Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 474 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#131

Post by mbg721 »

Oddskar wrote: post #119
cletus wrote: post #66

So I'm Australian but I also lived in Europe for 4 years and I'm currently in my 12th year in the US so I feel like I can add something to this. I moved to the US because the earning potential as a software engineer is simply so much higher than anywhere else, it's ridiculous. Compared to Australia in particular where up until 2003 or so the standard of living was exceedingly high. But now the cost of living in Austr…

> (..) if you took a vacation. it was actually expected. It goes even further than this. It’s a problem for the employer if the employer doesn’t use their vacation time.

This is most true in financial roles, where a consecutive week off gives the employer enough time to demonstrate there's no embezzlement happening.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#132

Post by boffinAudio »

goodguyamericun wrote: post #62
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

To be fair, if I lived in la, I'd hate America too.

LA was home base but I worked and visited most of the USA's states, and I just find American classism to be .. distasteful. And also, endemic no matter where you go.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#133

Post by abofh »

Won't discuss publicly, but I'd say : worth doing, but leave your stuff in storage for two years -- the appliances won't work here anyhow.

Seek out communities (meetup, etc), and if you're doing it for a startup, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

Pm for story time, but basically, it's an adventure, and one that will be of (mostly) your own making

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#134

Post by blunte »

Netherlands, 10 years now. Actually ready to move on… Portugal, Malta, Thailand, perhaps spending 1-6 months at a time in a given location.

Gave up my car and driving frequently. Fantabulous gift of freedom not having to deal with traffic and car management. Public transport is a gift, and taxis or very short term car rental programs are a fine fallback.

Gave up some income as salaries are annoying much lower and taxes are much higher. But quality of life, depending on where you go, is much higher.

Get rid of as much of your possessions as you can. You can re-buy what you really need, and with more great activities available (non-COVID times) you spend less time at home needing stuff. Also apartments are smaller, so you don’t want to be crowded with stuff.

My first 5 years were in Amsterdam area, and it’s really fun. So many great social options, including for nerds (lots of tech meetups, often with free pizza and beer :) ). Plenty of bars and clubs and restaurants. Most restaurants are underwhelming and overpriced, so that’s not the attraction… but it provides social options.

If you’re American, it’s incredibly easy to set up residence in Netherlands based on the DAFT agreement. Look it up.

Portugal and Malta have visa programs for freelancers and people who can show that they have reliable income from outside sources. Lisbon is pretty great with much better food on average than Amsterdam. And much better climate.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#135

Post by starik36 »

ascari wrote: post #77
starik36 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> brink of civil war I think that might be overstated. > NHS is absolutely amazing I've read and heard that for a non-emergency appointments, the wait could sometimes be months. Is that also overstated?

I moved to UK from Europe and I wouldn’t really say NHS is convenient. It is universal healthcare and you are not facing a bankruptcy most of the time in case of a health condition. Preventative and diagnosis treatments are so slow. In case I need to see a GP, i must try reaching them at 8ish in the morning otherwise they will simply ignore you and tell, call tomorrow.

Are you able to make an appointment for a specific date or you actually have to call everyday to see if there are open slots?

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#136

Post by rory »

syki wrote: post #96
rory wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s very hard to live where you can walk to a grocery store. Very hard seems like an exaggeration. More expensive, maybe, but millions of low-income people also do it. I didn't have a car for most of my twenties, and the majority of my social group didn't either. Living in a more spread out area of the US is a choice-- one that comes with benefits, but still a choice.

I’ve lived in Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, and Indiana and visited over 40 states. Except in a few places my experience is that most people don’t live within walking distance of a car. Well, let me be more precise. Those who do live within walking distance to a grocery store tend to not have a pleasant enough or safe enough route to walk there to do so on a regular basis. Traversing a giant parking lot with a bunch of…

Yeah my comment only really applies if you can choose the region of the country you live in. I don't really know what it's like in e.g. Indiana, so I trust your judgement on it.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#137

Post by boffinAudio »

nexuist wrote: post #94
boffinAudio wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

In case you didn't notice, I don't care a fig about Australia these days, but your trigger-finger reactionary response calling out China as a reason why America is 'wonderful' is definitely something I expect from Americans. And, frankly, its boring and tiresome. As is the expectation that anyone with a world view not derived from the idiot box would be impressed by America's war budget. You should be ashamed of what your country does with those billions, yo. Its one of the reasons your country is such a shithole not only for those who live there - but those who are on the other end of the complex machinery that starts with a kid dropping bombs on strangers on the other side of the world, from a nondescript office in an Arizona strip mall ..

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#138

Post by oaiey »

teakettle42 wrote: post #89
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

Vienna is one of the nicest and wealthiest cities in Europe. LA is a car-centric sprawling cesspool. Even for the US, it’s uniquely terrible. If you’d moved to some of the less desirable locations in Europe, you’d probably find them to be a shithole, too. Your lack of perspective (“how much of a shithole the USA really is”) is something I’d only expect from someone half your age on their first backpacking tour of Eur…

I come from a normal German city, nothing fancy, and have been overall roughly a year in the US. Boston, Princeton, Philadelphia, NY state. I am wealthy, privileged and was guided safely

I can absolutely confirm the sentiment of the OP, not coming from worst to best but coming from mid range to mid range. Europe has the better package. The amount of homeless, the amount of wasted landscape, the amount of beton, the car dependency, the disgusting public transport, the hotels, the water, ... I can rant for an hour. I love Americans, i deeply respect a lot what they did and do but life quality measured in every day quality ... Do not get me started on that.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#139

Post by AitchEmArsey »

sbarre wrote: post #120
teakettle42 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vienna is one of the nicest and wealthiest cities in Europe. LA is a car-centric sprawling cesspool. Even for the US, it’s uniquely terrible. If you’d moved to some of the less desirable locations in Europe, you’d probably find them to be a shithole, too. Your lack of perspective (“how much of a shithole the USA really is”) is something I’d only expect from someone half your age on their first backpacking tour of Eur…

Geez someone hit a nerve, eh? I'm a Canadian and I've travelled most of Europe, and most of the US (among other parts of the world). The simple fact that the US doesn't have universal healthcare, and refuses to do anything real about it, or other endemic self-inflicted issues like gun violence - problems the rest of the modern world solved long ago! - kinda puts you at the bottom of the list of modern/developed count…

> eh?

> I'm a Canadian

Presented without comment.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#140

Post by _moof »

teakettle42 wrote: post #89
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

Vienna is one of the nicest and wealthiest cities in Europe. LA is a car-centric sprawling cesspool. Even for the US, it’s uniquely terrible. If you’d moved to some of the less desirable locations in Europe, you’d probably find them to be a shithole, too. Your lack of perspective (“how much of a shithole the USA really is”) is something I’d only expect from someone half your age on their first backpacking tour of Eur…

This is getting heated so let's all take about 20% off there, buds, eh? That being said I've lived all over the US and traveled all over the world, and yes, LA is particularly bad, but in general I agree with OP.
Post reply on HN