4 ms·

> As always in Europe you either want to be an ultra-rich landowning aristocrat (little to no property tax, inheritance tax, etc.) or very poor/unemployed (e.g.

by kypro 4y ago

> As always in Europe you either want to be an ultra-rich landowning aristocrat (little to no property tax, inheritance tax, etc.) or very poor/unemployed (e.g. a refugee) so you qualify for state housing, etc. - work does not pay. I just left an inappropriately long comment saying, in effect, actually the same thing. The US isn't perfect, but if you want to work you're generally able to move up the economic ladder easier from what I've seen. High income taxes combined with consumption taxes make wealth creation via employment almost impossible.

eddsh1994 4y ago
> make wealth creation via employment almost impossible. Depends on what 'wealth' means here, but you can get a 1% salary in England in your late 20s by contracting in tech and save several grand a month. Put that in shares & buy-to-lets and you'll be very well off by 40 compared to the average person. With the lower cost of living I don't see any issues here... If that's what drives you of course.
- scarby2 4y ago
  the cost of living isn't lower though.
- iExploder 4y ago
  used to be like that 20 years ago, maybe still doable in todays economy but the bar is much much higher and there are some new risks involved
Yoric 4y ago
> The US isn't perfect, but if you want to work you're generally able to move up the economic ladder easier from what I've seen. According to recent Nobel prizes in economic (Duflo and Banerjee), moving up the economic ladder has degraded so much in the US that it's currently lagging slightly behind Europe. Their study dates back to ~2018, though.