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Comment by ChumpGPT | Hacker News Reader

If you can get out, get out.

A lot of Americans complain how shitty they got it, For Canadians it is like heaven here. You can actually buy a house in a major city and afford nice things and earn a decent salary.

This is not possible in the majority of Canadian cities. Canada is a great place to visit but it is a shitty place to work and live, unless your parents own a house and have a couple of rentals (in Vancouver or Toronto) that you're going to inherit.

Even 100k salary in Toronto is poverty these days, I don't know how people do it anymore. Private industry pays like shit and unless your a Gov Employee it's just tough.

-ExPat...never coming back.....

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Honestly its tough. I apply to American jobs but they minute they find out I am Canadian they will pass on my application even jobs I overqualified for.

Can confirm 100k salary in Vancouver is nothing. Even 200k I wasn't saving money.

What makes me angry is learning 1/4 jobs in Canada is a government job. Taxes, housing, society (I don't even feel like I live in Canada sometimes).

I don't know what other options there are. It's quite bleak and living in Canada takes a toll on your mental health.

I envy you...

Vancouver housing is crazy. I think Montreal is the only one of the three that still have affordable housing, albeit not 100% sure. But you should be fine with a 100K salary at least.

However, QC has its own issues, infrastructure and hospital waiting time are pretty bad.

i hope the rent in montreal goes down to justify living there. the road is in awful shape which makes driving tough. public infrastructure is barely functional. i dont even know about the healthcare there but i assume its overloaded too.

the weather tax too doesn't make sense. extremely cold and hot weather. at least in BC its functional and get little snow.

i donno where to go tbh, hoping to land a remote gig somehow but job market is super tough.

My dream right now is living in East Asia working remotely earning USD. Canada has remained stagnant while that region surpassed it in many areas.

Yeah it's far from perfect. We don't speak French so that cuts off about half of the retirement jobs. We are considering Ottawa and its surrounding areas. I heard housing is not too crazy but you still get ON pay, as long as you can get a tech job -- and it's close to Kanata which is a mini tech center.

But the best thing is probably a remote job paid in USD. It's possible but relies on a lot of luck and connection. Another thing to consider is working on two remote contractor jobs at the same time -- maximize expense and move to a place that doesn't f**ing rain. MTL has too much rain these two years and I'm afraid it's going to lose its summer charm.

> What makes me angry is learning 1/4 jobs in Canada is a government job.

Not that surprising when you include teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. I imagine the usa would probably be similar to us if they had socialized healthcare.

> Can confirm 100k salary in Vancouver is nothing. Even 200k I wasn't saving money.

That is rediculous. Vancouver is expensive. Its not so expensive that you cannot afford to live there on 200k.

> Taxes

Highest marginal tax rate in california is 49% vs 53% in BC. That is a bit higher, but its not like the difference is that big. Although maybe how it falls out might be worse if you are middle class.

> I apply to American jobs but they minute they find out I am Canadian they will pass on my application even jobs I overqualified for.

I have worked remotely for american companies from canada. Not every company will go for it, but it definitely do-able.

Have you considered we are in a bit of a market downturn right now, and you might still get rejected even if american?

In any case, if you dont like living in canada, why not move? NAFTA makes moving to the usa a hell of a lot easier from canada than it is in most countries.

to stay in us long tern i need income from us employer to stay and receive benefits for canadians

or the employer is your own startup.

trust me 200k wasnt enough in vancouver downtown (i rent)

At 200k you can buy. 2 bedrooms during covid were going for 700 to 900, you can get in with 150k downpayment roughly, or even lower with cmhc. This does assume you manage your finances properly

School shootings and no healthcare are not a concern?

School shootings are horrible and scary, but the US is a huge country, and your kids are not likely to experience them. They’re much more likely to be hurt or killed in a car accident, but you won’t hesitate to drive them around, do you?

The healthcare situation is also horrendous overall, but if you and your family are currently healthy and you have a good job with good insurance (as software engineers tend to), then the risk to you and yours specifically may be low. If you can afford it, you also have access to higher quality of care than almost anywhere else. If I had a severe disease or got into a bad accident, I would want to be a well-to-do American with good insurance living in a major city.

> If you can afford it, you also have access to higher quality of care than almost anywhere else. If I had a severe disease or got into a bad accident, I would want to be a well-to-do American with good insurance living in a major city.

Have you tested that?

Good family friends had a baby in California. They’re both high level teachers, have been for 15 years at this point. Gets complicated, c section. Less that 10 hours later someone comes to the bedside and says this is costing the insurance company $60k a day and they have to move to a new hospital. Now. In their own car. With no wheelchair. With a 10 hour old baby and a wife that just had a c section.

They have great health insurance, have paid premiums their entire lives. What a scam.

Also, heaven forbid you want to take a year or two off to be with family or write a book or just live.

Also my partner currently has 18 month’s maternity leave, fully paid.

That is a very, very big no thanks.

> no healthcare

Just a reminder, 92% of Americans have health insurance. California has universal healthcare, and there are more people in California than in Canada.

and every year 650,000 people are pushed to bankruptcy from medical bills. [1] and 80% of those people had medical insurance!

[1] https://www.citizen.org/article/medicare-for-all-prevents-me...

And yet, despite that, most people seem to agree that it beats living in Canada[0], especially on Hacker News it seems.

[0]: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-moving-to-the-us-...

> most people seem to agree

126,340 Canadians moved to the US out of a population of 38.93 million

0.32% hardly seems like "most people"

Eh, half of my family is in the US, and I honestly think it’s not much worse here other than buying a house. That being said, it really sucks for new grads and younger people.

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