I’d give up my $500k/year salary to move to Europe and feel more supported if anything went wrong, but I do wonder how much support someone on a work visa in the UK/EU gets if they lose their job.
I don't care if I get private insurance in the States. I get private insurance here too, and I even use it now and again. But I care about knowing that, no matter what happens to me, ever, I won't be saddled with a life-ruining debt that wipes out what I've gained. Not without my consenting to borrow such an amount.
I'm not interested in playing snakes and ladders. I'm not interested in the equivalent of someone selling me a mortgage without my knowledge in my sleep (and with no house at the end of it). And I know that insurers - unlike the UK govt - are in the business of avoiding making payouts[0].
(That's the main thing, at least, by far. Then the salary-erasing real estate costs, in all the places where those endlessly-quoted salary figures are from, make me not-particularly-sad that I ruled it out.)
[0] I'm not imputing dishonesty. I'm just saying their literal business model is maximise premiums, minimise claims.
I just moved to Canada
Health care is free and I am covered on my visa
Medication / dentist is not but my company has private health insurance so I am covered for that too
Education for kids is free too
Public transport sucks but that is because I am in a small city
Europe is better connected and I’ve heard their public health care is better, but I doubt it would be too different
I don’t know at what else the social safety net in Europe would be better
Unless people want to leave miserably, they need to pay rent and food everywhere (heck, you even have food stamp in the states)
Keep in mind things tend to be cheaper in the US than in Europe
In fact, how many US Netflix employees are actually earning $500k/yr like we were discussing upthread? I doubt that's the salary of a junior frontend employee. If it is, good for them. I don't think my quality of life and happiness would change dramatically between $250k and $1M/yr, but apparently this is so hard to convey to an American audience that thinks more money == more happiness.