What is life like in Australia compared to the United States?

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popcorncheeks

I live in Australia and have recently come back from a short visit to the US (New York for 10 days).

Compared to America, Australia is a wonderful place to live.

- Health care is free (although if you want you can pay for private healthcare, and the government is increasingly encouraging people to do so. But you don't have to.)
- Crime is much lower in Australia (you're not allowed to carry guns for a start!)
- Social welfare is good - there are disability allowances, low-income allowances, and old age pensions. However, we pay more tax!
- People are more relaxed. It's not so hard paced and hard hitting as in what I saw in New York for example.

You're best to move to one of the larger cities like Sydney. Other cities may seem a bit like country towns to you!

Working conditions are generally 8:30am/9am- 5pm. Your admin assistant role would most likely be these hours. You should note that there has been talk in the papers of a slow down in the job market. You can check out job vacancies and salaries here: http://www.mycareer.com.au.

While house prices over the last few years have gone up quite drastically, there has been a slow down because of increasing interest rates. Due to lack of supply in some cities, renting can be expensive. Here's where you can find out house/rental prices:
http://www.domain.com.au (I think this site is a bit better for Sydney searches) or
http://www.realestate.com.au (for every where else)

You'll find Australia is generally a lot cleaner, there are more parks, and all states of Australia have great clean beaches to hang out at. Restaurants in Australia are among the best in the world.. Not to mention we have real coffee (forget Starbucks, it's not real coffee like the Italians make it).

Of course we're a lot smaller than America. So you might find things a little quaint. But when you weigh up the standard of living (esp. with the US economy going as it is), Australia is a really good option.

For a snapshot of what is currently of interest to Australians and what's happening here, check out two of our daily papers!
http://www.smh.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald)
http://www.theage.com.au (The Age is a Melbourne Paper)

Good luck!

erin1ynn

I'm an American (from PA) living in Australia. I must say, Australia is magic! Most everyone speaks English (unless you live in Sydney or surrounding suburbs - where the population is extremely multicultural - its part of the charm though).

Considering you are a gay man, Australia is pretty open minded about same sex relationships and the gay scene is quite large as well (from what I can tell - though I'm not a gay man ;).

Unfortunately, Australia has cracked down on immigration. You need a visa to visit, live, work, study, stay etc to be here. (Unless your surname is Wong or any chinese like & you don't speak any english... then they'll let you in & let you drive - just kidding). The immigration politics are very stringent and if you don't meet ALL their requirements you can't migrate here.

I can honestly say, Australia is so much better then Philly, except for the missing cheese steaks and It is rather expensive to live in AU. There are few if any bargains around, no coupons & an Audi will cost you over $100,000!

Here is the Australia Immigration website..., if you can decode it...
http://www.immi.gov.au/.

Come and visit AU!!

jane s

Live in Aust is good, we are layed back but still work hard, For the question that you have probly depends on where you live, i live in Victoria and it is cheaper to live here than to live in Queensland so thats something that you will have to research and decide on.
But life is easy going and yea we are friendly....

sweetsommertime

I'm wondering the same thing myself! I've been researching Australia's/NZ's migration websites, but you never know how the culture and job market really are unless you talk to people from there. So please viewers: if you're from there, help us out!

Sally P

Australia is a nice place to live (for me). Ive never been to america, so im not really sure what its like there, but I was once told that the main difference between America and Australia is that you love your government and we hate ours. Australians are all pretty easy going and friendly in nature I think. But I might be bias!

reta

well i think the life in australia is easier because the goverment gives you money and you don't hav to be working all day long like people does here

Corn Dog

I was born and raised in Australia until i was 19 then moved to the U.S
And i think that America is a better place to live in overall...
im not taking anything away from Australia... i just prefer it here in the U.S
Its about equal in job opportunities and the main factor that separates the U.S from Australia is the amount of things to do...
Australia isn't a bad place but get boring quite easily
America you have to watch where you go... but if you stay safe... its a better place overall
hope i helped =)

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