> I religiously send a the same (about 5k USD) to my home country every month
Good lord, how much money do you people make in the US?
Good lord, how much money do you people make in the US?
[1] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/___medi...
It also has very high quality (Berkeley, UMich, etc) public universities where you won’t pay $40k per year in tuition.
And for healthcare, a good tech job will provide good coverage.
So it’s kind of a “eat your cake and have it too situation” for some.
Good tech job? What about everyone else, are we that selfish?
And no, the education doesn’t cost $40k (that was my point) and the higher salary easily offsets the loans for a lot of careers.
And no, there are plenty of good paying jobs in the US, not just tech (I’m not in tech).
I know it's hard to imagine this if you've never experienced it, but be a little tolerable to the parts of the world where this happens, including where I'm leaving in right now
As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
It's easy to quote someone how was directly opposing the socialist movement and socialism and communism is not really the same thing, is it ?
I would gladly put ALL my savings into my own retirement plan instead of the government's money hole if I was allowed. But I am robbed of that choice...
I'll gladly pay my taxes knowing that the current retired people that didn't have the possibility to save up, can survive today. Also hoping that happens to me in case a horrible thing happens to my financial situation.
People like me, who take stress when it comes to such things, love European system but people who find it trivial to invest in markets and such find the American system better. I wonder how many people think like me and how many like Americans. I have met Americans who don't think like what I just categorized as the American mindset, and European which are opposite to. So I really cant just take the populations and answer my own question.
[1] https://www.worlddata.info/iq-by-country.php
[2] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-i...
If I didn’t include the intelligence caveat, one could point out lower tax countries with less opportunity, such as how Somalia is the anarcho capitalists dream. Even if the US and Switzerland are more economically free than many other more socialist western nations, intelligent demographics is makes or breaks that effect.
The average American also makes more than the average European - not only in SF. In more economically free European countries this is not the case though, but these are few. Except for the highly regulated (thus inefficient) American Heath insurance market, having a regular job is a better deal there.
In my experience living here, it is the strong social security net (70% of your previous wage if unemployed), high minimum wage (up to 25$/hr in some areas), and general workers rights/protections.
"some areas" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence of yours. First of all, there is no Federal minimum wage, it is Cantonal. Second of all, the minimum wage of 20CHF only exists in 2 Cantons: Jura and Neuchatel. Third of all, once you PPP adjust that number, it's equivalent to about $10 USD/hour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_minimum_w...
tl;dr: Switzerland got rich because of staying neutral and not asking questions about where incoming money originates from, not because of "free enterprise".
But instead Sweden chose the way of high tax on high income, high capital gains tax (which is zero in Switzerland), and a big “public sector” in order to make a large section of the people dependent on the state. The effect is fewer rich people who can invest in new companies, and more investment done via the state, which is inherently less efficient