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You have 50 states, all with different laws, people, attitudes, climate.
We have 48 different countries, diffrent laws, people, attitudes, climate.
Some are deeply western and some are former USSR states, all in several development stages.
When a US citizen wants to move to Europe, most are not "free" to choose which country they want to live in.. they have to find a country that will accept them, and their qualifications. And, not every country suits that individual..
When growing up, studying and working ( and still do ) secretly wants to move to the US. Most because of watching US tv shows growing up.. getting caught up in the dream and brainwashed that "Merica" is great, and not realizing what amazing things Europe has to offer. The grass is greener.. right?
I live in Norway, this is taken from a 30 min walk up the mountain behind my house ( not me, nor my photo ) :
What I regard as superior, compared to the US, is the healtcare system, public services, publicly funded University, daycare system, welfare system. Its all designed around keeping the populace secure, so that they can work according to their abilities and contribute back to society!
In much of my discussions and reading on US forums, there are many that envy the European modell ( which is as diverse as the number of countries ) , but most US members HATE the idea of a welfare system. It seems like they are indoctrinated by the Right, that everybody that recives some help, are lazy, bums, and sees everything the state does as ineffective. And at the same time, just gleefully accepts that the private/public system in the US is twice as expensive and less effective compared to many European models.
I belive the public tuition is superior in much of Europe, based on own experience. When I spent 6 years, in University, I had friends going to the US, to TOP 5 universities ( for free ) getting straght A`s, when they where struggeling to get Bs or Cs here.. And, at the same time I met alot of exchange students from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, getting straight A`s here.. while struggeling to get Bs and Cs in their home country.
Getting out of University, I earned twice the median income in my country, and gave back 35-37% of that in taxes, so that other members of my country could recive healthcare, pensions, disability pay, "free university", as I did growing up.
In the last 3 years, I have had some health issues.. going to my doctor, 6-7 times each year and another physician 8 times a year, cost to me, $240 each year.
Two years ago I was hospitalised and monitored during the night, due to a accident at home. No cost!
I payed for everything through taxes.. and I dont have to worry about those things.
If I want to, I can spend more on private insurance, private doctors.. but you will not get 100% better service.. maybe 10-20%.
Cars are more expensive, gas is more expensive, homes are "affordable", food is expensive.. but still most people can save up for things, have 5 weeks "paid" vacations each year, can choose to eat healty, travels around the world.
Workers rights.. lets not go there. Way way WAY superior!! Its great, belive me. Workers are winning, belive me!
( Just had to quote Trump )
Don't judge the US by the nutjobs on forums like...um....well, you know. If so many Americans were against welfare and public services, there wouldn't be threads here on how to move to Europe, posted by desperate people.
You can't really compare Norway to the US, as Norway (I assume) has the highest level of "free stuff" (haha) and services/welfare, due to its wealth. I think it's more relevant to compare other countries with the US. And it's important, when doing so, to note that what enables those welfare/free university/free healthcare systems is a high taxation rate. Also, European countries aren't funding wars around the world. But even if you remove the wars from the equation, the level of taxation in most European countries wouldn't be acceptable in the US, even to liberal people. Yes, the Right has had an influence over attitudes toward taxation, but the non-Right (I refuse to call it "the Left" due to potential association with extreme parties) is for restoring the tax levels before Bush II, and before Reagan, when the country at least had enough money to maintain and improve infrastructure, provide more college scholarships and grants to students, to fund science research and developments, and to provide a better level of funding for people who are out of work, and for food for their children.
Even so, that prior level of taxation was low compared to Europe, so in general, we didn't have free university studies, with the exception of California, where some of the nation's top universities were free, and certainly the community colleges as well were free. Reagan (who was governor of CA before he was President) put an end to that, in order to, according to him, eliminate "Communist infiltration" of the university student body. (It was the Vietnam War era, and there were many protests at the main universities, and he felt this was due to "outside agitators" registering as students for free). Then later, there was a tax revolt in the state, so the universities were cut off from state support after that.
The attitude among conservatives in the US toward taxation has always been: the more money you give the government, the more they'll waste", so it's best to limit taxes to a bare-bones level. That's been taken to extremes since Bush II. Trump now wants to apply the same type of austerity measures on the US as the World Bank requires from Third World countries: privatizing public services and Social Security benefits. It has come to this!
