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Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#181

Post by programmer_dude »

joeman1000 wrote: post #175

Australia. My best advice is to go somewhere where your life is worth lots of money. I lived in Ukraine for 2 years and toured around EU for part of that time. My life in Ukraine was worth the price of bribing a cop. Someone is caught after running me over? In the cynical case they’re free for $100. In Australia if someone hits me and is caught, they’re fucked. This is especially important for your wife and son. Put…

> In Australia if someone hits me and is caught, they’re fucked.

Only if you are white. Your life is worthless if you aren't.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#182

Post by Mandatum »

isubasinghe wrote: post #112

Come down to Australia. The tech scene is just CRUD apps but quality of life is pretty amazing. Comparable to Switzerland for median income people imo, Switzerland is still better if you are poor but don't think that applies here, since you alone on a Software Eng would put your family to above average income. Relatively low tax (caps off at 30% for most people if/when the new tax legislation goes through, perhaps no…

Wages are stagnating. I expect they won't keep up with inflation. But alas, it's not a bad place to bunker down during a recession.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#183

Post by BerislavLopac »

oumua_don17 wrote: post #171
rich_sasha wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that's really hard to compare when looking at taxes is the quality of public services you get. UK has not low taxes by any measure, but certainly lower than eg Germany, at 200k you're looking at effective tax rate of about 35-40% all in. But state schools are a lottery and shut down for 13 weeks a year. Healthcare is good if you can get seen but otherwise it's the private health insurance. Public transport…

In UK, can you please tell me how at 200K pounds, the taxes can come down only to 35-40% especially at 125K or above, the 60% tax trap kicks in. [1] If you can specify any tax saving tips or refer to some consultant, I will be grateful. Really the only way in UK is to put in a large part of your earnings into pension contributions which effectively makes it out of bounds till 55 or 57 from 2028 onwards, which means e…

What 60% trap is that? The linked page looks very suspicious and doesn't offer much information.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#184

Post by t6jvcereio »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #138
RomanPushkin wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no freedom in Australia, the government is doing whatever they want to people. Look at how they handled COVID: rolled out restrictions, punishing their own citizen to a degree any "normal" country/government wouldn't do, etc.

Street arrests for imprisonment in quarantine will take a while for me to shake from my memories of AUS.

Well, if something is deemed to be a law, I'd rather live in a place that enforces them, than not. In my view, you're making Australia look good to me.

If you want a gov that doesn't do anything to stop criminals you should come to Chicago.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#185

Post by joeman1000 »

programmer_dude wrote: post #181
joeman1000 wrote: post #175

Australia. My best advice is to go somewhere where your life is worth lots of money. I lived in Ukraine for 2 years and toured around EU for part of that time. My life in Ukraine was worth the price of bribing a cop. Someone is caught after running me over? In the cynical case they’re free for $100. In Australia if someone hits me and is caught, they’re fucked. This is especially important for your wife and son. Put…

> In Australia if someone hits me and is caught, they’re fucked. Only if you are white. Your life is worthless if you aren't.

Nice narrative, but no. The law applies equally to everyone.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#186

Post by grumpitron »

jaclaz wrote: post #97
lormayna wrote: post #20

What about Israel? The tech scene is amazing, the weather is great and the taxes are lower than in Germany ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Israel ). Unless if you don't have Jewish roots, it can be hard to get a VISA. For quality of life, I would like to suggest Italy, but the salary are terrible low and the taxes are high. Moreover, the probable new government, will make immigration way more complex.

>Moreover, the probable new government, will make immigration way more complex. Immigration from Germany? Both Italy and Germany are countries in the EU, hadn't you noticed.

I believe you need Italian ancestry to become an Italian citizen. It's a piece of immigration and not the whole pie, but could've been the intention.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#188

Post by Mikeb85 »

> Our main goal is quality of life for all of us, so it should be a country w/o cold winters, possibly an island close to the equator.

Australia, Barbados, Bahamas, Cyprus.

Honestly though, you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere as livable as Germany.

The US and Canada are less safe with more violence. Both have worse healthcare and education. The US is attractive income-wise but visas tough to get. Canada is extremely unaffordable. Most EU countries offer similar livability but you might not be able to get by on just English or German. It's a nearly impossible criteria considering how rich, safe and affordable Germany is...

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#189

Post by FastEatSlow »

matus_congrady wrote: post #66

I would definitely suggest Prague, Czech Republic. The city is beautiful. Climate is great. Low taxation (especially if you're self-employed). Cost of living is way better than in Germany. Quality of food, healthcare and public services is also very good. Also, if you don't like the leftist policies, you'll love Czech Republic.

I second this, primarily because I was chuckling the entire time there. Czech is quite funny to Polish speakers [1].

[1] http://wiedza-jest-super.blogspot.com/2018/10/smieszne-czesk...

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#190

Post by t6jvcereio »

ParksNet wrote: post #157
bartminton wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting suggestion. I've been to Sofia once in 2006. The city did not make a very good impression back then, but I am sure, the situation changed a lot. Hopefully to the better. I will definitely look into it, since we do not exclude eastern Europe from our list. Thanks for the suggestion.

Bulgaria is overall best in Europe, but the language is difficult (Cyrillic) and international English schools are very expensive.

oOoOO Cyrillic, truly and insurmountable challenge.
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