[kamaal]

I can imagine how hard it must be for you. Most of us have these stories.

But sir, If you have been out of India for ~15 years now, you are now totally out of touch about ground realities in India. Also it takes far more to get decent health care and housing in US than it takes in India. Apart from this you have the added advantage of a social circle in India in case of death, disease and debt which is totally absent in US.

In most US coastal cities(Only places where can make a decent career) rents are high, and affording a home is basically 2-3 decade venture. And after all that you still have to struggle for your retirement fund and health care during old age.

India has a lot of vacuum as a developing economy for both investments and a long term career.

Also this whole corruption issue is sometimes overplayed. The last time I dealt with a government office for anything was passport office where no bribes were paid, not even to the police who came for verification.

Political, economic and social climate in India is undergoing huge upgrades every decade and anybody who stays abroad for 10+ years essentially would have lost all context about things back home.

[tw04]

The US coastal cities are the only place you can make a decent career? As someone who doesn't live in a coastal city, and makes a very, very good living, I find that hilariously inaccurate. If I look at the list of fortune 500 companies with a large presence in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Minneapolis, I'd say you're about as wrong as could possibly be. Unless by "decent living" you mean "startup valued at billions of dollars".

[kamaal]

Largely depends on what you work on. I have relatives from India who are doctors who stay in non-coastal cities and make a decent living. Unfortunately if you have to make it big money wise you have to ultimately play the start up game, where the biggest center in the world today is the Bay Area.

Also as some one who has lived both in Bangalore and Bay Area, I know well to understand cities matter in the sense if you are in the middle of all the action chances of progress and growth are higher. Or your long term competitiveness and career will likely suffer.

Sure some hipster culture exists in the Bay Area, but for all of it. There is a lot of good work in Bay Area, and I think if you are in tech and are an immigrant you must absolute stay there.

[realz]

I speak to my friends and family in India on a daily basis, I also visit India almost every year and I stand by every word I wrote above. If you think life in India is up to the standard of living of any other developed country, then you need to educate yourself.

[kamaal]

Never did I say things in India have are better than US. But things have so drastically improved incentives to go foreign lands are lesser.

India has grown by leaps and bounds. Opportunities compared to what was 15-20 years back aren't even comparable now. Unless you come and live here, you wouldn't have a clue. Calling and talking to relatives won't give you a good idea. They think you are living in heaven, this perspective exists because NRI's send pictures of vacations and their cars and people in India think its all coming either for free or through magic.

I have faced this issue too. People think all they have to do is land in US and pretty much all their issues are solved without doing anything at all. Most people staying in India haven't a clue about life in US. They have never heard about how expensive higher education is, or health care for that matter. They do not realize what it takes to have a mortgage in a place like Bay Area. They haven't heard of minimum wage. They don't know how strict tax laws are. They don't even know how few options their kids have in life if they don't get into STEM branches. This along with harshness of what can happen to your dependents should something happen to your life. Without a strong social circle all these things are hard and set back life for dependents.

Most people, aspiring to come to US are thinking on the lines of Disneyland and Yosemite. And at best the US 101 freeway.

Plus I see this whole thing among NRI's about wishing bad things to happen to India and overplay things about conditions in India to make their own decisions look good. Its sad.

I have lived in US and India. Things are just going full hyper in India. Things might not be same as US, but its no longer the binary 1 or 0 it used to be in the pre-2003/90's era.

[geodel]

Things have improved (drastically?) only for a sliver of population. I talk to so many of my relatives and apart from some already well-off, working in high-tech industry most of them are way worse in term of living standard than they were 15-20 years back. Everything is so much expensive when compared to their rupee income.

Things can become violent at any time even in big cities. Just look at Bengaluru etc situation now due to Cauvery issue. It has already caused Rs 22000 crore worth of loss.

[kamaal]

>>Things have improved (drastically?) only for a sliver of population. I talk to so many of my relatives and apart from some already well-off, working in high-tech industry most of them are way worse in term of living standard than they were 15-20 years back.

Same in US too right?

Its not like everyone works at Wall Street and drives Rolls Royce. You don't hear about these things in US simply because you haven't set up a family big enough there. Whoever is in US would have generally come on tech work or Medical degree, which are paid well in the US. Other people especially in Non-STEM branches, are basically the equivalent of people you talk about it in India. And please don't even have me start on inequality in the US.

And small businesses in US are not like in India. So most of that population in US works at Warehouses and Walmart sort of places.

>>Everything is so much expensive when compared to their rupee income.

Food is relatively expensive in India(Based on inflation figures). Otherwise higher education is far more expensive in US and student debt takes a good few years to climb out of. Housing in any major US city is a 2 decade mortgage undertaking. And retirement with health care(even other wise) is very expensive in the US.

>>Things can become violent at any time even in big cities. Just look at Bengaluru etc situation now due to Cauvery issue. It has already caused Rs 22000 crore worth of loss.

And you talk of Law and order situation, shooting incidents at schools in US are everyday news these days.

Things are no more the binary they used to be.

[bruceb]

"no bribes were paid, not even to the police who came for verification"

But there are the daily annoyances like even having to have the police come to verify you live somewhere. Having to get X, Y, Z documents and then waiting for them to get stamped for basic services.

On the other hand transferring money to other person's bank account is actually easier and cheaper than in the US.

[kamaal]

Procedures regarding legal work are same in every country and equally expensive. Especially if your work is some how related to government or its security.

If anything these checks are harsher in other countries than in India.