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@AlexB
I've lived and worked there. I wouldn't want to go back.
There is enormous pressure to conform to a norm set out by the Christian right. You will see this subtly in all sorts of ways once you know what to spot.
also, there are huge anomalies in the food prices, breakfast cereal is hugely expensie due to a cartel created by the major cereal processing firms.
Try buying fresh herbs or even dried herbs ($3-4 a tub for dried herbs). It's usually cheaper to eat out than to cook from scratch.
Supermarket food at the low end is incredibly poor quality (American cheese anyone), bread is horrible. To eat well you have to pay about what you'd pay for food from Waitrose.
Yes, you earn well, but there is no safety net for the poor and coming from liberal Europe the way that the poor are not on anyone's political agenda (because they don't, and often can't, vote) is shocking.
I'll leave it there. I love the countryside, some of the towns are spectacular, but the lifestyle and the attitude to the rest of the world leaves a lot to be desired. don't even get me started on TV, or the general level of ignorance you encounter, or the fact that the equivalent of my parents would have grown up with racial segregation...