[tedmiston]

Five things:

1. We are taxed on income heavily in the US.

2. Insurance is expensive here.

3. In the hubs, rent is very expensive.

Take-home pay after considering these three things is a lot less than you might think. And also:

4. Generalizing the salary of positions across the whole US is misleading. An average engineering job in the midwest or outside of a hub can pay half the salary of SF or NYC.

5. It really depends (1) where the company you're considering is based and (2) if it's a remote gig, whether they adjust your comp based on your location. One example of this is Buffer's extremely transparent salary calculator [1].

The holy grail is to geoarbitrage by getting paid by a company in a location that pays highly while living remotely somewhere the cost of living is much lower.

[1]: https://buffer.com/salary

[Veen]

> The holy grail is to geoarbitrage by getting paid by a company in a location that pays highly while living remotely somewhere the cost of living is much lower.

Yes. I work remotely for a US company, and live in Hungary. I'm British. It's a great arrangement. Hungary is a modern country but much less expensive than the U.K.

[wyclif]

I also work remotely for a US company, but live in the Philippines right now. It's quite inexpensive to live here on the US dollar. Now, the big difference between your situation and mine is that I'm in a developing country that is struggling to become modern in the sense you're referring to and that developers are accustomed to. So I pay a premium for fiber internet fast enough to enable remote work, and I'm healthy and don't need maintenance-level health care.

I wouldn't want to do this if my children were college age, if I were retirement age, or someone in my family had persistent health issues. But for right now, it's great. Especially for those who enjoy island hopping and beach bumming.

[Veen]

I think the infrastructure is a major reason to choose Eastern Europe. Internet speeds are actually better than they are in the U.K. I spent six weeks in Morocco last spring and it was a constant struggle to find consistent connectivity.

Healthcare is another reason: as a U.K. Citizen, I get free healthcare anyway, and that extends for most treatments to EU counties too. When I do have to pay for medical treatment, it's fast and low cost. I had to have a wisdom tooth removed and I was dealt with in a couple of hours at midnight on a weekend. Cost less than $150 including painkillers and antibiotics.

[wyclif]

Your comment about internet speed is interesting. Why do you think it's faster in Eastern Europe than in the UK?

[alimw]

> 1. We are taxed on income heavily in the US.

I was surprised at this so I looked it up. From the article [1] it looks as if income tax in the US is lower than in most of Europe. But yes, higher than Russia, Saudi Arabia or Mexico.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26327114

[Broken_Hippo]

To be fair, though, that tax includes the health care. At least in Norway, anyway, and many countries on the list.

And to me, it makes a huge difference. Some folks in the midwest pay about as much per month on health insurance as they do on rent: It isn't a minor expense. Even with employer-subsidized insurance, it is easily a few hundred per month, plus they have to pay the deductible before it kicks in. $5,000 after the monthly fee when you make 50k per year is quite the expectation. (the deductible is 10% of your income at that point).

[tedmiston]

There are a couple issues with that article.

1. "For each country, they calculated how much a high earner on a salary of $400,000..."

That number is way higher than programmer salaries. Most programmers are high earners but not that high.

2. It assumes a constant salary amount in any country, but this isn't reality.

If someone makes $250k as a programmer in the US, it might equate to $100k–125k in another country. US tax rates are tiered (see "Marginal Tax Rate" at [1]), so someone that makes $250k pays more than double the taxes of $125k.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_State...

[alimw]

If you scroll down a bit further, you should find that both your points are addressed in the second set of figures. US tax rates looking even lower there.

[tedmiston]

These percentages are misleading because they don't paint the full picture. Especially considering insurance and rent.

It's a very apples to oranges comparison.

[tropo]

Income tax varies quite a bit, and you have lots of control over it.

You can completely avoid state income tax: Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, Alaska...

You can chop down the federal income tax quite a bit. For example, you could have a dozen kids. For most software developers, that eliminates the income tax.

So, there you go. Zero income tax.