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> Food is cheap and plentiful. The portion sizes are twice as large for the same equivalent price as the EU :).

As someone who moved from EU to the US for 6 years and recently got back: the quality of the food is way lower there, though. As in: food standards imposed are significantly lower. I ended buying mostly organic food at Costco after my body significantly changed within first 6 months.

EDIT: don't know why I am being downvoted: the food standards difference is based on actual facts, not my personal experience, it doesn't take a lot of googling to compare the sheer numbers. Or if you're lazy just consider the mere fact that salmonella is still a thing in the US, which is why all eggs are washed before the sale.

Food standards might be lower, but I would argue that the food quality is better, depending on the country in the EU.

Here in Germany, 25% of meat bought in grocery stores doesn't follow the most basic of butchering standards set forth: https://www.ua-bw.de/pub/beitrag.asp?subid=0&Thema_ID=2&ID=2...

What you get in the US is choice - and as a software engineer, you have the money to make those choices. Shop at Whole Foods, not the local gas station, and you will see there is a world of difference.

That's one mistake I see Europeans make - they apply a European world view to the US, and don't understand the wide spectrum of choices. Here in Europe, most things are equal or about the same. This mentality is even applied to universities (ask a German which university is "the best", and you will receive a confused look).

Whether you think all of this is morally correct is a different question.

For a fair comparison, what percentage of meat bought in US grocery stores follows the most basic German butchering standards?

It's true that any given German grocery store has fewer choices than any given US one, but extrapolating that to "there are no choices" is absurd. Germany has more choices of grocery store, and in both countries if you really want good meat you go to a real butcher (definitely not Whole Foods) anyway.

Your comment about universities must be a joke, or your social circle lacks any kind of discrminating ability. I've had multiple conversations with a dozen Germans about exactly this topic in the past month regarding our recruitment/hiring practices.

I don't know the statistics, but I've never encountered bone splinters in any meat I've ever eaten in the US.

As for the universities, it's not like I made this up. I'm well aware of the broad differences in quality of education (and futhermore, healthcare) here, but my comment wasn't about me and this is not an invention of mine, it is a widely held belief: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAGerman/comments/ay5nrs/which_un...

I also didn't say "there are no choices", so I don't know who you're quoting here. What I was trying to explain is the European worldview being applied to the US, where there is much vaster inequality between universities, products, income, etc. I didn't attempt to make a value judgement about it, I was trying to show a common pitfall of Europeans arriving in the US: it's important that you know where you're shopping, it's important that you know where you're going to school, and it's important that you know what neighborhood you're in. In Germany, you don't need to know what neighborhood you're in: they are all roughly the same in terms of crime.

A reddit thread with 15 comments, several of which disagree with your claim, is not a "widely held belief"!

> you don't need to know what neighborhood you're in: they are all roughly the same in terms of crime.

This is unreal. Is this some Bavarian bullshit? Nobody in the north believes it.

> In Germany, you don't need to know what neighborhood you're in: they are all roughly the same in terms of crime

I was never to the US and maybe it is worse there. Don't want to compare but your statement is just plain wrong and the people always telling this as a mantra just never have lived in a bad neighborhood and/or do not have kids.

washed refrigerated eggs are pretty standard also in many European countries, that's not exactly helping your argument though I agree US standards are lower than EU

Well, washing eggs nor refrigerating pre-purchase cannot be standard, because it's pretty much forbidden:

"4.3. Washing of eggs

The practice of washing eggs of class A for human consumption is forbidden by the European Union legislation."

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52...

Class A eggs are basically the only type you'd buy for consumption. I, for one, have not once found Class B eggs in a store. AFIK Class B are used in food manufacturing only.

Then why are eggs refridgerated if they are not washed? Also I wonder what is definition of washing, because often eggs I buy are perfectly clean.

Class A eggs are also forbidden from refrigeration, because unwashed eggs can develop mildew and contaminate other products. Everywhere I bought eggs in EU, they were on the regular store shelf, not in refrigerator.

I don't know what's your definition of perfectly clean, but eggs in EU are not perfectly clean in comparison to the US ones. The latter look like they're literally bleached. Not a single spot on the shell. The eggs I buy in EU, code 0-2, are quite dirty, with residue on them.

So that's definitely wrong most likely same as washed eggs ban, because at least in Czechia in Slovakia you will find them refridgerated in every single supermarket and in plenty other EU countries, I remember even discussion about this on HN. By perfectly clean I mean perfectly smooth surface without any dirt or anything attached to shell, maybe they differ between brushing and washing.

