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As a French living in Paris and having created a company before I'm sorry but some of your points are simply not true and/or not relevant.

> $130k in the US [...] vs. $50k

Just no, a $130k salary in the US would be at least 70k€ in Paris. In others city it would probably be less but the cost of living would be much less too.

> there's even talk of actually forcing men to take paternity leave

Just because one organization (OFCE) ask for it 3 days ago doesn't make it a reality.

> even something as simple as getting business-class internet requires a SIRET number

I pay 30€/month for 1Gbits/250Mbs. If you need more than that, you're already a business and have a SIRET. Same for the phone line. I don't know about incorporation paperwork in the US but I did it alone in France and it was really not that hard. It took me a week max to get everything.

> Paris -- expensive, somewhat dirty, a dreadful public transport system

It's 73€/month, and half is paid by your employer for unlimited access to all transport in Île-de-France. Do you really find this expensive? Paris also provide the "best access to public transport in the world" according to some recent article. http://www.thelocal.fr/20161011/parisians-have-best-access-t... Yes some place are dirty but isn't that the case all over the world?

That said Paris is far from my favorite city in France. And as you said the job market is probably far less liquid than in the US because of the CDI. Even if I personally think that this is a good thing. In software development/operations there is still more jobs than applicant at least in Paris.

tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris. And better quality transport too. Again chauvinism coming out whenever anything is mentioned about France. Paris n est pas le nombril du monde.

I don't claim it's the best of the world but calling it expensive and dreadful if just not the reality. Compared to what I have experienced mostly in Europe I found it good and inexpensive.

You should mention the numerous strikes of the RER to give a full picture of the reality then. Because that's a real issue for people who want to rely ONLY on public transports in Paris.

And when it's not a strike, it's the breakdowns. This morning, my commute was one hour longer since there was no train on my line and I had to walk to another one.

Everyone's public transport system looks shabby compared to Tokyo.

For a country about to have so many elderly people, I think the elevators are hard to reach and the floors shouldn't have been made of hard shiny/slippery marble. And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting.

There's nothing in the world to complain about aside from that.

> And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting.

Because you are closer to paying the real price of the ticket than in Paris where transportation is heavily subsidized by the state. In Japan most train companies have now become fully private.

The great thing about private train companies is how many other businesses they've built in the stations. There's a near infinite number of fake-French cafes in every subway.

Meanwhile here my nearest Caltrain station has some car repair places and a mystery fondue restaurant that never seems to open. I think it's a money laundering scheme.

> I think the elevators are hard to reach

Well look at Paris' metro and its lack of elevators and escalators. Most stations have none! Good luck if you are in your seventies and your legs don't carry you anymore...

tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris.

And at half the density. The median neighborhood of the Toyko metro area is 150 while central Paris is 300 and outlying neighborhoods—not as well served by transit as Tokyo's—are over 200.

And better quality transport too.

That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers. In my experience, no one else matches the consistent care and respect that even young and rowdy Japanese people actively apply to public space.

> And at half the density

Density is a little bit bullshit, because density only takes in account the people living in a particular place, not the folks who actually commute every single day to work to go into offices where nobody lives.

Actually the rail network in Tokyo transports far more people than the RER/Metro in Paris, every single day.

Here: http://www.uitp.org/sites/default/files/cck-focus-papers-fil...

Tokyo is busiest rail network in the world. Paris is far, far behind.

> That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers

No, even the stations, the network, the trains themselves are of better quality that the ones in Paris, and have much higher passenger capacity too. Well, Paris' network is pretty old so you can't blame them for everything, but they have stopped investing heavily in transportation for a long time. The metro trains are still ancient in Paris.

Actually the rail network in Tokyo transports far more people than the RER/Metro in Paris

Tokyo's metro population is 35 million. Paris's is 11 million. Each of them is served by multiple commuter and underground subway train networks. Comparing raw passenger numbers is ridiculous.

Density is a little bit [obscenity],

Density over the built up parts of a metro area, including offices, homes, parks, industrial and commercial areas, and roadways, tells us quite a lot about the basis of transit dynamics. Paris consistently packs a lot more people in the same land area than Tokyo.

No, even the stations, the network, the trains themselves are of better quality that the ones in Paris

Paris spends enormous amount compensating for its more difficult passenger base with space, maintenance, security, cleaning personnel, and more. That doesn't even begin to address the different demands for municipal investment and corruption in governance. Many collective projects that succeed in Japan could never do so in nations where citizens are less committed to cooperation.

Paris metro system definitely has an amazing coverage. I really enjoyed using it, but I'm athletic, love walking and don't have any injuries. On the other hand, I recently had to use it with someone who's knees aren't so good - I never realized how steep those stairs are and how few escalators are there. If you have any kind of disability or kids with strollers, it's definitely not the most comfortable way to travel.

> Just no, a $130k salary in the US would be at least 70k€ in Paris. In others city it would probably be less but the cost of living would be much less too.

In regard to this, I think what needs to be mentioned is the number of $130,000/year jobs in the US for developers/engineers, even outside of NYC/Boston/SF.

I live in the Great Lakes Region in the US. The starting salary for most engineers that I see is $50,000-$60,000k and then those companies also have health insurance benefits and the like. The salaries for experienced engineers that I've seen are closer to $100,000 (~5-7 years experience), and you can probably nearly double that for NYC/Boston/SF. I'm not sure of the cost of living differences between Paris and those cities, but I think US engineers are unequivocally paid better, even if you account for all of the great social benefits that France has (and many areas in the US desperately need).

> Then with CDIs making it almost impossible to fire anyone

This myth has to stop. It's almost impossible to fire anyone on the spot. You can't tell them "go home, and I don't want to hear from you again". You have to give them up to 3 months notice (depending on the contract, for engineers, it's going to be 3 months).

But you can still have them go home and never come back, as long as those 3 months are paid.

Edit: BTW, it works both ways. You can't quit on a whim either. You need to give the same amount of notice.

For a UK contract (and probably USA), there is a clause that says 'if any party decides to end the contract, so be it, and there will be X weeks/months of notice".

For a French contract (CDI = permanent), it's not possible to terminate the employee unilaterally.

> For a French contract (CDI = permanent), it's not possible to terminate the employee unilaterally.

It is possible. It just doesn't happen on a day for the next.

I'm willing to agree if you word it as "It is not strictly impossible".

For a UK contract (and probably USA), there is a clause that says 'if any party decides to end the contract, so be it, and there will be X weeks/months of notice".

I don't know what anyone's contract says, but the law in the USA is clear. Notice (and cause) are strictly optional. People offer two weeks notice when leaving by convention, but it is not required nor rewarded.

You can be asked to leave at any time with no warning nor compensation nor explanation.

You make some good points, albeit most of them quite exaggerated.

For example "almost impossible to fire anyone" : the up to 1 year trial period is pretty much hire-and-fire at will. After that, it's never too hard to fire a single employee. It's true that mass firings are quite heavily regulated though.

Small correction: the trial period is capped at 8 months.