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137 points pg_1234 | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.414s | source
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Moldoteck ◴[] No.37271469[source]
Regardless of what you think, in the best path is being an eu citizen, work in us(some high paying job like IT) for 5-10 years, return in eu with huge cash, buy a home, work some more chill years for minimal pension and happily retire. Eu is nice to retire if you are eu citizen and have enough cash(by either working some years in us or remotely for us conpanies but a bit less pay)
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ChatGTP ◴[] No.37271656[source]
Do you pay tax in Europe while in the US, or just do the parasitical thing?
replies(1): >>37272320 #
mmmmmbop ◴[] No.37272320[source]
How would you go about paying tax in Europe while in the US? The European countries I'm familiar with will not consider you a tax resident while living abroad, so they won't allow you to pay taxes.
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1. ChatGTP ◴[] No.37281366[source]
I get this way of living is personally advantageous but it's pretty shitty right?

Work in the USA, pay lower tax there and get higher salary, fly back to Europe and take advantage of everyone's contributions to get yourself free healthcare while having contributed nothing yourself ?

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2. mmmmmbop ◴[] No.37294165[source]
If you were just trying to make that point, your previous comment comes across as a snarky leading question. From the HN guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

In any case, it doesn't seem fair to frame it the way you did. If a high-earning engineer spends 5-10 years in the US to build wealth before returning to Europe to work at a 250k€ job for 7 more years before finally retiring, they'll still have contributed more in income taxes and social contributions in their home country during those 7 years than the median employee during their lifetime. At the same time, they will receive much lower state pensions since they only contributed for 7 years, and they will never take advantage of the unemployment benefits they contributed to.

This is ignoring other contributions such as VAT on their personal consumption (which will likely be higher than average) and on the consumption of their relatives they may support. There's also the non-negligible aspect of bringing highly specialized knowledge and expertise back to their home country, which may increase the country's productivity by second order effects.

Finally, at least in the two European countries I'm familiar with, Switzerland and Germany, you'll still have to pay monthly premiums for the "free health care" until retirement age.