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Comment by oaiey | Hacker News Reader

It is not common. Most Germans consider would never use the phrase "pursue a better life" when talking about the US. Quality of Life is in most European countries better including Germany.

There are however some who want "freedom". Not that they lack freedom in Germany but the spiritual cowboy style, rocky mountain lifestyle freedom. Another reason for migration are obviously job offers in some industries.

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This is my view as well. However, if you are a young and healthy software developer, you can earn much more money in the US.

Most Europeans moving to America for work do so for this reason. Live frugally in America, earn cash, use it to improve life when moving back to Europe.

As an American who values the quality of my life, there is little I wouldn't give for a working permit in any EU country, especially Germany. The grass is always greener I suppose, or maybe something of an ancestral longing (my paternal ancestor wasn't a willing emigrant, just a captured mercenary with no capo to negotiate with the British for the fare back to his Hessian homeland). Maybe a rarer inclination at present, but in another 50 years I doubt it still will be. It costs 40% less to live in Berlin (on average) than to live in my the fair Verona where I lay my scene, the San Francisco Bay Area, 40% less and a completely functional social safety net that doesn't let its old people starve to death on the streets! I am not sure what anyone means when they say freedom, its an amorphous concept but starving to death in the cold, that's a more visceral and topical thing I can see the hideous reality of by walking a block in any direction in SF. There but for God's grace go I.

Have you actually lived in both the US and Germany?

I haven't but from what I have gathered the U.S is in many ways more preferable than Europe.

And in many ways the reverse is true...

We could start listing things, but there's probably a list that someone else has made. And depending on how much weight/value they put on things, they could say one or the other is better.

The country you grew up in almost always has a big quality-of-life head start, because it's where your friends and family are.

If you're in a poor country and changing country will get you a 10x increase in salary, that might more than compensate for only seeing your loved ones for a few days every few years. But if you're already pretty well off? Not so much.

The headstart is also in your customs. If you are used living w/o e.g. social security, a migration to the US is far more easy/interesting than when you are used to social security.

At least for Germans the USA has a very bad image here. Because of all the Healthcare problems, Trump Jokes, Shootings etc

Honestly the number one thing I miss about America is the big supermarkets and sheer diversity of food products available. Also much better restaurants on average.

Germany is generally a better place to live if you have a low to average income. Think everything from transit to health care to tenants' rights. But like if you're aiming for really high salaries as a software developer, America is the place to be.

I actually did, and visited the US many times after. I saw the good and the bad. In both countries.

There is no hard feeling, except that I want to express that the US while being a nice country to life is not the "pursue a better life" destination. It is all very relative.

Same in France. Some move to the US, some to the UK.

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