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Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

I’m in the UK, intending to move out for obvious reasons (would’ve gone a year ago but relative got an Alzheimer’s diagnosis early 2017). Considering Berlin, Silicon Valley, or a PhD just about anywhere if the cost is in my range.

Once healthcare (at NHS level) and rent are accounted for, $100k in Silicon Valley isn’t as good as £37k in the UK. Germany has more expensive healthcare than the UK’s NHS, but significantly lower rent and overall is only slightly more expensive than the UK… unless you intend to eventually buy a house, in which case it’s suddenly much cheaper.

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Europeans always seem to forget that well-paying white collar jobs in the US (e.g. tech) usually have good to amazing health insurance. My health insurance is fortunately in what I would consider the "amazing" category and I highly doubt I would get better care via the NHS - the cost would be the same (I pay nothing, not even copays) but I have access to some of the world's best hospitals and even onsite clinics... and this is a benefit that I receive before tax, so it's not coming out of that hypothetical $100k figure.

Furthermore as it seems most tech jobs in the UK are in London, I don't think the rents are different enough to make up for the discrepancy in pay.

From my research into working abroad in the past, it seems that only Australia and Switzerland could compare to the US developer market.

> $100k in Silicon Valley isn’t as good as £37k in the UK

I don't know about the UK but I know a number of excellent engineers in other european countries that refused offers to move to Seattle or California over healthcare, housing and personal safety.

Maybe it's just me but that's just bullshit. Sorry to say, but IF you've got a great private healthcare provider US healthcare is superior. Obamacare didn't change that at all.

How much does it cost to get zero excess (copay? Not sure the terminology in the US. Where you pay nothing other than the insurance premium) for all hospital and doctor visits, including home visits and ambulance use, and up to £8.80 excess (less if you need lots) for any prescription medicine?

And cover for your family, partner and kids.

And absolute cover for all pre-existing conditions.

And it will cover you in retirement or if your employer closes down or anything else like that.

The ones you get as a tech worker will do all 3. Cover for entire family, including pre-existing, and you can continue the cover after you quit/are fired.

> I’m in the UK, intending to move out for obvious reasons

I thought you meant pay by this, but then you include Berlin in your list of potential places... Is there other reasons I'm missing out on? Genuinely curious

I think he's talking about the upcoming Brexit :)

Brexit. I could go on for ages about specifics, but experience says that nobody outside the UK really cares (it’s so 2016), and nobody inside the UK is changing their minds.

Haha! Oh right. I'm an immigrant in the UK myself. Curious as to why the natives would leave :)

Ah! Partly the total incompetence of the people who are in charge of making Brexit happen, partly because I don’t trust the UK government with human rights unless bound by international convention (a bind which looks like it will be a lot weaker after Brexit).

It’s unfortunate, really, there’s a lot of nice stuff in the UK too. And I know I’ll miss it.

They just put someone in the pen for 8 months for having a laser jammer on their car and flipping cameras the bird.

I'd be making my way toward the door, as well.

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