International Americans, It's Time to Move to Europe.

One of my best friends lives in Italy. Married an Italian girl and recently got Italian dual citizenship. Unfortunately he is pretty miserable because he works for a US based company and his work life is all centered around eastern time, 6 hours behind him. It sucks because he hasn't really had the immersion to learn Italian better and have a social life.

For those reasons so think I'd rather move to South America where the time zone is the same or an hour off.
 
[The USA ≠ America]


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Europeans have always emigrated to America. But what if the flow reversed? The number of Americans saying they want to leave the US jumped from 10 per cent in 2011 to a record 21 per cent by last year, report the pollsters Gallup — and that was before Donald Trump unleashed his dual assault on American wealth and freedom.

I now feel that even somehow setting aside the mammoth issues of Trump and freedom, most Europeans live better than most Americans.

There’s one big exception: the mega-rich. If you’re among the wealthy Americans awaiting another tax cut from Congress, then congratulations: the Trump administration is at least trying to run the country for your benefit. You’re unlikely to get that from European governments. Similarly, most Americans in tech or finance will find undynamic Europe frustrating.

That leaves about 99 per cent of the population for whom emigrating to Europe would be a life win. The biggest potential beneficiaries are adults under the age of 35: unable to afford a home or even childcare in America’s biggest cities, but young enough to acquire a new language and circle of friends.

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The logistics of emigrating have never been easier. Remote work also makes possible the ultimate life arbitrage: earning a US salary while living in the Mediterranean. Technology has assuaged homesickness: you can cross the ocean but stay in all your WhatsApp groups. For those unable to learn languages, English now works in most of Europe. And Fortress Europe, so unwelcoming to people from poor countries, keeps one gate permanently open for Americans. Countries from Portugal to the Netherlands grant residency to Americans who couldn’t get a car loan back home.

Once here your salary may shrink, but your costs definitely will. The Eurozone’s income per capita is about three-quarters that of the US, after correcting for purchasing power, says the World Bank. Americans in Europe might need to cut down on consumer goods. On the upside, they will be able to afford housing, education and healthcare. The average premium for family health insurance in the US is $25,572, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s more than the average post-tax wage in much of Europe. Fun here is cheaper too. A multinational organisation I know brought its national chapters together for a dinner in Madrid. When the bill came, the Americans were so startled by its tininess that they photographed it, saying they would hang it framed in the Washington office.

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For ambitious Americans, moving to Europe brings an immediate psychic cost: they fall off their country’s mattering map. No career achievement here will win the respect of those back home who think Europe is a holiday resort. Outweighing that, though, are the psychic gains. Living in America is a bit like running your own mini-insurance company, constantly budgeting for future illnesses, college tuition, et cetera. In Europe, the nanny state handles all that, and it’s relaxing. You’ll have more free time, given that Europeans work about an hour a day less than Americans. Instead of forever comparing yourself with people who are richer than you, in Europe you might be the richest person in your new circle.

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And for all Europe’s political polarisation, daily psychic conflict here doesn’t compare to Trump’s US. A European friend of mine who lives in the American south sometimes doesn’t leave his house for days on end so as to avoid running into Trump supporters. Americans always assume he moved there for a better life. No, he tells them: he came for an interesting job and a worse quality of life.

Lastly, moving to Europe is a health hack. American life — car-bound, overworked and fuelled by processed food — is a daily assault on the body. The US’s obesity rate of 42.9 per cent is nearly four times France’s.

All told, as I’ve argued before, Europe outdoes the US on the three key metrics of a good 21st‑century life: four years more longevity, higher self-reported happiness and less than half the carbon emissions per person, all of it achieved on a much lower debt-to-GDP ratio.

“Sadly, the American dream is dead,” announced Trump after descending the golden escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to launch his presidential run. Try the European Dream instead.



There are exactly 2 reasons I'm not either in Scandinavia, or Calgary.

1) Cold AF.

2) My wife doesnt want to leave her Dad and we cant afford to move him with us.

We've already discussed it as a Family. The economic opportunities are better for me there, and with my wife's skillset and experience she could easily get a job making the same as she makes here.
 
Nobody that can hack it here who owns property, doesn't struggle living paycheck to paycheck, and has no personal need for the social safety net is likely to leave.
I’d say people who struggle in those ways wouldn’t be able to just up and move to Europe or whatever very easily. Those of us who are successful and educated have the luxury of going wherever we want.
Not saying I want to leave, fuck that. I love a good fight. But wifey keeps talking about it, lol.
 
I’d say people who struggle in those ways wouldn’t be able to just up and move to Europe or whatever very easily. Those of us who are successful and educated have the luxury of going wherever we want.
Not saying I want to leave, fuck that. I love a good fight. But wifey keeps talking about it, lol.

