It's always fun to hear from people who've never lived here just how easy it is for us Americans to live like kings and toss the daily grind.

There are a handful of people in the states that can live that way, but it's almost always due to one or more scenarios: They come from a rich family or have some kind of substantial inheritance they're living off of; some kind of pension or insurance settlement, (usually combined with savings from years of hard work and the luck of seldom - if ever - having had any major upsets that depleted that savings, which is more often the case); or they were one of the very few lucky ones who started a business that turned gold fairly quickly and either sold it or retired early. Most businesses fail within the first 5 years. The rest are either living off of someone else's dime or they're lying to you. There's no getting around it.

The cost of living in the US far exceeds most people's annual salary. The average American's credit card debt exceeds $100K. That's just credit card debt. Then there are mortgages, car payments, etc. And even if you've paid off your house and your car and have no credit card debt, you're still going to have an annual property tax bill no matter where you live, unless you're living on someone else's property (aka someone else's dime). If you live in or near a major city with public transportation then you don't always need a car, but the vast majority of people in the US do not live near major cities and do not have access to public transportation. And most counties in the US require annual property tax on your car as well, whether it's paid for or not, it's usually based on the value of the car.

Even if you're one of these folks who "live off the grid", producing your own electricity and pumping your own water from the ground (if that's even legal in your area, thanks the the EPA in many areas it is not legal to do so anymore - in some places it's not even legal to collect rain water), Uncle Sam still knows where you live, and he's going to want his annual rent, which means you have to have an annual income, which is also heavily taxed.

So even when you think you aren't a part of the rat race, you're still a part of it to some extent, if you live in the US. Either that or you're living off the hard work of someone else, and for most of us over the age of 30-40, we were raised to work for what we wanted or needed. Nothing worth having comes easy and no one owes you a damned thing just because you exist.