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Comment by Aeolun | Hacker News Reader

The big problem is IT in Europe just doesn’t pay very well. It beats a blue collar job, but anyone truly good has the option to emigrate for 2-3x more money.

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Moving away from your established life, friends, family to a country where you will (at least initially) be foreign, where the lifestyle is different are burdens that should not be underestimated.

I'm sure everybody in the EU would like US level salaries, but most wouldn't move for the money alone

America is the ~only country where you may truly be "local" in the eye of the locals.

In all other countries you'll always be a foreigner (your kids will be local though).

UK as well, it's very welcoming to foreign workers compared to most of continental Europe where even if you learn the language you're still a a foreigner with glass ceilings.

The question is: Why won't the companies pay well? Good quality IT gives massive savings/profit, there should certainly be enough left over to pay the people who actually did the work. I think there is an attitude in Europe of workers not deserving high compensation, by the virtue of them dirtying themselves with work and not belonging to the owner class. If you lose talented employees, so be it, they simply don't deserve getting paid better no matter how much money they bring in to you.

Yeah, I get this impression as well. Only way to have it better is to be one of the owners.

And 10x for healthcare elsewhere.

Leaving aside edge cases (e.g preexisting chronic illness). This is mostly irrelevant for software engineers even for the ones without top of the market compensation.

-10x for love then.

Health care costs shouldn't be of too much concern for young professionals (those more likely to move). Eating well and exercise should come first, because even if healthcare is free or cheap - who wants to be sick in the first place?

Your well being doesn't always depend on your diet and exercise. Viruses like Coivd or other bugs you can get from a simple surgical procedure like a root canal, preexisting and congenital conditions that hit you later in life, accidents, are a thing for many people despite balanced lifestyles.

Certainly. But if we compare how much Americans are happily paying for health insurance and Europeans are happily paying in taxes, with the cost and effort of a healthy life style, the healthy life style is much cheaper. And accessible all over the world.

I'm kidding about the "happily" of course.

The US food is terrible, GMO everywhere with artificial, sugary taste that ‘deactivates’ the natural senses of your mouth, so everything needs sugar to taste “okay-ish”. It is more cognitively and economically expensive to be healthy in the US than in Europe.

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