Life in the US - Part 1

It’s my first ‘living anniversary’ here in US. Time just flew. How was my life here, so far? It’s good, of course. No complaints. I said no complaints coz what I am going to write are not complaints but some of my observations.

This is my first firsthand experience living in a capitalist country. I had read a lot about US before, including some travelogues. But travelogues have a different approach. How similar it is the life here compared to a country like India?

Quarter dollar is an important aspect of those who live here. We need them for using public phones, coin operated laundries, parking lots etc. And hence we can ‘buy’ quarter dollar from most of the grocery stores. It comes rolled and a roll will contain 40 coins. So, if any increment comes in coin operated services, we need to pay at least a quarter dollar extra, not 5 or 10 cents.

The public school system here is very good as far as the easiness of admission and interaction with teachers etc are concerned. Every child here has got a seat in the school for sure and there is no choice but to attend a particular school (not talking about private schools). Unlike India, a job in a public school is not a permanent job. One can get fired. Here the teachers are there to teach and not to play politics. Most of the teachers like teaching and they are not there just to make a living. Every school keeps its own fund and every school district has its own fund. If a school district has to cut funds, it even cut teaching jobs. Dental hygiene is important here. And there are no kids with disarranged teeth (like the one I have). They all align it (this has become a common trend, which is good, around the world, these days) when they are teens and it’s a big business too.   Head lice is also considered as a serious issue here. Kids can even stay home during the lice treatment period (they have to make some arrangements to pick up homework and assignments). 

One aspect I did not understand is the ‘Drugs’ and ‘Drinks’ aspect. One day, when my son told me how to drink wine without getting drunk, I was surprised and I asked who told him that and he said his Physical Education teacher and its part of his job! Drugs are the funniest part. From elementary school they will start issuing the ‘anti-drug’ awareness pamphlets and newsletters. Drugs are a common problem in high schools and some schools are particularly known for drugs. Now, the ‘what I do not understand’ part. It is not a big deal to find out where it comes from, if the police and school authorities work together and use some technology. But why it’s not happening? From where all those drugs are flowing into schools and what is the police doing? Instead of issuing newsletters, why can’t they burst the network? Another ‘I do not understand’ thing is the school bullies. Every year, lots of kids commit suicide here in US coz of bullying. (In India, there is this ‘samam, vedam, krodam and dandam’ principle to up bring kids. Means, first you tell in a way the kid can understand; if that fails, then give advice; if not solved, show anger.. if that too fails, give physical punishment) 

There are no small here in US, in general. Almost all retail shops are chains. Target, Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, H&M, OfficeMax, Best Buy, Macy’s, Starbucks, Costco, Safeway, FoodMaxx, JC Penny, Toys R Us,  Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Denny’s, Wendy’s, Walgreens, CVS….its a long list. Most of these chains have got their in-house brand and they even sell generic drugs in their label, apart from the pharmacy stores like Walgreens and CVS. Pharmacy stores are not just pharmacy stores. They sell all the medicine plus they stock almost everything else including toys, greeting cards and even alcoholic beverages.

Medicine is divided into prescription drugs and over the counter (OTC) drugs. But there is no need to worry if one wants to do self-medication. Almost all the essential drugs are sold OTC, including some ‘sleep aide’ ones. These sleep aides are kind of cheating. They are all mostly antihistamines (anti-allergy drugs) which has the side effect drowsiness. Apart from this, hormones like melatonin, which has a lot to do with sleep, is also sold OTC. Cold medicines come in two versions – day and night. Night one contains something (usually antihistamine or some decongestant) that makes you sleep/drowsy. Anti-biotic comes under prescription drugs and usually the doc sends the prescription directly to the pharmacy (any pharmacy of our choice) and we can pick up the medicine from the pharmacy store; we cannot choose the brand. Knowingly or unknowingly, most of those who live here take vitamins in excess. This is because most of the bread, milk, cereals etc comes with added vitamins, many a times the same vitamins. Plus many of them take vitamin supplements for no reason at all. Again, B group of vitamins along with some minerals are sold as vitamins for nail, hair, skin etc. 