Hell nah, don't let her win. You live in the American West, bro. The Rocky Mountain West, perpetually on the doorstep of subalpine environment heaven.
 
People should move to where they want regardless of who is currently president. I was in China for most of Obama's term and he was a far better president than Trump. I just wanted to go there because it is a fascinating country. Choose a country based on interest. From my experience most people have the "grass is greener on the other side" mentality and just end up being unhappy again but in a different place.
 
This kind of shit pisses me off though, @sickc0d3r. One of the most obvious problems with the urban-wildland interface. It is a bull elk, this happened in October, and it was rutting season. I kind of wish he had gored him, fucking clown. What a majestic animal.

 
I live emotionally between the two continents. As a British student in the US in the early 1990s, I thought it was the greatest country on Earth. I acquired an American wife and kids, but we ended up in Paris. Over decades of transatlantic visits, I’ve tracked the lives of American friends and relatives.
I spent a few months/year in France for a good 6-7 years and I liked it fine, but I don't think I'd live there permanently.

His "3 keys for a good 21st century life" are based around what complete strangers are doing and have no impact individually. The carbon emission one is just silly, and is the sort of thing I'd expect someone whose friend doesn't leave his house for days at a time out of fear of running into someone who doesn't subscribe to his politics. The life expectancy difference doesn't mean each person lives 3 or 4 years longer or that you'll live 3 or 4 more years if you move. The life expectancy for Asians in the US is like 84 because they don't eat themselves silly. The "self reported happiness" is flimsy at best, but Americans had higher scores than almost all of Europe on the where they rated their life 1-10 survey.


If you can't afford a house in one of the largest cities, but you have a remote job that would allow you to move out of the country, then just living somewhere that isn't a major city seems much better than moving out of the country. And if you were going to move out of the country and could live anywhere, I don't see a very good argument for picking Europe over a much cheaper place where your money would go further.
 
People should move to where they want regardless of who is currently president. I was in China for most of Obama's term and he was a far better president than Trump. I just wanted to go there because it is a fascinating country. Choose a country based on interest. From my experience most people have the "grass is greener on the other side" mentality and just end up being unhappy again but in a different place.

I got a job offer in China, there is an American Coach over there working at a gym who was really advocating for me to teach over there. I was pretty fascinated by the offer because I've never lived outside the US. But my wife was pregnant at the time. I'd have liked to get a look at how they run their Sports programs, though.
 
Added bonus for Americans: You live in Europe and become an "expat" and live hang around other Americans and create your "expat community."

You don't "migrate" to Europe and become an "immigrants," since, as we all know, immigrants are darkies from poorer countries.

Even the article in the OP says it: Move to Europe, not migrate to Europe.

<seedat>
 
all those muslim countries can take our libtards, we will be a stronger country because of it!
 
Me to me: Americans can barely speak their first language. Fluoride in the brain, etc. No wait, if they're moving to Europe they're probably, like, smart or something. Scientists. They can learn another language, right? I shouldn't be so judgmental.

Americans: I would love to but I can't speak any language. [Continues speaking of languages as some sort of insurmountable barrier that cannot be overcome no matter what, proving the block is also psychological]

Me: Oh, OK...
 
Me to me: Americans can barely speak their first language. Fluoride in the brain, etc. No wait, if they're moving to Europe they're probably, like, smart or something. Scientists. They can learn another language, right? I shouldn't be so judgmental.

Americans: I would love to but I can't speak any language. [Continues speaking of languages as some sort of insurmountable barrier that cannot be overcome no matter what, proving the block is also psychological]

Me: Oh, OK...

Some years ago I met a researcher / professor from US who lived in Stockholm.
After 20 years in Sweden he did not speak a word of Swedish.
 
And be stuck watching divegrass on tv? No thanks I’d rather watch a bunch of roided out monsters with big black biseps kill each other with helmets.
Haha yeah. I guess if lived some shitty flyover state I'd want to leave too. Europe is cool and all but Ill pass on trying to assimilate somewhere else.

But if I had to live somewhere else I guess I'd go where the hot women are... Aka Columbia or Brazil.
 
Me to me: Americans can barely speak their first language. Fluoride in the brain, etc. No wait, if they're moving to Europe they're probably, like, smart or something. Scientists. They can learn another language, right? I shouldn't be so judgmental.

Americans: I would love to but I can't speak any language. [Continues speaking of languages as some sort of insurmountable barrier that cannot be overcome no matter what, proving the block is also psychological]

Me: Oh, OK...
Google translate
 
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