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Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

wsj.com

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Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#21

Post by caldarons »

ahtihn wrote: post #10
meszmate wrote: post #6

Europe gets romanticized way too much. Healthcare often means months of waiting and very hit-or-miss doctors. Bureaucracy is worse, salaries are lower, and there are plenty of stupid laws and corruption too. It is probably better if you value slower life, more vacation, and working less. But it is not some obvious upgrade over the U.S. Just a different set of problems. (I'm hungarian)

My experience in Europe is that healthcare is expensive but efficient, bureaucracy is fine and salaries are very high. Guess which country I live in. Point is "Europe" is way too diverse to generalize like that.

this feels like it would be true only in scandinavian country, switzerland or luxembourg

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#22

Post by dgellow »

meszmate wrote: post #6

Europe gets romanticized way too much. Healthcare often means months of waiting and very hit-or-miss doctors. Bureaucracy is worse, salaries are lower, and there are plenty of stupid laws and corruption too. It is probably better if you value slower life, more vacation, and working less. But it is not some obvious upgrade over the U.S. Just a different set of problems. (I'm hungarian)

To add some nuances, as someone living in Germany, it’s correct you might have to wait months for a medical appointment, but not for emergencies. Psychiatrists, psychotherapists are generally overbooked and you likely have to wait 3-6 months (sometimes more), which isn’t great if you are in a bad place. However if we are talking about breaking something, you can get everything happening quickly and efficiently.

Personal anecdotes:

I had to wait 6+ months to get an actual diagnostic when I had a pretty bad depressive episode. Everybody around me shares that same experience. The eventual diagnostic (adhd with high anxiety) didn’t cost me anything. And I pay 15€ every 3 months or so for my meds.

When I got a lumbar disc herniation that required urgent medical intervention I got brought to a hospital immediately, got MRI scans, multiple days in hospital with an assigned physiotherapist, bunch of prescribed medication. Everything was done extremely way quickly. The whole thing, including the ambulance, drugs they injected to be able to move me, scans, hospital bed, crutches, and medication cost me around 40€. And something like 30€ for the month of physiotherapy that followed.

I have a high incomes and am self-employed so pay a bit more than 900€ a month for the public health insurance, which is the maximum here (the fact we have a cap instead of a pure percentage of income doesn’t make any sense to me, I should be paying way more). Insurances manage everything automatically.

Agreed that German doctors are really hit or miss, though that has been the case everywhere I lived

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#23

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mahirsaid wrote: post #7
hellosputnik wrote: post #3

Maybe I'm becoming (or already cynical), but I'm increasingly tired of the genre of posts/reels/TikToks where someone moves to Vietnam, Portugal, Thailand, Mexico, etc. and comes back with profound observations about how "people there really know how to live" and how life is simply better there. A lot of "I've discovered a better way of life abroad" stories seem to quietly assume continued access to US wages, US asse…

regardless if you hate hearing them promoting their experiences or not, it's still true. People want to have fun and live happy not worry about school shooting, healthcare costs, living standards. I watched a video of a teacher that moved from Canada to China. He explained how much him and his family love it there, after 14 years he moved again to Singapore and loves it there just a little better than China. it is NO…

I loved china but eventually had to come back due to mostly air quality and some career issues. I’m back in my favorite American city at least, but having spent 11 years out (2 in Switzerland and 9 in china), I feel anxious (and I came back just in time for Trump 1, ugh).

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#24

Post by schreiaj »

TheCleric wrote: post #9
meszmate wrote: post #6

Europe gets romanticized way too much. Healthcare often means months of waiting and very hit-or-miss doctors. Bureaucracy is worse, salaries are lower, and there are plenty of stupid laws and corruption too. It is probably better if you value slower life, more vacation, and working less. But it is not some obvious upgrade over the U.S. Just a different set of problems. (I'm hungarian)

I would take healthcare I have to wait a bit for over healthcare that could cripple me financially thanks.

Good news, in the US you don't need to choose... and by need, I mean you probably get both.

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#25

Post by dwroberts »

meszmate wrote: post #6

Europe gets romanticized way too much. Healthcare often means months of waiting and very hit-or-miss doctors. Bureaucracy is worse, salaries are lower, and there are plenty of stupid laws and corruption too. It is probably better if you value slower life, more vacation, and working less. But it is not some obvious upgrade over the U.S. Just a different set of problems. (I'm hungarian)

I imagine a lot of people are happy to just have access to medical care that doesn’t bankrupt them to be honest. Especially if they have children with medical conditions, or chronic conditions of their own etc.

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#26

Post by mahirsaid »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #23
mahirsaid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

regardless if you hate hearing them promoting their experiences or not, it's still true. People want to have fun and live happy not worry about school shooting, healthcare costs, living standards. I watched a video of a teacher that moved from Canada to China. He explained how much him and his family love it there, after 14 years he moved again to Singapore and loves it there just a little better than China. it is NO…

I loved china but eventually had to come back due to mostly air quality and some career issues. I’m back in my favorite American city at least, but having spent 11 years out (2 in Switzerland and 9 in china), I feel anxious (and I came back just in time for Trump 1, ugh).

Again i wish more people did what you did and experience life outside of their norm. Indeed it's not for everyone but the point stands. You made the choice to come back after experiencing something else for a while.

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#27

Post by diogocp »

aemoron wrote: post #14

I was lucky enough to visit the US before Trump's 1st term back in 2015. I even considered working there. Sure, the customs and TSA were uncomfortable experiences, but that's nothing compared to what my dual-citizenship colleague had on a recent trip. They were taken into a backroom for questioning at Houston airport for hours with no explanation and ultimately let go with no apologies, nothing. The "crime" was using…

> it shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1185#b

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#29

Post by porknbeans00 »

hellosputnik wrote: post #3

Maybe I'm becoming (or already cynical), but I'm increasingly tired of the genre of posts/reels/TikToks where someone moves to Vietnam, Portugal, Thailand, Mexico, etc. and comes back with profound observations about how "people there really know how to live" and how life is simply better there. A lot of "I've discovered a better way of life abroad" stories seem to quietly assume continued access to US wages, US asse…

[flagged]

Re: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

#30

Post by metalman »

Lots of americans and others, show up here in Nova Scotia (and other places) and try and settle down, many are what I call "lifestyle refugees", and are often well off but traumatised by something or the other, but as the merry pranksters say, "wherever you go, there you are", then there are the "helpers" who are bringing some sort of idea that nobody is unaware of, another category is the wealthy , self centered, city type moving to a rural area and inevitibly trying to claim a shared right of way, or "common land" as there own, and loosing there fluffy minds when they are told that they cant even sue somebody, happens like clockwork. Luckily there are also a good number of people who move for love, or true oportunity, or just to be in a quieter place, and they do just fine, and plenty of multigenerational dual citizenship familys, who move back and forth
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