←back to thread

189 points orkohunter | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source
Show context
0xEF ◴[] No.42192236[source]
Being in the US, my career is unfortunately the center of my universe because I rely on having it to afford literally anything else. The system here is one build on dependency, and just like in any abusive relationship, they make it very, very hard for us to leave. Our lives are about our jobs, so things like healthcare and taxation are all inextricably ties to our employers. It's not long before you start to realize you are sort of stuck with this unless you have people elsewhere or want to roll the dice on an open visa for a year in a place like Albania, hoping that in that year you get set up enough to either stay or go somewhere else.

Debt is another factor. If you're born in the US, odds are you have accrued some debt, be it student loans, credit card, housing or auto loans, etc. this requires you to have a job offering a wage that can (barely) keep up with paying off said debt. Keep in mind debt is an industry here, so once you're in it, you're in it unless you are lucky enough to have been born into some level of moderate or higher wealth.

Oh, and income? Yeah, you need to know to how code to get a remote job with the flexibility to work anywhere in the world. Maybe you get lucky with a sales job, but for that you need to be bilingual. If you grew up in the US, you were not encouraged to pursue either of those skills until very recently. Couple that with your competition in a global job market is going to be a lot steeper that what you might find in a domestic market.

If we take a Moon-eye view of the US, it's almost as though a system has been created intentionally to keep people stuck there. Many of us would love nothing more than to experience the world beyond our borders, but by the time we are 30, we are so shackled by this system that it leaving for anything more than our allotted 2 weeks annual vacation seems like a crazy risk.

replies(2): >>42192267 #>>42192679 #
1. keiferski ◴[] No.42192679[source]
I think you have a lot of very false assumptions about the US and about the world.

1. You don’t need to know how to code to get a remote job. Plenty of jobs in marketing or support are remote. I’ve worked in many such jobs for the last decade (while abroad.)

2. It’s not as if people elsewhere just take vast amounts of time off work because they feel like it and aren’t dependent on healthcare from their job. Most people elsewhere are tied to their jobs because they have bills to pay, making them no different than anywhere else.

3. In terms of “good countries to emigrate FROM”, the US is probably the single best one, barring the ever-present income tax. Salaries are higher than basically anywhere, which makes saving easier. And the passport is stronger than most, making emigration and travel easier too. If one’s life plan were to earn a bunch of money then escape abroad to a cheap country, there is literally no better place to start than America. Maybe Singapore or Switzerland are close competitors, but they have far more institutional and cultural barriers to an average person acquiring wealth.