Dilemma for an Indian - Norway or US ?

I was talking to a friend of mine who is working in Big Research firm in India and got the opportunity to do Phd in Norway. He was excited and could not want more from God. But God is God :) and so last week he told me that he got another offer from US....................And this added a great bit of thought-grinding in him and his family.... A friend in need is friend indeed ...so he bombarded me with some typical questions..... and so happily found out following :

Earning and Taxes :
Income :
------------->Norway: $34,791/year/person
------------->USA   : $40,240/year/person

Taxes :
------------->Norway : $32,000/year/person
------------->USA    : $8,000/year/person

But where does this does money goes :) ....
Lets look at the social security expenditure of both the countries :
------------->Norway: 40%
------------->USA: 33%

And also look at the Education expenditure :
------------->Norway: 11%
------------->USA: 2%

Another aspect on which Indian(and others) want clarification is job related so here are some more info..

- In Norway, it is quite difficult for an employer to fire an employee after the initial 3 month trial period. It is also uncommon for employees to be fired for under performing. Compared with the US, this is quite a novel concept. In the States, employees can be fired with almost zero notice, although 2 weeks is common notice.
- And the BIGGEST DIFFERENCE IS Work/life balance and now I am not comparing just US and Norway but Norway and rest of the world.
In US/India, people feel like life is work or work is life but in Norway, the attitude is - 'people
work to live'. So what is so different? ....typical regular work hours in Norway are very relaxing though
standard business hours are from 8AM to 4PM but you will find people coming earlier then 8 and leaving before 4PM. In fact in many offices they have officially declared that office-calling time is until 3 PM.
But it does not mean people don't give importance to work... yes they do in fact Norwegians are extremely efficient and task-oriented at work and when the working day ends, they are on to more important things such as family or sports or just relaxing at home(with some good book).Though not everybody is having family life but when they have family then family takes a huge priority even at work and that is why people after dropping kids to school/kindergarten, quickly reaches office early and then leave work early to pick their kids up from school or take them to sports practice.

Hope it helps Avnish a bit to decide ..... :)

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