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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?

#213
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

If you are an EU citizen, you can live in Italy without any kind of visa. And also the requirements to get italian citizenship are shorter.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not a concern considering OP is European, he can move wherever he wants inside the union. What's happened if an Italexit will happens?

If you know Italian politics, you know it won't happen. None of the future candidates has the standing to pull something like this off, without considering that - outside Europe - Italy has nowhere else to go at the moment. Even the popular sentiment is not there as we're already past our no-EU years and even then it was an empty electoral promise.

I am italian :) Do you remember the very first phase of yellow-green government? They had choose as economy minister one crazy old man that already had prepared a plan to exit from euro in one weekend. Luckily for us, the president Mattarella stopped it.

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Actually we're not complaining about our high tax rates. It's just that we do not benefit from the state no more. As someone running my own business since 1999 and work as a freelancer, I never paid into the german social net. So I have no expectations there, have a private health insurance, take care for my pension by saving and investing and cover most risks with private insurance. That's fine, because…

>In Germany it's high taxes and bad conditions ... at least for us. You're well off, you're earning a lot, you're privileged enough to be able to travel often and to a lot of places, some quite far away. You're in position where you can basically freely choose where to live next, by the sound of it. One of the foundations of Germany is the principle of solidarity and that owning property bears social responsibility.…

While I agree with you on a fundamental level, this social contract is currently in the process of being eroded. A household with 60k gross income is part of the top 20% in terms of income. In a lot of parts in Germany today, this is insufficient to accumulate property if you want to have kids.

Pensioners are taking an ever bigger cut of the cake, both due to their rising numbers, but also relatively speaking. As a relatively young person with a good salary, it becomes ever more attractive to just emigrate, and this will lead to a pretty bad cycle Germany is ill-prepared to deal with.

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

#216

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.

If you had to quarantine because you traveled overseas and you broke the law by not doing so, that should have been enforced.

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

#217

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…

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.

"freedom" is entirely subjective though, ultimately the majority of Australians were okay with quarantine (including myself), when it became useless and unpopular in Victoria, all those rules were taken away. I'd bet the current Victorian government gets reelected in November.

May I ask what freedom do you think Australia lacks at the moment?

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

#218

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…

Yeah, good luck getting a work visa in Australia... Even if you get it, it costs a fortune and takes ages. It's just not worth even trying, unless you have a _very_ specific reason to do so.

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

#219
post #218

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…

Yeah, good luck getting a work visa in Australia... Even if you get it, it costs a fortune and takes ages. It's just not worth even trying, unless you have a _very_ specific reason to do so.

oof I had no idea it was that difficult, I am a citizen so never had to go through the process.

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to put this in context Australia had an election eight weeks ago in which the government was changed. There's any number of reasons for the outcome of the election but this suggests that the governments in Australia are not free to do whatever they want.

It’s like switching toothpaste brands. The illusion of choice.

Not really there were anti lockdown parties, but they didn't get much votes.

Australia has preferential voting so you aren't really throwing away your vote if you vote for these niche parties.

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