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My apologies, it might have been more accurate to say "in the US and similarly uncivilized countries".
by taurath 4y ago
My apologies, it might have been more accurate to say "in the US and similarly uncivilized countries".
- luckylion 4y agoAdding a little love to the world every day, huh?
- taurath 4y agoThe cruelty is the point here in the good ole US of A.
- etiennebausson 4y agoThat was my though as well before even reading the comments. I suppose I should admit as an European that confidence in your own superiority is not solely and American trait.
- nivenkos 4y agoThe US is far wealthier though, like just compare the developer salaries for a start.
- numlock86 4y agoWhat's a $250k payroll worth if that's also what you have to pay for the average hospital visit? I'd stick to my €100k and not have my life ruined just because I broke my leg or my kid is born with a heart disease.
- throwaway6734 4y agoIf you make 250k you can afford fantastic insurance and you'll still have a lot more left over. It's significantly better to be a high earner in the US than almost anywhere else in Europe (in terms of capital)
- numlock86 4y ago
- Kavelach 4y agoI definitely didn't expect this in a HN thread
- numlock86 4y agoI didn't expect to lose a cousin on a business trip to the US (Michigan) 6 years ago either. Life is full of surprises.
- patates 4y agoI'm sincerely sorry for your loss, but moving the goalpost doesn't help the discussion. Again, nothing to take away from how dreadful what you lived through is.
- numlock86 4y agoCondolences appreciated. > doesn't help the discussion That's exactly my point. The discussion started to derail into "Who has more money?" like that's the ultimate metric. This just makes me sad but is pretty representative for the stereotypical US mindset. My point is there is a lot more to life than money.
- throwaway6734 4y agoAt no point did I claim it was the ultimate metric and instead clarified that I was talking purely in terms of capital
- bombcar 4y agoLife insurance is available- as is emergency healthcare riders. Americans won’t admit it publicly but a big part of living in America is knowing what parts of America you shouldn’t go. And if you do have to go to or through those areas, you start to understand why so many people drive urban assault vehicles.
- jmartin2683 4y agoI work as an engineer in America and yea.. that’s totally not how the math works. Healthcare expenses are largely covered along with the much higher pay and lower taxes. I think my out of pocket cost last year was negative after hsa contributions from the company.
- chinathrow 4y agoYeah but what happens if you lose your job and get really sick? Or what happens if you get really sick and lose your job? In the US, that sounds like a need to either ruin your finances/life/pension/etc. In most places of Europe, not so much.
- BWStearns 4y agoIf you're productive and then get sick and get fired for being sick, by the time you die of lack of access to healthcare you had become poor. So you see, nothing bad happens to the good useful people!
- jmartin2683 4y agoYou have cobra coverage until you go get another job, which is something you absolutely have to do regardless. If you have an hsa, you’ll still have a bunch of money in there, too.
- bpodgursky 4y agoAt the end of the day, the revealed preference is that many EU+CA developers move to the US for the salary, and extremely few US developers move to the EU. Draw your own conclusions.
- mola 4y agoAn EU eng knows that if shit hits the fan, she can go back to Europe and have live well. So why not earn some extra cash in the US. An American doesn't have that privilege.
- refurb 4y agoI’ll give you an example. The delta in wages from my home country to the US, after taxes, could pay for private insurance for 5 families.
- buzzerbetrayed 4y agoThis is just ignorant. Nobody with a $250k salary at a tech company in the US is paying any meaningful amount to health care. It is covered by insurance that their work provides.
- rbanffy 4y agoI often describe the US as the richest (and most well armed) underdeveloped country. It's unfair, as all short takes are, and it saddens me to see my friends who live there, who are at no fault for the mess they are in, suffer. I fear the coming mid-terms will only make things worse.
- MandieD 4y agoExtra-urban (outside of the big cities) Texas feels increasingly feudal every time I visit; maybe it’s because I’ve spent an increasing amount of my life in comparatively egalitarian Germany so it’s easier to see than when I was embedded in it.
- mola 4y agoYeah, but SF is swamped with homeless ppl. Yay for all those devs earning a lot while living in dystopia. If I can earn less but be confident that I won't go broke because of an unfortunate events. And that the system is humane, and tries to find a balance between capitalism and humanism, I'll take that any day. US wealth is a joke.
- drstewart 4y agoI love when Europeans repeat Fox News talking points. Really shows how "progressive" they really are.
- disgruntledphd2 4y agoHave you been to SF? I spent a bunch of time there for five years between 2013 and 2018 and the homeless problem got worse every time I visited. It's really bad, and I live in a place that has lots of homeless people.
- lawn 4y agoMore importantly the US has far more inequality. Developers are already very well off no matter what country they live in, and I'd wager that "normal" people in the US are not far wealthier than people in Nordic countries for instance.