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

> "politics, social life, social net" > I think it will be hard to recommend depending on your exact positions on these.

We're both educated and open towards a liberal, future oriented society. Same goes for paying taxes, since the "overall standards" in Germany are still very high. Nevertheless, the last 10 years spit society, family and friends. Hardly any healthy discussion culture, you're either on the one or the other side, no matter which topic - immigration, taxation, climate effects and wheather change ... you name it. We travel a lot and realized, these topics are discussed in many other countries too, but in Germany it recently came to a point, where government, news and media and even people and parties you trusted your whole life made more and more just short-sighted and dangerous decisions. You can ignore all of those for a long time, sell your TV set, don't read newspapers, stop using Twitter and Facebook. But the moment you witness, that your hard earned and very high taxes are spent on everything but meaningful things, it's hard to stand it no more. We both look for peace of mind and quality of living - which to us especially means escaping crazy black/white discussions, which completely omit all tones of gray. Don't know, whether this makes any sense. But thank you for your thoughts.

Having moved from germany to canada (Vancouver BC) in 2017, I can tell you that "quality of life" is highly subjective, and a lot of things in germany work far better than it seems - but you will only notice it if you have anything to compare against.

E.g. [online] shopping and stock availability is so much better in germany, and you only notice what a privilege it is to get everything you need in 1 day once it's taken away from you. Groceries are super cheap in germany compared to canada. Cellphone and ISP service and pricing is often looked down upon in germany, but still also better than lots of other places. [Free] eduction is also good.

Housing in Berlin in 200k should be as comfortable as in Vancouver on 400k and new building construction quality is good. But sure - there will be tons of other places on this planet where housing is cheaper.

Then there's considerations about healthcare (where germany is probably neither at the top end nor the bottom end of the spectrum).

And of course also about long term job perspectives. While you might be able to find a remote job now, it could be much harder to maintain it or look for future opportunities in some locations than in others. Being in a country with a big tech industry or at least in the same timezone will help retaining opportunities.

Malaysia or Singapore (island on the equator).

Spain Balearics or Canary Islands.

You touch a number of very important points here. Thanks for that. We're aware of the fact, that the overall situation in many countries in the world is much, much worse. So it's kind of a luxury problem. What is actually a challenge, is that I work as a freelancer for 20 years now and still have to go a long way to secure my private pension. I once calculated my personal "real" tax rate in Germany, and ended up at around 71%. Especially due to the fact, that we both are in the highest income tax band but also due to the fact that there are taxes on close to everything. But since we're not really consume oriented, we're fine with lower income, IF we find a place, where life is just more relaxed. Thank you for your thoughts.

Just move out of that shithole berlin and than reevaluate. Join SAP and move to waldorf for example.