Quality of Life in US

It is obvious that in many cases a person working in US would earn much more here than in India.. But I am interested in finding the difference in quality of life.

Income inequality in US is much lower than in India(of course not counting the super rich!!) So it is expensive to hire somebody to help you around the house. Any thing that involves labor is pretty expensive here. If you want to buy a furniture cheap then you must assemble it yourself!! But in a sense it is good because it promotes independence.

But what about the other indicators for quality of life? I define the quality of life by the following factors:
1. Food, clothing and shelter(the basic necessities)
2. Socializing(with friends and family)
3. Medical care.
4. Material comforts(Televisions, internet, camera etc)
5. Environment(quality of air we breathe, traffic)
6. If you have kids - school and friends of your kids

Now let us see how US and India fare against each of the above factors. For food, clothing and shelter I rate US to be the winner. It is true that I dont get some speciality south Indian food in US. But food here is generally cleaner and if you dont want pesticides you can go organic there is more variety etc.

Shelter(housing) is also better here(At least in Seattle). You can live in a comfortable place with out shelling too much money. Even for clothing I think US has better quality(in most cases) and comparable prices to India(little expensive but manageable)

As far as Socializing goes I would have to say India is the winner!! I think it is the mother tongue thing!! I have lots of friends from through out the world here. But I dont feel especially close to anybody other than who speak my mother toungue! Also I never remember planning on things to do for any week end in India.

As far as medical care goes I would have to say both US and India are comparable! Pretty much India has the same technology as is found in US(At least the expensive hospitals do). However there are certain differences. But both of them have advantages and disadvantages cancelling each other out.

For material comforts I would have to rate US as the winner. It is true that the same technology is available in India. But in most cases I think it is more affodable here than in India.(I mean compared to your salary)

Environment - I would have to say US as the clear winner here.

School - I would rate India as the winner here. It is pretty expensive in India to get into a good school. However it is usually possible to find good schools where they take special care for your kids. But in US not all shcools are good and you dont have much choice either.

So is there a clear winner? I would have to say No. At least I find that both places are in a tie!! But it is possible that for somebody some of the things are more important than others in which case they can pick a winner!!