411–420 of 474 posts
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I think the key is: paid vacation days.
You still get paid for unlimited vacation days.
I'm just outside London, moved here to marry my English wife from Vegas. I work part time doing basic IT for a US law firm due to health issues after heart surgery, and Yankee dollars are worth jack shit here - I'm not making serious tech industry money, but over here it's barely enough to survive on. Housing is always smaller than you'd get in (at least the western) US for the same price, and I'd bet that's true pre…
> Despite its reputation, I find that Europe is far more provincial than the US when it comes to food That might be an external reputation, but it wouldn't be one that Europeans would have. People forget that Europe isn't a country, but a collection of different countries, all with long histories, and long histories means a lot of regional differences even _within_ countries. > It is colder in most of Europe than the…
> That might be an external reputation, but it wouldn't be one that Europeans would have. People forget that Europe isn't a country, but a collection of different countries, all with long histories, and long histories means a lot of regional differences even _within_ countries.
yes and no. You can absolutely notice that here in the south of Germany you simply don't get a few things that are from the north, or from the very close-by Austria, and I mean that in a way that you wouldn't believe North California is different than South California. Like.. whole restaurant chains that are virtually unknown on either side of the imaginary barrier, or stuff you can get in a supermarket or bakery. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I can imagine the parent meant - it may just be 500km in the same country and it's completely different.
Moved from Seattle to Munich, Germany a few years ago. Biggest sacrifices: Pay is kind of a huge one. There are very few companies (even global ones) that pay the same in Europe as they do in the US. If I moved back to the US with my current company, I would get a ~70k/year increase in salary. Social situation is the other big one. It's hard to ever feel like you totally fit in as an expat. Biggest gains: Quality of…
When you consider all the add ons like healthcare, living costs, exchange rate, etc, the salary differences are no longer that off. In a calculation i did once with some co worker it ended up with a. $10k difference. And considering that the US culture is consume driven, that money is gone in seconds for crap.
And frankly, the $70k/year thing doesn't even count the increased bonus ranges or increased raises you get from that base salary increase.
"Essentially no gun violence"* *If you ignore wide swaths of the 20th century, during which certain disarmed Dutch citizens were systematically sent to be executed. Which by the way, happened within plus or minus 1 expected lifetime of your future children.
Unless we foolishly enter a time machine, this is irrelevant.
I don't think the holocaust is "irrelevant." When you stop believing it can happen again (which apparently you've done), you lose the defenses to keep it from happening again. I'm very glad my minority kid has means to self defense if people ever choose to attack her perceived ethnic group. Also, there are plenty of murders in Netherlands, too. Although not as many (but then again, stay away from gangs and a few large cities in US, and you'll probably find you're far from any non-lottery-ticket risk of murder).
- Our kids won't ever have the internal debate about reproductive rights: birth control will be a norm and abortions will be available.
Neither will ours, many US states allow this.
- We'll stay healthy more easily with healthier food and a more active, less car-dependent lifestyle.
Healthy food is widely available in US and you can live with just a bicycle in places like Chicago or even in rural areas if you stay fit.
- Our lives won't revolve around our jobs, we'll be able to be more present for our kids.
I have this same thing in US.
- We won't have to solve all of our problems (education, health care, housing) with huge piles of money, driving us to work harder and take jobs that exploit others just so we can stay ahead.
My family makes maybe 75th percentile at best in our city (and I'm guessing you will too if you're internationally mobile). If you live away from the coasts that is plenty for those, like in Midwest. Is that huge piles of money?
- Our kids will probably not have to spend a ton of money or time taking care of us when we're old.
In US kids are not deemed slave to their parents, they can do as they wish after reaching adulthood.
- Our kids will grow up in a more multicultural environment, hopefully giving them a broader view of humanity.
I live in one of the most multicultural nations in the world. The city I live in, in fact, I am a minority as a white European descent person. Will Europeans be minority where you live in Netherlands?
Netherlands sounds like a great place. I'm sure it'd be fun to live there. But the reasons you give make no sense, you can achieve all your goals in America and many other nations. I think you're just culturally, ideologically, or politically interested in Netherlands. Which is a great reason to go of course.
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Unless we foolishly enter a time machine, this is irrelevant.
>Unless we foolishly enter a time machine, this is irrelevant. I don't think the holocaust is "irrelevant." When you stop believing it can happen again (which apparently you've done), you lose the defenses to keep it from happening again. I'm very glad my minority kid has means to self defense if people ever choose to attack her perceived ethnic group. Also, there are plenty of murders in Netherlands, too. Although n…
The rest of your comment feels like it's from the perspective of someone who's not tried these lifestyles, or is naive to their costs. Cycling in the US is super dangerous. Living in the Midwest subjects you to intense levels of religiosity, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and a thorough lack of multiculturalism. Obviously kids aren't obligated to take care of their parents, but we don't want to force them into a system of bad choices. A nation without equal access to reproductive freedom teaches each of its citizens that women do not have a fundamental right to control their bodies.
It is true it's possible to carve out the kind of life we want here, or perhaps other non-EU countries. We don't know if we'll stay in NL past a year or two. But it's really about what kind of society we want to live in and what values we want our kids to absorb. And yeah, the US really just isn't on that list.
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If you are challenging my view as being selective I think that could be fair (if provided some statistics to combat my finger in the air analysis). I live in the UK which (was) one of the more developed members of the EU, so that probably does bias my view, and I have not visited the poorest members of the EU. Even with this caveat, there is a difference in principle that I believe distinguishes the way of life for t…
Public schools and libraries are socialistic tools now? They were a thing before Marx has even dreamt about socialism. Since you are from one of more developed ex EU member state, you could surely afford to travel to an ex communist EU member state to see for yourself (go outside of capitals) what poverty in EU looks like.
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> 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 do love living in New Orleans, either this or Brooklyn are the only real cities for me here. I need to be able to walk to a grocery store. I'm privileged to have lived here for 6 years, and the only reason I recently got an old truck, was to evacuate in case of a hurricane, and we didn't even evacuate during ida. The sidewalks are torn to shit, the streets are full of holes. I'm quite certain that the streets are n…
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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 am an immigrant from Albania. American bombs ended the Kosovo genocide. I have reasons to be grateful for this military and I can be upset and disappointed in it at the same time. 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 whe…
Didn't seem to help the Ukraine at all last time around. :/
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> The EU is no utopia, but standards of living, environment and way of life is pretty good for the "not-wealthy". Romania and Bulgaria are part of the EU. Some 25-30 million people in total. Do you think the standards of living are "pretty good" for the non-wealthy Bulgarians?
If you are challenging my view as being selective I think that could be fair (if provided some statistics to combat my finger in the air analysis). I live in the UK which (was) one of the more developed members of the EU, so that probably does bias my view, and I have not visited the poorest members of the EU. Even with this caveat, there is a difference in principle that I believe distinguishes the way of life for t…