Don't know how to explain it, then. Never once seen eggs in refrigerator in Poland, for example. Maybe they're not Grade A? As in the cheapest eggs available would be Grade B.

Nah, they place there all kinds of eggs, no matter if cheap or fancy bio eggs, it's almost always refridgerated, only sometimes they place cheapest big boxes of 30-60 eggs on pallet next to refridgerator make sure they are in chilled enviroment, so actually the cheapest are sometimes not refridgerated.

> anti American comments in this thread

It's weird that describing things accurately is considered "anti-American." The question was answered multiple times though: If he does get a higher salary, much is going to be wasted on making up for deficiencies of the US that may be invisible to a German (especially wrt. health, food quality, security, social services, etc.)

It is not weird. It is normal. Billions of dollars spent for propaganda of American dream. And it is global. This is the power of an utopian idea. People need belief in the success. Critical thinking was never popular, but nowadays is the exception of the rule.

> It is not weird. It is normal. Billions of dollars spent for propaganda of American dream. And it is global. This is the power of an utopian idea. People need belief in the success. Critical thinking was never popular, but nowadays is the exception of the rule.

Yeah, definitely, but you'd still expect people here to do better. Nobody who hasn't lived in both even needs to comment really.

The top comment is about as anti-American as it can get. Apparently we’re all drug addicts and burning our own houses to the ground.

It’s important to generalize for the sake of the OPs questions, but saying nonsense doesn’t help anyone.

That's what I'm talking about, it's just a completely accurate description and you're freaking out saying it said things that it didn't say! Zero things in it are false, but what you're claiming is:

> massive alcohol and narcotic dependency issues

This is a fact and it's not "[you're] all drug addicts and burning your own houses to the ground."

The only way you can get upset is to straw man it really hard.

I find it hilarious that you think I’m freaking out.

I’m laying in bed listening to the birds chirp, trying to provide some level commentary.

I read the top comment and chuckled hard. It’s not even close to real. Social media is amplifying some really skewed info.

Try living here, it’s beautiful.

I lived there half my life. It's a wasteland in comparison. That's how I know from first-hand experience and immersion in both sets of media that this isn't about "skewed info" but a complete lack of info for some people who have never lived somewhere they're comparing their country with. This guy is asking about where to go be old, which is a real thing that's going to effect his life... to me going back to the US as an old person is a nightmare. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, especially in the current state of deterioration.

first hand experience = anecdote, which in turn means it's a completely,m worthlessly unreliable indicator of a general factual and statistical situation. You're confusing your specific impression from your life in a very tiny part of the vast tapestry that is the United States with a massive generalization that you claim is factual. Anyone here claiming that the Americans suffer from X or Y awful thing at absurd levels should actually try backing it up with a link or two to hard data that shows how much more these bad things apply to Americans than they do to those living in the (apparently) European paradise. As one comment a bit further down notes (no link to a source but at least they make a statistical claim) French people are on average among the world's biggest users of psych medication.

It might be beautiful _for you_. Nobody's saying you can't find a lot of beautiful places and experiences in the US. But it's marred by a degree of neuroticism that explains why so many people I know in the US have friends with issues with drug dependency and overuse (prescribes and illegal), health issues, and vibe that goes between depressing and fake.

>massive alcohol and narcotic dependency issues

>this is a fact

Do you actually believe it is a fact that the US suffers from “massive alcohol and narcotic dependency issues?” If so you need to reconsider the definition of a fact and/or reconsider your sources of information.

Absurd hyperbole which is outright detached from reality regurgitated by you as fact. And you have the nerve to tell this other person they’re “straw man really hard.”

Next level.

It's not absurd. When I was in elementary in the US 20 years ago I was _astounded_ at how medicated children were and how many kids suffered from the most random allergies.

It's not poverty in the classical sense of a third-world country for sure. Doesn't make it any better.

France has the highest per capita psych medication usage.

> Lots of anti American comments in this thread

Probably the time zone. Better to ask this question in the afternoon in europe.

So you can get a bunch of American nationalists who have never been to Europe answering? You're dismissing people who have actually lived in both places.

> Food is cheap and plentiful.

Compared to some of Europe yes, compared to Germany absolutely not.

Calling out obvious issues one needs to be aware of is not anti American.

I could find lots of things wrong with both US and Germany. Everywhere has its problems and nowhere is perfect. I’ve spent time in just about everywhere and lived in a multitude of environments and cultures. I’m happiest living in Rochester, NY than I was anywhere else. It’s all personal preference, but the “issues” mentioned in other comments were not constructive nor related to the OPs questions.