Why I Left the U.S. 20 Years Ago and Why I Won't Be Coming Back

We always want more and better, right? We might be different from the Americans in the details (albeit important ones), but we aren't that different in the big picture worldview.

So if politicians want to keep spending like they do now (assuming deficits do not matter and do not raise spending further due to interest), a 30 year old person will retire at age 104 at this rate.

Now imagine not having them. I moved from Australia where (due to my contract) I had 6 weeks per year, now in Japan I have two. Feels a lot worse than having them.

> 8 hour workdays are insane

8 hour work days are a breeze, I've regularly done 12-14, and not unknown to have done a few 20hours (sleep at work, I'll be doing this next week a few times due to staff shortages).

I do agree with you about retirement though, kinda worrying that all that money I paid into my Australian superannuation is locked up and will probably not be there when I eventually retire.

On paper, things look great. I save about $2500 a month after my own bills and helping siblings (parents cannot work). I have a good deal of investments already built up and max out my 401k.

However, I really can't afford to buy more than a dumpster. Its going to be several years until I can purchase a home but at the current housing spikes, it's going to be out of reach even then. I could just move, but the job prospects aren't amazing in cheaper parts of the country.

My management just does not care about me. Its about their goals. I'm just a tool or a service to help them achieve those goals. Services get sunset. Services get deprecated.

Again, my compensation is amazing on paper considering my age, but I am over worked and under constant stress and anxiety. I don't take many vacations because the anxiety of my work is overpowering.

I have two weeks of vacation banked, but even if I took off, I can never deflate and distress. I don't know how at this point.

My work is pretty much all my life... oh and commuting.

I know there are people with alot less than me, far more student debt, etc. I am grateful for what I do have and cannot begin to imagine what it's like for the folks living paycheck to paycheck, although I am terrified that my career stands at the whims of egotistical men, and I could easily end up in that paycheck to paycheck situation.

I occasionally see headlines on news sites while reading on my phone during commutes... "x analyst predicts y company to hit trillion dollar by z date."

Nobody stops to ask who is reaping the majority of that and at what cost?

Hmm...I think you'll find that the creature comforts are actually a lot more comfy in most of Europe, which is of course a very large and diverse area. Of course, it will take you a while to figure those out, because things are different.

I've never felt as weak an affinity with the USA as I do now, but habit and inertia have kept me here so far...

That you include chains of whatever on the list of downsides to leaving your country, says something. Maybe something about you, maybe something about your country. It's not good what it says though.

EDIT: I think you might be the kind of person the author is talked about when she says "brainwashed". If the specific franchise of restaurant that you like is such a huge factor in your life, maybe you've just been brainwashed. And this is not even mentioning the breathtaking ignorance of saying there's no good diners "in Europe".

LOLWUT ?

She mentions she lives in the south of France. I don't think she has to worry about access to good food. Why would anyone who moved to Europe want to go back to the US for their shitty food ?

So if not Guadeloupe, it surely is somewhere in the Caribbean

I remember a very poignant New Yorker cartoon, with a bunch of elderly gently WASP-ish looking folk and one whispering to another: "Money is life's report card".

Over here we don't consider that healthcare and education are a "government benefit". We consider them rights.

But you sound slightly offended. Like now you're trying to prove that some people like the USA. You don't have to prove anything dude.

You really violated the site rules quite egregiously here. Other commenters did too.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think that problem is a mental illness / personality disorder epidemic among Americans under 35 that is being completely ignored.

I don't find this article particularly offensive, just extremely naive.

For all it's problems, in the U.S. we still enjoy both freedom of speech and freedom from the tyranny of socialized govt, both have reared it's ugly head in pretty spectacular ways recently..

Namely, you can end up in jail if you teach your dog to salute at Heil Hitler, or if you decide you want to present the middle finger to your govt overlords on a traffic cam, or if you think you might like to send your child to a different hospital that offers hope, no matter how grim the ultimate outcome, or if you defend yourself in your home from a robber with a knife.. Just to name a few..

The first and second amendments of the U.S. are unlike very few In the world. Statistically most people are very unlikely to encounter such gun crimes like school shootings, but you'd never know that because we have a media and culture driven by ratings and agenda.

But there is a lot of truth that people have much less value for life. That's not just a U.S. problem.. I'm a U.S. citizen, so I can criticize the mayor of London openly without fear, but their plans(or talks) to remove any and all knives from stores and the hands of their citizens is a pretty good example.. But no knife, no problem, you can do it pretty effectively with a truck, I recall 80 or so were killed a few years ago, and at least 10 were killed a few days ago in Toronto. And anyone with any sizeable amount of intellect could probably devise a plan that is highly effective by stealing a semi.. Someone with actual intelligence could probably devise a scheme to drop small IED's via drones and could probably be pretty lethal and remain effectively safe from capture, let alone any of the other mainstream methods..

And on top of it all, even with all the gun bans, one of the worst gun massacres in recent history occurred not in the U.S., but good old Europe.. Many countries have effectively banned all weapons, But that just means that the law abiding citizens are the ones who become defenseless.. I've sarcastically argued numerous times that the Charlie Hebdo attacks were fake news, and the people were just made up, after all, such firearms are actually banned there, so such an event isn't actually possible to happen, those weapons are banned..

It gets even better when looking at countries like Mexico, S. America etc, where the police may actually be part of the mob, flip a coin as to whether you'll survive if you call for help (I suppose if your passport is blue or from the euro block they probably try to take care of you for tourism sake)..

In any case, I think a recent episode of econtalk with Jonah Goldberg http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/04/jonah_goldberg.html summed up a lot of truths about the place we are at in our society, especially in the U.S.. It's quite worth a listen.. Because ultimately, though the above is bad, we often forget that gives have historically persecuted people far worse, and though it's 2018 (as if somehow that means something), it's still happening ( IRS/FBI)etc..

Ultimately, These are problems govt cannot solve, and the answer the govt will give might not be an answer that's good, for average Joe at least.. But I do think, in the U.S., It's a road we are heading down..