4 ms·

I think the there are two important things that aren't being mentioned: First; in Europe, you don't pay for free healthcare with your taxes. It's free, after a

by sbacic 6y ago

I think the there are two important things that aren't being mentioned: First; in Europe, you don't pay for free healthcare with your taxes. It's free, after all. There's nothing stopping you from prioritizing QoL over money and _still_ getting all the benefits of the generous European welfare state. And second; I don't want to be in the shoes of European IT companies if (when?) the US implements Medicare for all. If top talent is willing to move from Europe to the US for higher salaries right _now_, what do you think will happen when Europe no longer has its biggest advantage - public healthcare? EDIT: I forgot to mention something important about #1 - that because of this, it's disingenuous to say that you "pay" for free healthcare with higher taxes. You don't. It's just that the cost of funding falls on your shoulders.

haakonhr 6y ago
What does that even mean? What's the difference between paying for something or having the cost fall on ones shoulder's? Also, Europe is very diverse. In Germany for example, you pay roughly 7% of your salary for health insurance, which is separate from other taxes. The difference in salaries between the Bay Area and Europe is really big, although I don't think it holds for most of the rest of the US. There are also plenty of other factors such as vacation (30 vacation days versus 14 (?), no concept of "sick days" etc.) and intangibles such as living in a country w/o a huge wealth gap and regular shootings.
- sbacic 6y ago
  > What does that even mean? What's the difference between paying for something or having the cost fall on ones shoulder's? The difference is that you get it either way and only really pay the cost back if you make over a certain amount of money. And there's absolutely nothing stopping you from never paying back that "fair share". You can just decide that taking long walks in nature beats making more money (and thus, paying more taxes). Not a problem for you, but the government can't exactly slap a VAT on that to pay for all the public services you consume. > The difference in salaries between the Bay Area and Europe is really big, although I don't think it holds for most of the rest of the US. Not just "Europe" - we're not comparing SF compensation with rural Bulgaria here - we're talking about European cities with the highest salaries (and highest COL, on average).

by sbacic 6y ago

haakonhr 6y ago

What does that even mean? What's the difference between paying for something or having the cost fall on ones shoulder's? Also, Europe is very diverse. In Germany for example, you pay roughly 7% of your salary for health insurance, which is separate from other taxes. The difference in salaries between the Bay Area and Europe is really big, although I don't think it holds for most of the rest of the US. There are also plenty of other factors such as vacation (30 vacation days versus 14 (?), no concept of "sick days" etc.) and intangibles such as living in a country w/o a huge wealth gap and regular shootings.

sbacic 6y ago
> What does that even mean? What's the difference between paying for something or having the cost fall on ones shoulder's? The difference is that you get it either way and only really pay the cost back if you make over a certain amount of money. And there's absolutely nothing stopping you from never paying back that "fair share". You can just decide that taking long walks in nature beats making more money (and thus, paying more taxes). Not a problem for you, but the government can't exactly slap a VAT on that to pay for all the public services you consume. > The difference in salaries between the Bay Area and Europe is really big, although I don't think it holds for most of the rest of the US. Not just "Europe" - we're not comparing SF compensation with rural Bulgaria here - we're talking about European cities with the highest salaries (and highest COL, on average).