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I did the opposite and found the us much better. Pay and opportunities are infinitely better, people are friendlier, having a car is much easier and more conven
by thegypsyking 5y ago
I did the opposite and found the us much better. Pay and opportunities are infinitely better, people are friendlier, having a car is much easier and more convenient.
- jfk13 5y ago> Pay and opportunities are infinitely better ...if you're lucky enough to be among the privileged.
- bpodgursky 5y agoRespectfully, this is HN, and most people who are looking on this thread for advice are indeed privileged. I don't think it's an unreasonable default assumption.
- humanistbot 5y agoWhat do you expect? This is HN, full of tech folks making ridiculous salaries.
- germinalphrase 5y agoSome of us are outsiders who just enjoy the conversation.
- nivenkos 5y agoSalaries are far higher in the US in any professional field - engineering, tech, medicine, law, finance... even truck driving.
- JKCalhoun 5y agoTrue. But if we're talking software engineering, everyone posting here is probably "privileged" in that regard. Let me just take this moment to say, holy shit what a fascinating time we all live in and what a happy accident it was that I stumbled into software engineering in this particular era. I'm not aware of a recent time in history when you could get what amounts to a doctor's salary without the lengthy schooling, rigorous training, certification.
- notch656a 5y agoWhat if you get that salary precisely because this field is free of the sort of inefficiencies and government regulation that drag on healthcare and doctors.
- nebula8804 5y agoThe capital owning class are gunning to eliminate these salaries. "You will own nothing and be happy" is not something they just reserve for the lower classes. The future is hard to predict but don't rule out these outrageous salaries being gone in a decade or two and the market being much more middle/lower middle class type jobs.
- JKCalhoun 5y agoI don't doubt you're right. The last three decades have been a "worker's market" for those of us lucky enough to have stumbled into a trade that Corporate desperately needed the services of. I am doubly fortunate to be ending my career in this field. I have no idea what the future holds for those still in the field. It may well become a narrow path you need to hew to.
- chinchilla2020 5y ago> ...if you're lucky enough to be among the privileged That applies in every country
- nexuist 5y agoLiving in America is by definition a privileged position. Largest military in the world guarantees either the country survives anything or the world undergoes nuclear Armageddon (and even then the tax man is still coming to your door).
- lm28469 5y ago> Living in America is by definition a privileged position Low income Americans have it much worse than low income Europeans on probably every single metric you can come up with.
- harpersealtako 5y agoReally? I was under the impression that even the average person living in a poor European country (e.g. Moldova, Belarus, Kosovo) has a worse quality of life in most ways compared to, for example, someone living in a rural trailer park in Mississippi (an especially poor state) making minimum wage. What are some notable examples?
- lm28469 5y agoEuropean Union countries* For basic things like vacations, parental leaves, access to basic healthcare, &c. I've seen skidrow in LA and some parts of SF and NY, this is third world country tier, it looked like war times refugees camps
- nexuist 5y agoThat's just moving goal posts. European people are still European even if they're not EU citizens. Compare New England averages to European Union averages if you want a fair assessment - you'll find that not only are New Englanders making more money, they also have equivalent or higher quality of life than many EU countries do.
- lm28469 5y ago
- hpkuarg 5y agoHow much more privileged can it get than on a thread where OP is seeking to leave a stable Western first-world democracy?
- WallWextra 5y agoIf you're not lucky enough to be among the privileged, moving to Europe is impossible unless you have inherited citizenship (which is itself another kind of privilege).
- pwagland 5y agoThe first points are salient. The last point is interesting, since a car is generally much more required in the US, yes it is easier and more convenient to have a car in the US, as well as a buttload cheaper, but life without a car is (generally) a lot less easy or convenient.
- jokethrowaway 5y agoThe gas prices in the USA are pretty great compared to Europe (including during this presidency). Some countries (like Italy) charge basically the cost of petrol in taxes. On the cons, in the USA you generally need to drive longer distances.
- thefourthchime 5y agoI think it depends on where you live. If you live in New York, LA, Chicago, Seattle a lot of the big cities have such horrible traffic I can see the want to get rid of your car. If you live in a place like Austin Texas and work from home, like I do. Having a car is a delight. I can go in any direction and bring my stuff I can get stuff from the store and bring it home. I've lived without a car in New York City, there's a lot of downsides to that. You don't have the freedom to just go to IKEA and get a something.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoI had to rent a car when I went to IKEA in Switzerland. It wasn't that bad, and seemed like a pretty standard thing to do. The US doesn't really have urban area car rentals, you'd have to get to the airport first.
- thefourthchime 5y agoThat's entirely false. Where I live in North Austin there are two places to rent cars within 2 miles of me. The same is true all over the USA.
- Oddskar 5y ago> having a car is much easier and more convenient. Ah, I see you didn’t live in Germany.
- rootusrootus 5y agoAre you suggesting having a car in Germany is easier than in the US? That seems backwards.