Living and Working in America, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: A good starting point for practical matters but ...
Review: I purchased this book to get an outsider's view of the U.S.. Hampshire uses 20 chapters to cover such issues as finding a job, working conditions, permits and visas, arrival, buying a car, education, shopping, sports, insurance, health finance. The work's strongest point is that it is a checklist of possible concerns for a new arrival. He provides more practical info than any travel guide but certainly less than one might like if the reader wants a step by step guide. Some chapters, like visas and permits, are as good as you find in print short of getting a book just on visas and permits. Other topics cannot be more detailed because, as he repeatedly notes, there are many facets of daily life that, unlike so many other countries, are not handled or directed by the national (federal) government. Rather they are handled (or not) by individual states or even municipalities. For example, there is no VAT in the U.S. but there is a sale tax for many states but not all. Some cities and counties also have sales taxes. (My state has a 4% sales tax, the county I am in has one-quarter of one percent sales tax but the city that I live in does not have a sales tax). Then there is the fact that there are exemptions. My state does not tax food but others do. In Minnesota, there is a sales tax on clothing, EXCEPT in the city where the huge Mall of America is located. Another example is the licensing of vehicles. Some price a car license at the value of the car, so that a license for a new Mercedes might cost $2500 while if you go to another state, it is a flat fee, like $45. This can mean thousands of dollars of difference. I have two criticisms. One, so much of his material is based on New York and California and a few big cities. He pretty much dismisses the midwest, south, southwest and much of the west. In this geographic sense he is more superficial than he could be. Two, there is more than a little english condescension. This is particularily true of his comments on crime and race relations. Statistically, one is far more likely to mugged or burgled in the U.K. than in the U.S. while our murder rate is higher. Yet, if you avoid certain behaviors, like stay away from drug dealers and the roughest parts of cities, you'll be very safe. To be fair to him, he does note the contradictory nature of so much of the U.S.. For example, graduate schools at major universities are the best in the world but the U.S. also has more diploma mills than anywhere else--by a wide margin. I also think that ultimately he kind of likes and maybe even envies certain things but many of his comments on social issues come off as superficial, petty and wrong. Still it's much better than Culture Shock: a guide to Customs Etiquette for the practicalities of life.