And it's important, when doing so, to note that what enables those welfare/free university/free healthcare systems is a high taxation rate. Also, European countries aren't funding wars around the world. But even if you remove the wars from the equation, the level of taxation in most European countries wouldn't be acceptable in the US, even to liberal people.
Yet, corporations like Apple and Google who can afford expensive tax consultants use the low taxation in the Netherlands, the UK, and Ireland to avoid to high US tax burden. Europe has countries with a 10% flat tax income rate, far lower than the US income tax rates. Yet Europeans and Americans mostly choose to live and do business in their own country instead of moving to the low taxation countries. It isn't all about taxation, and the US rates are still higher anyway than those in the 'high tax countries' in Europe when considering health care and education costs.
Don't judge the US by the nutjobs on forums like...um....well, you know. If so many Americans were against welfare and public services, there wouldn't be threads here on how to move to Europe, posted by desperate people.
....
The attitude among conservatives in the US toward taxation has always been: the more money you give the government, the more they'll waste", so it's best to limit taxes to a bare-bones level. That's been taken to extremes since Bush II. Trump now wants to apply the same type of austerity measures on the US as the World Bank requires from Third World countries: privatizing public services and Social Security benefits. It has come to this!
It is not wrong what you wrote, of course there are Americans who are in favor of a welfare state and who would prefer a European way of government. But that is NOT the majority, I am pretty sure.
Overall - migration from Europe to US is MUCH higher than migration in the other direction. Why is that? Cannot only be because so many Europeans have misconceptions about living in the US. I know many Germans who moved to America and are happy as it is.
Majority of the Americans seem to have voted for lower taxes and not for overburdened welfare state. Would have been interesting to see a race between Sanders and Trump though.
Norway... well. So few people, so much oil money. Not representative for the world, or an industrial country or community with 300M+ people.
What about dmarko's post? I think we should all move to Norway.
No we shouldn't)))) Norway is for Norwegians ( and other Scandinavians) I believe)))
Quote:
Snakker du Norsk?
No I don't and never will)))) Thanks to MagnusPetersson here I've learned that Norwegian/Swedish languages are "tonal" (like Chinese,) so this solved the mystery why I could never pronounce anything in those languages))))
Majority of the Americans seem to have voted for lower taxes and not for overburdened welfare state. Would have been interesting to see a race between Sanders and Trump though.
.
No, the majority of Americans did not vote for that. I'll keep it brief, to not take the thread off-topic, but only a little over 1/2 of the electorate voted, and of those, over half voted for Clinton. So much for theories about what or whom Americans voted for. I won't get into the hundreds of thousands who were turned away from the polling places due to lack of "proper" voter ID (not allowed as a requirement until a recent Supreme Ct. decision) and other shenanigans.
No we shouldn't)))) Norway is for Norwegians ( and other Scandinavians) I believe)))
No I don't and never will)))) Thanks to MagnusPetersson here I've learned that Norwegian/Swedish languages are "tonal" (like Chinese,) so this solved the mystery why I could never pronounce anything in those languages))))
it's not tonal "like Chinese". Chinese tones carry meaning, Scandinavian ones don't. It's more like the Irish "lilt", as it's called.
Yes, I know Norwegians are different but.... *sigh* Oh well. You're right, now that I think about it.
Location: In a rural place where people can't bother me ;)
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Holy cow this thread blew up 😵😬. We aren't fluent in any foreign languages. Like I've said before, we're just researching now. There is at least 10-15 years ahead of us before anything happens. I really appreciate all the positive feedback. Thank you.
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But even if you remove the wars from the equation, the level of taxation in most European countries wouldn't be acceptable in the US, even to liberal people. Yes, the Right has had an influence over attitudes toward taxation, but the non-Right (I refuse to call it "the Left" due to potential association with extreme parties) is for restoring the tax levels before Bush II, and before Reagan, when the country at least had enough money to maintain and improve infrastructure, provide more college scholarships and grants to students, to fund science research and developments, and to provide a better level of funding for people who are out of work, and for food for their children.
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Norway is for Norwegians ( and other Scandinavians) I believe))) 
