241–250 of 474 posts
I did the opposite and found the us much better. Pay and opportunities are infinitely better, people are friendlier, having a car is much easier and more convenient.
> Pay and opportunities are infinitely better ...if you're lucky enough to be among the privileged.
US Southeast -> New York -> London London driving is still necessary if you want to do anything out of town. It's super spread out and despite the Tube being reliable, it doesn't really run at night. London is so huge it's unlikely your friends will live much less than an hour away from you. The roads are tiny and civil engineering here post-dates most of the construction so it's mayhem compared to driving in the US.…
Italian Pizza in London is better than in all of the US maybe bar Manhattan (unless you want deep-dish "pizza"). Same for all Asian food from Indian/Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese. You are right for Mexican food though.
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> You won't be buying million-dollar mansions on a European programmers salary You won't be buying any decent apartment/house unless you move outside of city, buy a car and let go of all the benefits that comes with living in a European city.
Not true at all. I know plenty of people that live in nice houses and apartments in major European cities.
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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 wha…
I did not say America is wonderful. I don't know why you even quoted that word, when it did not appear in my post. I claimed American taxpayers protect Australia's sovereignty. Obviously your state can do better things with its budget when its defense is bankrolled by someone else. I do not care where you live, your quality of life would plummet if the prospect of being invaded by Russia or China was a real one, a prospect you are protected from through American military supremacy. See Ukraine.
One of the best decision in my life.
GAINED: Took advantage of having social network in both ecosystem. I went from engineer to director and growing office to 80 FTE. Being able to relocate can boost your career by many years and I was able to mix best of both worlds.
I like walkable and bike-able cities. High quality of food. Real estate prices and quality is so much better as well opportunity for geo-arbitrage. Plenty of green comparing to plagued by drought and fires California. I do not experience homeless people, do not see people taking drugs or car break-ins as in SG.
I feel also I add way more to ecosystem and helped way more people along the way.
WHAT I SACRIFED: California nature is unbelievable good and diverse. What in Europe will take long trips, in California you got it all in driving distance. Startup ecosystem and concentration of talent was top-notch pre-covid. I love forward thinking and level of intellectual debates. Customer service is way better as well as Mexican food.
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The Ruhrgebiet is a shithole. But then again, so is Florida. As is North Dakota and most of Utah. Arizona is pretty nice, but I probably think that only because of my Australian skin. The USA is a huge shithole, and if you don't understand why anyone would think that, I have a bridge to sell you .. under which live 12 families, kids and all, who couldn't pay their medical bills after Mom/Grandpa died of cancer. It is…
I've lived in the US my whole life, I've been to LA once for a wedding, and I really don't see a single similarity between what's going on in LA and what's going on where I live (Northwest Arkansas). My air is clean, my commutes are traffic free, the people here generally suck, and I have access to world class... everything, if I want it (well, maybe not transportation, but my car is nice, German even!, and I can get…
As an outsider, this looks like the biggest problem in the US. The EU is no utopia, but standards of living, environment and way of life is pretty good for the "not-wealthy". In the US, it looks like you can also have a pretty damn good standard of living with a nice environment... but only if you are in the fairly wealthy minority. Which perhaps explains why there is such a focus on unobtainable "prosperity", to make it to the "other side".
Even if I can afford it, that concept of society doesn't appeal to me at all, it feels pseudo-elitist based on something that is mostly dictated by random opportunity - sorry if that sounds horrible.
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What do you mean by integrate? As in, it's harder to find friends? Or that there's cultural issues barring you from being as close friends as you would someone from the U.S.?
I (Mexican, with Mexican wife) lived in Germany for 4 years while doing research in a Leibniz Institute. At some point my wife and I talked with a German colleague about how difficult it was for us to make acquaintances or friends while living there. This colleague mentioned that it was the same for her, who was German but from a different part of Germany (like, we were in the East part of Germany and she was from th…
I knocked over a beggar’s drink and he yelled, and I was apologizing (like in a “my bad, bro”) and was going to give him a few euro coins, and my friends were pulling me away like this was the most absurd thing!
He wasn't dangerous and was very glad I stopped. Even if it was a ploy by always having a drink on the sidewalk to be knocked over, I was going to use the change on drugs too and still would because i had more change.
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The Ruhrgebiet is a shithole. But then again, so is Florida. As is North Dakota and most of Utah. Arizona is pretty nice, but I probably think that only because of my Australian skin. The USA is a huge shithole, and if you don't understand why anyone would think that, I have a bridge to sell you .. under which live 12 families, kids and all, who couldn't pay their medical bills after Mom/Grandpa died of cancer. It is…
Florida is a shithole? You spend too much time on the internet. Florida man is a literal meme that came about because of laws that all state collected data should be publicly available causing the media to get most of its fun crime stories from the very large population there. You realize that a large portion of the richest Americans chose to move there for their retirement? Very large swaths of southern Florida cont…
I'm convinced that other states and countries try to smear Florida because they're terrified what would happen if they themselves had the bravery to commit to Florida's level of governmental transparency.
https://uwf.edu/go/legal-and-consumer-info/florida-sunshine-...
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One thing expats definitely have to do is readjust their expectations about cost of living and relative expenses. While the payroll for your average European tech guy is nowhere near the stellar heights of the SV bro's, the buying power in Europe is at a level higher than you might expect. Whereas, for a single night out in SoCal I'd spend $100 - $150, dinner movie and drinks - here in Vienna I'd get through just as…
> You won't be buying million-dollar mansions on a European programmers salary You won't be buying any decent apartment/house unless you move outside of city, buy a car and let go of all the benefits that comes with living in a European city.
We have a housing crisis also here in Europe.
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Being able to go on a road trip and end up in a different culture sounds awesome. I do that often in California, but there are only so many places you can go.
I absolutely love taking trips around the Balkans, and have been very lucky to have gotten quite familiar with Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo in my recent travels. In a matter of hours, the universal constants (language, food, culture) have been replaced, and there are just so, so many beautiful things to discover in these countries. Words to blow ones minds, history that brings tears with a few simple…
Did you go visit Srebrenica when you were there?