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Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

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Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#61

Post by wing-_-nuts »

jbstack wrote: post #44

I love the Netherlands and have spent a few months trying it out as a place to live. It's among my favourite places: moderate weather, friendly people, a high level of personal freedom, very high rate of English speakers, clean and modern environment, good international restaurants, lively town centres even in smaller towns, most towns have rivers / canals which make them very pleasant to walk around. I could list ma…

>Taxes are also very high. In addition to the usual income taxes, you pay a wealth tax and the threshold is very low (around 55k EUR in savings/assets) so this isn't only targeting very rich people. This makes it a pretty bad place to live if you care about investing and saving for the future.

This was a deal breaker for me as someone on the FIRE path. It's neighbor, Belgium, is much better in this respect.

Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#63

Post by toomuchtodo »

briandw wrote: post #18

And go where? Seriously I don’t know of another country that isn’t on the same authoritarian track, if not further along. If anyone has done a serious study and come up with a country that still has strong judicial independence, due process, lack of censorship and respect for private property, Id love to know

I split my time between a Midwest state and Spain. My children and family are safer when in Spain, imho. Ymmv, n=1. It is more humane to the human, and the health insurance for a family of four is ~$2k/year. There is no perfect, just good enough. I do not worry about gun violence there, I do not worry about them going without healthcare, I do not worry about their human rights being impaired, I don't worry about them as pedestrians getting harmed by careless drivers driving unnecessarily large personal vehicles on urban infrastructure hostile in pedestrians (Houston is actively removing a roundabout because their drivers are too incompetent to use it, for example). This is my success criteria, yours may be different.

Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#64

Post by ben_w »

kibwen wrote: post #25
lifeisgood99 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the boat is sinking, I wouldn't stay on.

Back in 1930s Germany, there were other boats afloat to escape to. Here in 2025, you live in a globalized world. The rats are soon to be out of ships to flee to. There's no free society in the Sol system that survives rampant and unchecked authoritarianism in the triad of the US, China, and Russia. Europe is a military vassal of the first, an economic vassal of the second, and an energy vassal of the third (though in…

> Europe is a military vassal of the first, an economic vassal of the second, and an energy vassal of the third.

The UK may be something close to a military vassal, what with its "independent" nuclear deterrant relying on US missiles, but the French deterrant is not and France is not.

Economically, we're all interdependent right now: China depends on the US and Europe, Europe depends on the US and China, the US depends on China and nad Europe. Current US policy is pushing everyone everywhere to disconnect from the US, ironically without even doing the one thing tariffs are supposed to be a tool for which is protrcting strategic domestic industry.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed the EU away from Russian energy much faster than it would otherwise have done from decarbonisation efforts. Given who the world's factory is, I'd expect a lot of our PV and wind turbine components to come from China, and even if they don't directly for the Chinese supply to substantially impact the price.

Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#67

Post by neilv »

jbstack wrote: post #44

I love the Netherlands and have spent a few months trying it out as a place to live. It's among my favourite places: moderate weather, friendly people, a high level of personal freedom, very high rate of English speakers, clean and modern environment, good international restaurants, lively town centres even in smaller towns, most towns have rivers / canals which make them very pleasant to walk around. I could list ma…

> This makes it a pretty bad place to live if you care about investing and saving for the future.

What if you plan to stay permanently? Does that change your priority for accumulating more personal wealth?

Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#69

Post by Pet_Ant »

ohm wrote: post #13
justmedep wrote: post #4

Coming from Switzerland to the US: I do not want to leave. Everything is better here… maybe not for the average person but for some individuals.

Can you give some examples?

...do you really need examples? In America, *if* you have money, everything is better than anywhere else. Maybe Dubai can compare but there are some strong trade offs.

America has the best healthcare. Not the best value, but the best healthcare. It has low taxes, lots of world class cultural institutions, and varied beautiful geography. It is the Rome of our age. Corrupt, amoral, and exploitative? Sure, but with money you can overlook that.

Re: Leaving the U.S. for the Netherlands

#70

Post by wing-_-nuts »

rib3ye wrote: post #59

The US would be better off every American did attempt to expatriate. In my own experience, I quickly saw and stared to miss the many strengths of our way of life. For the curious about which country it was, see my username.

I wouldn't say every American should try to be an expat. I think we'd be better off as a society if everyone traveled abroad more. I know most can't afford that, but I'd be totally down for a state funded 'study abroad' program for bright students. Other places have ideas we can learn from (and vice versa)
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