Comment by compulsivenomad | Hacker News Reader

Comment by compulsivenomad | Hacker News Reader

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compulsivenomad

I've lived in nearly every EU country mentioned here. Almost everyone is wrong. The only European country worth considering is Switzerland, all the rest come with serious shortcomings:

- UK: Dystopian, collapsing infrastructure, London is super-expensive.

- Germany: Salaries are not generally high, taxation/bureaucracy/housing in the desirable parts.

- Ireland: High taxes, extreme dysfunction, crazy housing costs.

- Netherlands: High taxes and insane wealth tax on your savings and investments based on fictitious assumed rate of return. With current inflation, if you want to build wealth, NL should be last on the list.

- Sweden/Norway: Average (not high) salaries, high cost of living, high taxes.

- Spain/Portugal/Italy/Greece: Low salaries, high taxes, extreme dysfunction.

- Belgium/Luxemburg: Salaries can be higher than average, but I found living there depressing. Cost of living is high.

TL;DR Go to Switzerland. Better yet, move to US. There's no country in Europe that comes close.

I will not deny that the countries you listed have several shortcomings, but accusing countries of extreme dysfunction and then, just a few sentences later, recommending the US made me laugh. If someone only cares about making as much money as possible, then sure the US is probably one of the best countries for that. Personally, I would consider factors like health care, police that is not homicidal, social safety net and other public services much higher.

> Ireland: High taxes, extreme dysfunction, crazy housing costs.

Totally agree with you on this. The country is on a verge of collapse, I have been trying to switch rental apartment and its been 6 months that i am sending my references and no one has even responded to me. If i get evicted from my place, i will have to move out of the country. Its mental, nothing works. My wife is waiting for her driving test date, she has applied online 3 months ago and she hasn’t even gotten a date yet. Same goes for most government services.

Really enjoyed reading your thoughts there. Seems accurate for the couple I am familiar with. When you say collapsing infrastructure for the UK, I'd be curious to know what you mean?

Also for moving to the US, I don't know if you have any insight on the easiest pathway, would I be right in saying that getting a job in FAANG+ type company and L1B internal transfer after a year is the easiest way to do it?

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