 Speaking about the pharmacy, this country is ‘ruled’ by Pharma and Insurance giants. Every year most people take ‘flu shots’ during winter. Do we really need it? How do the scientists know which virus is going to hit this year? What if we catch a cold/flu even after getting vaccinated? Well, don’t ask such ‘stupid’ questions. If you want, get the vaccine or keep quite…Medicines are ridiculously priced. A small tube of antibacterial cream which can be sold for less than 5 dollars costs more than 10 dollars. We can hardly find anything for less than 5 dollar in medicine category. My son had to do a physical exam, a vaccine and a tester drug before his school admission and the bill was over 500 dollars. They make 10 tablets for less than a dollar (by outsourcing) and sell each for nearly 10 dollars. A TT injection for my son was 110 dollars. How can somebody afford it? Angels comes in the form if Health Insurance.

This ridiculous rate makes insurance a must. Will that policy cover our teeth? Eyes? No, we need to get dental insurance and eye care separately. Almost all the primary care docs have got only the basic medical education (in India, if one has only a bachelor degree in medicine, he/she will face a tough time to get patients). Most of the dental ‘work’ can be paid in EMIs. That tells how expensive it is. If one has to do a consultation, a cleaning and couple of root canal treatment with crown, it is cheaper to go to some other country like India and get it done. Same with many surgeries. This was the reason why medical tourism was picking up in India and then all of a sudden a ‘bug’ originated from India which seriously damaged the medical tourism. From where did that bug come from? Who created that? Shhhhh…

Vehicle insurance is another trick. Here the insurance is not for the vehicle. Vehicle insurance is tagged to a vehicle and a person together. In India, insurance is for the vehicle. Anybody who has a valid driver license can drive a vehicle which is insured. So, if there are 5 members (with valid driver license) in a family, all of them can drive/share the same car without paying any additional amount for insurance. Here the insurance goes up when more people are added up. And different insurance agency will give different rate. If we just take a policy we might end up paying more for no reason at all. Some credit card comes with some basic insurance too. But most people, including me do not know the exact terms and conditions for such coverage. Usually car insurance will cost a few thousand dollars per year; it depends on the make of the car, where we drive, the driver’s driving history, age etc

Among the chain stores one is interesting. Costco. This is a wholesale store but for individuals…weird? We need a membership ($50 per year for the basic membership and $100 for the executive). Things are supposed to be less priced here. To what extend it is less? I asked couple of people, including myself and nobody has got a clear answer. The trick is every item we buy from Costco is specially packed for them, in large quantities. If we want a tooth paste, we need to buy a minimum of 5. If we want to buy milk, we need to buy 2 gallon minimum. If something is comes in 100 grams at a normal store, here it comes at 325 or 475 grams. Who is going to compare gram to gram? I admit that I have not done that kind of a calculation so far and as of now, I do not know any CPA here (they might have tried this for sure). Everybody who go there end up spending at least 100 bucks at a time. What if we don’t go? We get this feeling ‘hey I paid 50 bucks for membership. I need to make use of it’. Some of the branded cloths are specially made for Costco and there is quality difference. I am not saying that there is no saving at all, of course there is this cash back. But there are some under currents. The more we spend on in-house brand (Kirkland) the more we ‘save’, possibly. In US, the maximum retail price is not printed on the products in human readable form but only in barcode. This allows retailers sell things at a price of their choice. For a pack of lay’s chips, we have to pay a lot more if we buy from a gas station (there almost everything cost more). And every gas stations sell same gas at different price. If we live in a posh area, they charge more. The first gas station after we exit from a freeway will charge more. We need to pay more on weekends too.

Mobile phone or wireless phone as we say here is another ‘experience’. We need to pay for everything, including incoming calls and texts (Back in India, all incoming calls and texts are free, for all telephone service). If we want an iphone, we do not have any choice but to get service from AT&T (as of now). Each carrier has their models. We cannot simply buy this or that phone unless we are ready to change service provider too. Basic service is only for basic phones and smart phones comes with mandatory data package (In India, we can buy any handset we want and use with our current service provider. No particular service is compulsory. We can buy a HTC android and still stick to basic service if we want). 

Here, auto mechanics (and lawyers) are known for charging very high fee. Back in India there was something called ‘servicing’ the car. Means, we can give the car to a workshop for ‘service’. They will do complete checkup (bumper to bumper) go for a trial run and fix problems if any. There are pickup and drop service too. Here they cannot pick up or drop coz they do not have insurance for that vehicle and hence cannot go for a trial run on the road too. Here service is part by part, generally. Most of the workshops have this ‘break package’ ‘oil change package’, ‘timing belt package’, 'headlight package' etc. While doing the wheel rotation, they will check the tire pressure of only 4 tires and the spare tire will be spared. Almost all the time, the labor will cost more than the parts. Hence, a lot of people do most of the minor works by themselves, to the extent possible.