Where are you living? How does standard of living compare to Ireland?
Vancouver. I’m not sure what parameters to use to compare standards of living, so if you’ve any questions ask away. Briefly, price wise it’s similar to Dublin for accommodation, eating out is more expensive here I think, primarily due to the ‘tipping culture’ which has gotten out of control. Places now turn a machine to you with the tips starting at 18% and up. I was in Starbucks yesterday and the options were 20%/22%/enter your own. Which is ridiculous for a carry out coffee and when you realise they all get minimum wage, not a lesser tipping wage like some states still have. There’s no lidl or Aldi so groceries aren’t cheaply got, but Costco is good value.
Gas is the most expensive in North America, but cheaper than Ireland. Anytime you are near the border it’s always worth your while to tip over and fill up. Car insurance is similar to Ireland. There’s no car tax. I always had private health insurance in Ireland but I think the public system here is even better, can get simple things like xrays or blood tests done immediately 7 days a week, I’ve never had to wait more than 7/8 weeks for MRIs or CT scans or anything. And all covered. Dentists aren’t covered but are by most peoples work benefits, but without that coverage they are hugely over priced.
Flights are cheap to California and Vegas, but not to anywhere else. People often fly from Seattle to save a few hundred. I rarely use public transport but it works fine, especially trains. The city has huge problems with substance abuse, and overdose deaths. They’ve basically decriminalized most well known drugs but it hasn’t done anything to the number of fatalities. There’s also a massive amount of homeless downtown. A very complex issue, many are indigenous/ First Nations trying to deal with generations of trauma abuse and neglect. Often at the hands of the Canadian government. Drugs destroys a lot of people before it kills them, and when combined with homelessness the consequences are shocking to see at first, but unfortunately you become numb quickly. Occasionally I’ll see someone in a heap on the ground and pause to see if there’s a chest rise or any sign of life. If there is, you just step around them and move on. Sad to say but that’s reality. thats only in the downtown mainly, the rest of the city is your average bland north American city. But its clean and tidy and everything works well. Public services are generally good, they try and help you, not look at you like you are wasting their day which can be the response in Ireland at times. They are straight laced and bureaucratic, there’s no wink and nod short cuts. But that also means everything is fair and more efficient I think.
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Sounds like an absolute shithole
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He just asked about comparison of costs. In regards everything else, it has mountains (real ones) beaches (not polluted from mother Britain) bars and restaurants and people from all over the world (currently 5th I think, Dublin doesn’t rank obviously) . And the best summer weather in the world. Regularly in the top 10 of cities in the world to live in. Compared to the fucking dying kip you call home. There’s no comparison. People are moving one way, and it’s not to the damp ugly west brit enclave.
Its a bland city in thr burbs or in the centre you step on dead bodies on the way home doesnt paint a nice picture mate
Dublins burbs are full of skangers and burnt out cars, in the city centre the dead bodies try and rob you at syringe point, neither of which is an issue here
I was there in 2007 for a few weeks. Really liked it as a city. Took a ferry to Washington and went on a bus into Seattle then. Train down to Portland. Might have got a bus back from Seattle to Vancouver. From Vancouver, I was able to go up BC a bit and take a ferry over to Ketchikan and then a train back across to Jasper I think.
A lad from Limerick I know has been over there 15/16 years.
Sorry mate, your point about being numb to people being potentially dead on the street didnt paint a picture of a livable city
Well every ranking has it in the world top ten. But you know better.
Yep, if you ignore the blandness and the dead bodies scattered around it sounds ok
It has very few downsides. Not much traffic, excellent quality air and water and the best scenery imaginable. People aren’t as warm as Nova Scotia where you’d mentioned before but there’s no badness in them either.
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Few downsides apart from standing on dead people on your commute
They’re not all dead, sometimes they’ll still have a pulse 
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I commute by car like a normal human being.
Yeah, I’ve family over in NS and spent a summer there as a young fella.
Have you many spare rooms left apart from the ones given to Ukrainians? You could help even more people out
Public transport seemed decent from what I recall in Vancouver (but that was 2007). Mainly bus from what I recall but maybe that was where I was staying.
That will trigger him
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There’s a few train lines. Come over and visit your friend, plenty of limerick headers over here so I might know him
