I have been living in LA working in insurance for just over 10 years. When I talk to my brother, who has been working in insurance in the East for the past 10 years, we often find that all concerns about life in the U.S. ultimately come down to 'money'.

In my Korean community in LA, the issue of housing prices is not new. Many people in LA see their apartment rent consuming half of their salary. Additionally, living without a car is impossible, and when you add car payments and maintenance costs, it easily amounts to $4,000 a month just to 'breathe'.

On the other hand, my brother, who has settled in Palisades Park, New Jersey, sighs every year due to the skyrocketing property taxes. New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and the tolls for commuting to New York are also significant. Ultimately, the West drains your wallet with rent and vehicle maintenance, while the East does so with terrifying taxes and transportation costs.

The nature of traffic congestion is also vastly different. The freeways in LA are more like 'giant parking lots' than congested roads. It is common to spend an hour traveling just 20 miles, with precious moments of life wasted on the road.

The East presents a different kind of pain. My brother endures the bottlenecks of the George Washington Bridge or Lincoln Tunnel every day, or copes with the stress of subway transfers. Especially in winter, waiting for the bus in the biting cold seems to make life much harsher than in the West.

The weather plays a crucial role in mental health. LA offers blue skies and stable sunshine all year round. Even when stressed, just looking at the sky can lift your spirits. In the East, winter brings darkness from 4 PM, and the roads become a mess due to snow removal, with the biting cold draining people's energy. While the scenery may be beautiful, the difficulty of survival is certainly higher in the East.

People's dispositions are also different. In LA, the dress code is casual and the atmosphere is relaxed, but relationships can often feel superficial. In contrast, people in New York and New Jersey, as my brother describes, are very direct and value efficiency. The pace of life is fast, and the competition is fierce, making it easy to feel left behind if you can't adapt.

In conclusion, where is better to live seems to depend on "what kind of stress I can endure better".

Personally, I find it hard to give up the unique leisure of having coffee with clients in LA. I have already accepted the high cost of living as part of life and have reached a level where I can manage it somehow.

However, I always keep a 'Plan B' in the back of my mind. If the unique attractions of the West, such as safety and road conditions, deteriorate further, I would seriously consider moving to the East where my brother lives, even if it means enduring the cold and taxes.

Ultimately, we may just be following our basic instinct to find not 'the better place to live', but 'the place where I can endure happily'.