of 3 and 7, immigrate to and stay in USA because of 3. Stepping outside the bounds of the question, there are other countries that optimize for the above factors more optimally.

These are opinions based on my Friends personal life experiences, your mileage may vary!

Thanks for Reading