[poulsbohemian]

>Canadian salaries are pretty awful,

Y'know, for years I heard this same basic story about everywhere in Europe too, IE: the money is no good. As I age though... money really isn't everything... if you can make enough to pay your bills and have a quality life, I'd take that over the rat race of the US. When the kids are raised here, my partner and I aren't likely to stick around, so I am watching this thread with great interest as well. And hoping all of you fleeing places of persecution make it safely to better places.

[nucleardog]

Even if money is everything, you really need to look at the whole picture. Unless you're looking at spending your money back in the US, then you need to look at what it buys you locally and whether it can buy you the same quality of life.

Some quick math and random internet sources, and moving from Vancouver to Silicon Valley would net me about a 40% haircut just on the increased cost of living.

I currently pay taxes on par with California. (Just looking at state/provincial+federal. No FICA/CPP/etc.)

Locally, we have offices for Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Hootsuite, Slack, Salesforce, Disney, Samsung, SAP, Sony, Oracle, MasterCard, Activision, Capcom, etc, etc. Lots of options.

Looking at some average salaries in Silicon Valley, it'd pretty much be a wash on the increased pay versus the increased expenses. And I have no doubt if I dig around I can tip that more in my favour. For instance, I visited an emergency room once this year and my wife had a difficult delivery when our daughter was born. I'm currently down about $100 on an ambulance ride, parking at the women & children's hospital, and coffee while I was living at the hospital. I have no doubt that could have easily eaten up the difference even with insurance.

And I certainly wouldn't put the quality of life in Canada as worse than the US.