> ...[The State is] now taking an average of 57% off our salary...
Hello. USian here.
Looking at my taxes from last year, The State took 35% of what I earned.
I'd gladly pay 22% more if I got
* Healthcare that I'm not (or am hardly) billed for using and don't have to pay extra every month for [0]
* Mandatory six weeks minimum paid vacation
* Actual employment contracts that mean my employer can't up and say "Whoopsidoodle, this is your three month notice that we're requiring you to stop working from home and either move across the continent to sit your ass in one of our offices or quit. Severance? What severance?!?"; they actually have to justify upending the lives of their workers
* Governments that diswant to waste enormous amounts of money on pointless decades-long occupations of foreign nations
[0] In my state, bottom-end publicly-available health insurance (where I'm expected to pay ~7,000 USD out of pocket before anything is covered) costs ~500 USD a month and is expected to double in cost soon. [1]
[1] The current cost of the health insurance combined with the deductable raises my effective tax burden to 38%. The expected doubling in monthly cost raises it to 40%. [2]
[2] Yes, one typically gets USian health insurance through one's employer. The big appeal of the European system is that if you're unemployed (whether by choice, injury, or the cumulative injuries of advanced age), you don't have to pay out the ass for basic life-sustaining services. I think wonks call this the "social safety net".
57% is the average. If you are here writing on HN, it’s safe to assume you are way above average salary and taxes.
But you are right, I don’t have to pay out the ass for my basic life-sustaining services… what I do have to pay out of the ass, every month, is for someone else’s basic life sustaining services.
> ...what I do have to pay out of the ass, every month, is for someone else’s basic life sustaining services.
Ah.
Well, I've every expectation that you're free to move to some second- or third-tier country that both welcomes newcomers and lets folks fend for themselves, financially. [0] Bon voyage!
[0] I would suggest you move to the US, but we've been (and continue to be) batshit insane about preventing folks from moving in. Sorry!
> Funnily enough you are also free to move here...
Actually, probably not. I don't have a college degree, and have nothing special about my background so the odds that I'd be welcomed in to do programming work without having someone to marry are preeeeeeeeety low. (Source: I have US expat family who became foreign citizens and described the process to me.)
We have millions of literally illiterate people living here on sketchy visas for more than a decade now. I’m sure an American with an IT background (degree or no degree) would not be sent away.
Come and help us feed the great wealth redistribution monster. We need more people that actually work to keep supporting the ever increasing numbers of those that don’t want to.
> We have millions of literally illiterate people living here on sketchy visas for more than a decade now.
If you listen to the propaganda, the same is true about the US. And yet, big US tech companies are constantly screaming for more Skilled Worker visa allotments. Odd.
> I’m sure an American with an IT background (degree or no degree) would not be sent away.
I'll trust the report of family who has actually been through the process over the word of someone who's figuratively hopping mad about contributing to a decent social safety net, but lacks the stones required to move off to a second- or third-rate country that has a taxation policy more to their liking, thanx. ;)
Oh, right. Those famous EU Schrödinger emigration laws that let in 30 million people while simultaneously not letting you - specifically - get in.
I'm sure that's your real reason for you not to follow your own advice. Advice that you feel the need to give other people when they don't want to indulge in your socialist fantasies...
I'll assume you meant "immigration". The US's emigration laws would apply to me.
If I wasn't a US citizen, and my goal wasn't to gain official, above-board citizenship in an EU-member nation by way of doing work as a programmer, system administrator, or other such similar job, then I imagine I would have an easier time getting in, yes. For example, if my place of residence was in a low-cost-of-living country and my intent was to take whatever odd jobs I could get and use the excess to establish a nice nest egg back home, I imagine I'd have a much easier -if far more precarious- time.
Anyway, make sure to keep your grinding wheel well maintained; you seem to make frequent use of it.
> "If I wasn't a US citizen, and my goal wasn't to gain official, above-board citizenship in an EU-member nation by way of doing work as a programmer, system administrator, or other such similar job, then I imagine I would have an easier time getting in, yes. For example, if my place of residence was in a low-cost-of-living country and my intent was to take whatever odd jobs I could get and use the excess to establish a nice nest egg back home, I imagine I'd have a much easier -if far more precarious- time."
Interesting, it's almost like you are telling us you have it better there in the USA. Hypocrisy at its best...
2) Other than open borders and purchasing civilization for all residents by way of taxation, I absolutely do not approve of the policies you mention, or -given the rest of your comment- the ones you might imagine that I do.
Hello. USian here.
Looking at my taxes from last year, The State took 35% of what I earned.
I'd gladly pay 22% more if I got
* Healthcare that I'm not (or am hardly) billed for using and don't have to pay extra every month for [0]
* Mandatory six weeks minimum paid vacation
* Actual employment contracts that mean my employer can't up and say "Whoopsidoodle, this is your three month notice that we're requiring you to stop working from home and either move across the continent to sit your ass in one of our offices or quit. Severance? What severance?!?"; they actually have to justify upending the lives of their workers
* Governments that diswant to waste enormous amounts of money on pointless decades-long occupations of foreign nations
[0] In my state, bottom-end publicly-available health insurance (where I'm expected to pay ~7,000 USD out of pocket before anything is covered) costs ~500 USD a month and is expected to double in cost soon. [1]
[1] The current cost of the health insurance combined with the deductable raises my effective tax burden to 38%. The expected doubling in monthly cost raises it to 40%. [2]
[2] Yes, one typically gets USian health insurance through one's employer. The big appeal of the European system is that if you're unemployed (whether by choice, injury, or the cumulative injuries of advanced age), you don't have to pay out the ass for basic life-sustaining services. I think wonks call this the "social safety net".