Crunching Numbers to find the Right Words

I feel at a loss for words. Those that do come feel extravagant, overwrought, as if I’m trying too hard to sell a thing for which I believe no words are unnecessary.

Which is why when people ask why we moved to Sicily, I say nothing and instead point with a sweep of my hand: the island’s blue skies, the climate, cruel and captivating, sacked between a lazy, lush paradise and the inferno of brutal scarcity.

Look at these arid plains, I say, the rugged mountain ranges, the crystal blue waters of this captive, clear sea. Sicily was forged in fire and ash, an island of stubborn, extraordinary substance, where everywhere you turn you’re graced with the beauty of ancient, earthly wonder.

When still they appear unconvinced—perhaps willing, but slow to be fully swayed by nature’s fierce splendor alone—I search for more common ground and so mention the food and wine, the terroir, the source of homegrown quality captured month after month in an abundance of unsurpassed flavor, reminding everyone here of the culture, tradition and history of 3,000 years of tenacious human existence.

They nod and say, Well, sure, there’s all that. This can be found anywhere in Sicilia. But why here? Why Troina?

I start again. The sweep of the hand: the summits, the forests, the picture perfect meadows, a fertility that feeds the soul with the same volcanic heat and proficiency as shaped each and every rock, every seed, every speck of soil that covers this bountiful island.

How is this any different, they say, than America?

How is it different? How is it different?

The question stumps me. In a moment of clarity I realize the land alone will not serve this argument as anyone who’s stood looking out over the Grand Canyon would know. Or visited Yosemite, Denali, Niagara Falls, the Navajo Nation’s Monument Valley or Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano (so many others). Nature’s greatness is as abundant all over the world and can tell only so much of the true human climate. To know, for instance, American food, or rather the failure of the American industrial food machine that has permeated every town in the US, one must have been there, seen it, tasted it for themselves and after felt often their stomachs and bowels revolt in response.

Where else to consider? The rise in gun violence? The colossal cost of health care? The declining life expectancy? Politics? —okay, that they will probably understand, as well as the tragic mishandling of public policy. What of the decline of the most basic of human needs, or the widening wealth gap…?

Then it came to me: Money. Everyone understands money. And in order to have the same quality of life of a person living in Sicily, you have to make a lot of it in America.

How much more, you might ask?

A lot it turns out.

Before I go into more detail I feel the need to explain what I mean by same quality of life. We’re speaking in terms of the basics, here, i.e. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: food, shelter, security, health, physiological things that nature, certainly. But also the culture, the history, the community, and the privilege of having all that in such close proximity to both the mountains and sea.

This is Sicily

Those are some narrow parameters, I know, and so I needed some sort of baseline from which to work. I choose Greenville, SC. It worked primarily because it’s a good sized town where you can find many, if not most, of the items I wanted to compare. Also, our daughter lives there who could help me price-check.

However, Greenville is a bit of a drive to reach the coast—here, in Sicily, you can be basking seaside within two hours or less from any point on the island—so I took my task to the west coast community of Santa Barbara, CA, which shares somewhat of a similar geography to Sicily (okay, not really, but you take what you can take). Finally, just to keep it super clean and tidy I selected the only island in the U.S., Hawaii, to tie it all together in one nice, neat cost-of-living comparison.

There are other places I could’ve gone, sure, but as you’ll see, my calculations are rudimentary at best (truly, from the seat of my pants) but I feel they’re close enough to a thoughtful and evidence-based answer to How is America different.

The Results

This chart is a side-by-side expense budget I created in excel comparing cost of living in Sicily to Greenville, SC. The format is the same one I shared some time ago and one Franca and I have used for many years to plan our own family’s living expenses. You can take as much time as you’d like to study it—everything has been converted to USD—but for simplicity sake let me break it down as such:

The average cost for one person living in Sicily is $16,032 and includes the following:

• Paying rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in the city center
• Owning Life Insurance (this is in there only because it’s listed in our budget and I didn’t think to remove it. If you don’t need it, the cost is actually $13,752)
• Fuel Costs. We have a car but it’s paid-off—and for the record, cars are cheaper in Sicily.
• Using a cellphone and having internet at your home
• A couple of news and streaming subscriptions
• The cost of two people eating out 2X a month at a mid-range restaurant

Other Food costs:
Note: you can see a side-by-side comparison at the bottom of the calculations.

• Locally baked bread
• Ethically-raised meat
• Regionally-produced milk
• Local cheese
• Organic vegetables
• Locally-crafted wines

The results show that the same quality of life in Greenville, SC will run you just over $44,000. In a couple of the categories, you’ll find the expense is the same. This is spending we do in USD, such as that that life insurance and subscriptions. Other notes of mention:

• Health Insurance is universally free in Sicily
• Fuel is more expense in Sicily but we drive much less than in the U.S. because our house is in the city center and we get around mostly on foot. Also public transportation, while not great in Sicily, is available at a low cost. Once you reach the European rail system for longer travel, fuel cost is a absolute no-contest.
• Rent? Forget it. Affordable housing in American doesn’t exist. The system is B-R-O-K-E-N.
• The cost of cellphones and internet are comparatively overpriced in the U.S. Less connectivity for more money? No thanks.
• I feel I was very generous setting the American prices of food. Here, organic and local are the norm (if you couldn’t tell by my emphasis), not the privileged exception.

The Bottom line

• For a single person living in Sicily —$16,032
• Greenville—$44,415

Now, while Greenville’s a nice town and all and offers access to all of the things we find important enough to include in a budget, it’s not that close to the sea—at least not the Mediterranean kind of sea—so let’s look at Santa Barbara, California, where, according to an online cost of living calculator, the same lifestyle will cost around $70,000.

Want it all? Hawaii is over $90,000. (the NYT recently published an article, in fact, on how a huge number of Hawaiians have left the island for the lower cost lifestyle of Las Vegas.)

Is It All Just About the Money?

Of course not. People have been moving from Hawaii to Nevada for decades, according to that article, and while a lot of it might be due to the extreme cost of living (buyer beware, the median price for a house in Vegas will still set you back $460,000) some of the reason is tied to the fact that Hawaiians have created a community in Las Vegas that allows them to still feel connected to Hawaii. There are Hawaiian schools, Hawaiian restaurants, you can take Hawaiian dance lessons.

“We got priced out of paradise,” one person in the article is quoted. “But all these traditions, all our language, it’s part of our identity.”

I personally have always felt a connection to the land, and feel it here, too, amidst the raw, ruggedness of Sicily. But why we chose Troina out of the many other towns and villages we’d visited was a similar search for belonging, for a community in which we could thrive in a place of shared purpose, culture and identity.

What we found surprised even us.

Stay tuned for Part Two of this series when we dive deeper into this very same kind of search for sense of belonging.

Paid Subscriber Levels

Become a re-occurring sustainer with a monthly subscription. Choose from several affordable levels. Annual subscribers earn a 50% discount.
♥ $5/month, $50/year
♥ $25/month, $200/year

SUBSCRIBE NOW

One-time Donation Light up my life and give me hope with with a one-time donation in any amount.

DONATE NOW

Keen on the Bitcoin? No problem. Mine it and shovel a bit (or two) my way: bc1qn56cg3htqq77zm4y06900m0u05xpy57zxkkmz9

Need to cancel an existing subscription? Okay, fine, just know you'll be ruining my day. You can do so on this page.