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Prepare to be much worse financially. You will earn less, pay higher taxes (as percentage) and will feel much poorer. Cars, especially nice ones, are much more
by loxs 10y ago
Prepare to be much worse financially. You will earn less, pay higher taxes (as percentage) and will feel much poorer.
Cars, especially nice ones, are much more expensive (in absolute numbers, not only as percentage of income) to buy and own. Petrol is several times the US price.
Rents are higher in most cities (at least compared to income). Maybe only SV is worse compared to Europe.
All tech gadgets are more expensive, roughly at +20% in absolute terms, because of VAT
And yeah, on top of that you get "free" healthcare, which is usually of very questionable quality.
- GavinMcG 10y agoDo you have more info to support the "usually of very questionable quality" claim? Edit: corrected "low" to "questionable".
- loxs 10y agoSorry, I only have my personal experience and that of my family and friends. And I didn't say "low". Usually it's highly bureaucratic - you have to "climb a ladder" of doctors. First your GP, then a specialist, then, maybe a hospital. You wait a lot (sometimes weeks and months, because you are not "emergency"). And sometimes you encounter outright incompetence and have to go to a private doctor/hospital to have your problems properly attended to. That summarizes my experiences with the healthcare systems of 4 different EU countries.
- tluyben2 10y agoWhat countries? My experiences are excellent in Netherlands & Spain public healthcare. I hear people complain about NHS a lot but never used it so no idea.
- loxs 10y agoBulgaria, Spain, Denmark, Finland
- tluyben2 10y agoDo you speak Spanish well? It makes a massive difference... Maybe that goes for the other countries too?
- scrollaway 10y agoThe NHS is very highly regarded in the UK as one of their greatest accomplishment. Brits are proud of their healthcare :)
- tluyben2 10y agoWell :) I work a lot in the UK and live close to many Brits and they (middle to high class people) whine a lot about the NHS. It being slow and crappy. Like said; no idea if that is true or not.
- scrollaway 10y agoI'm legitimately surprised to hear that. I haven't had any particularly remarkable experiences with the NHS myself, but I've never heard a british person complain about it - only ever heard praise.
- taway_1212 10y agoIt is definitely true for Poland. As for UK, I had a flatmate with intense head/chest pain wait for 4 hours for an ambulance because he was diagnosed over the phone as not being an urgent case (which was probaby right, as he did not die in the meantime) and that was the wait time for non-dying people.
- loxs 10y agoThis is still qualified as an "emergency".
- GavinMcG 10y agoSorry for the misquote! The use of "questionable" in that way is a bit idiomatic, I think, as a polite way to say something is bad.
- loxs 10y agoI am not a native speaker and I translated literally from my native language where "questionable" would mean "not guaranteed to be good", but not necessarily bad.
- valkea 10y agoMy experience of the NHS in the UK is exactly the same. I've heard of some people gaming the system a little by using private insurance to supplement their healthcare. Then they can get a referral to see a NHS specialist from a private doctor, so no waiting to see a GP who might not give you the referral you want anyway. Not to say that there aren't also significant problems with US healthcare.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- scrollaway 10y agoAre you trying to spread fud? Because everything you said is either plain wrong or made to sound worse than it is. 1. All prices in europe include tax, unlike in the US where it's customary to not include tax in the price and pay it at checkout. Stuff tends to be more expensive not just because of VAT but also because of shipping prices and extra consumer protections such as mandatory 2 year warranties. 2. Just like in the US, rent varies wildly. In Athens you can pay 100€/month for a studio. In London, you'll find that same studio for 10-15 times that depending where you look. "Compared to income" IME it's about equal if not better - please cite your sources. 3. Healthcare is unquestionably of excellent quality across the board. I've lived in France, the UK, Greece, Sweden, there's no exceptions. 4. Petrol prices are kinda irrelevant when you don't need a car. European cities are far, far more tightly packed than the west coast. In all capitals you can get all your stuff done by foot, metro or cycling. What you're somehow forgetting however while complaining about earnings is that as a US citizen, you need to watch out for double taxation when moving to a different country. So I don't know, your post here is actually super counterproductive.
- loxs 10y agoWhat you say is correct. All things have variations. The Athens flat for 100 euro (though I highly doubt the price you cite) has it's equivalence somewhere in cheap cities of the US I never said that healthcare was "bad", only that it has its problems. Please note that I didn't say that Europe is worse, just that you'll be worse financially, which I didn't see you disproving.
- scrollaway 10y agoI can cite that price from personal experience :) You said healthcare is of "questionable quality". Everything has its problems but as far as I'm concerned, healthcare in europe is top notch. You certainly don't hear about "healthcare horror stories" in europe, unlike in the US... I'm not sure what "worse off financially" even means. It depends. For a long time I was working from home for an international company and earning far more a month than I'd need in a year. Like you said, there are equivalents in the US.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- chvid 10y agoDon't know why you are being downvoted - what you write is in general correct.
- scrollaway 10y agoParent is being downvoted because what they wrote is in general incorrect.
- gorbachev 10y agoWhether or not living in Europe or US is more expensive depends entirely on your life situation. If you're single with no dependents and you're healthy (and don't get an expensive sickness), then I would mostly agree US is better financially. If, on the other hand, you have kids, and/or some sort of health condition, it becomes pretty much a wash, or in favor of (some) European countries. Those higher European taxes pay for things that you pay out of pocket in the US. If you're not using those type of services, then you're financially better off in the US.
- loxs 10y agoAbsolutely true. And when you have in mind that I am actually writing to the OP, who is young, presumably healthy and in the beginning of his career, it's easy to agree that he is not taking a (financially) smart decision by moving to Europe.