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Comment by mathverse | Hacker News Reader

We europeans are underpaid and taxed to death. The US could easily fill its worker shortage by offering easy visas for EU engineers. Many of us would like to move but it's a real PITA to apply to companies that are even willing to consider visa sponsorship.

I actually have no idea why this is not the case already. It's basically 1st world to 1st world transition and the one losing would be EU.

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It only seems like that but people in the US have to pay for things that Europeans take for granted. You might earn more, but most people would end up with less disposable income.

It really depends on your country. In the UK, the "NHS" everyone seems to love here is completely useless unless you're on the brink of death. Any non-critical care is impossible to get so you end up going private anyway, essentially paying twice.

For some jobs sure, but tech job? The delta is >$100,000USD/yr, which after tax might be $70,000 which pays for all that stuff you get for free or subsidized in Europe, plus some left over.

Look at the cost of housing and rents in most US cities that you'd actually want to live in.

The others? Forget about public transit. Need a car, and car insurance, and car maintenance.

And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck.

Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else.

> And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck.

I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before.

> Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else.

I don't know if that's true. The cost of living, in say, Pittsburgh, is 50% that of San Francisco, so at best it's equivalent. And you can actually get a house and a yard there.

> I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before.

"You think" that there are a lot of "half-decent" engineers out there. There aren't. The types of engineers making big bucks are not easily replicable. If it was so easy to become a half decent engineer we wouldn't need the song and dance of tech interviews which are an absolute joke.

Companies have made the hiring process HARDER not EASIER. This tells that the market is flooded with subpar candidates.

Cost of living in Pittsburgh may be 50% of San Francisco but that only matters if you’re spending every single cent you make. This is not the case on $200K. You are far better off in San Francisco. This is how “Californians” move to cheap cities and buy homes in cash over asking.

Look at the cost of housing of Western European cities you'd actually want to live in. My understanding is they are as high, if not higher than the US.

I did - the rents are cheaper, costs overall are cheaper, there are more amenities, you aren't nearly as reliant on cars, etc.

This is all out there online. Ultimately it comes out in the wash. If you get lucky and don't get fired in the US and you're a 10x dev, it's obviously better in the US. Most aren't in that boat.

Please provide sources for comparable housing in Western Europe to comparable housing in the US (major cities for both).

Paying $12k on the high end out of your non-taxed income for a family of 4 does not make up for a near 2x salary gap.

No, but medical bills in the US can essentially be unbounded if insurance denies your claim. You pay 12k in insurance. That doesn’t mean you don’t pay anything beyond that number. People literally sock away millions of dollars for elderly care with the expectation that they won’t leave a dime to their kids.

Where is that number coming from? I assure you it's much more complicated than something you can express with a single number.

United States has the highest median disposable income in the world.[0] The gap is astronomical if considering tech workers alone.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

Why only offer easy visas for EU engineers? There are good engineers in all countries around the world, EU engineers are not some special breed of engineers.

> Many of us would like to move

I for one wouldn't. I would never ever ever trade my walkable cities for the monstrosities that are car-centric North American cities.

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