If it's any consolation, I'm from Northern California and moved to Europe. After a few years my wife and I thought "let's go back to California" so I could try

If it's any consolation, I'm from Northern California and moved to Europe. After a few years my wife and I thought "let's go back to California" so I could try a startup. After a year we went back to the EU because ultimately we realized there was no way we wanted to have a family in America. In the EU, even people who don't work in tech can have real vacations (most people in the US can't, really) and access healthcare to a reasonable standard. During recent elections, I didn't go to bed fearing that the country wouldn't be a democracy in the morning (helps we're not in Poland or Hungary) And frankly, I like that when I chat with the person behind the counter at the chip shop I don't have to be quite so embarrassed at my riches compared to them. In the states I felt awkward as hell basically saying "yeah we're heading to (some exotic locale) for a few weeks, got any travel coming up?" to people who had no PTO and nowhere near the income needed to do similar and, most worryingly, little prospect of change (class mobility in the US is lower than Europe). I'm not saying that inequality isn't a problem in Europe but it rots your psyche just a bit less here. Also, if the devs are cheap and the social safety net strong, it's a lot less risky to start your own company.