I'm personally better off. Not sure that would be the case for you or others.
Re: food- Fresh produce in the PNW is incomparable imo. Never had anything like it in the world. In the UK I was largely limited to Sainsbury's etc., which have pretty poor quality food and produce.
Here in the PNW the variety (and quality) far exceeds what was available to me in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Greater London (not sure about other parts of the country).
It's a very pleasant luxury to not be limited to supermarkets.
Increased risk, increased reward. And if I'm fired, laid off, or deported, worst case I just go back to the UK having already earned hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I would have in the UK.
I don't think there's any debate that software engineers are paid much more on average in the US, or that the number of highly paid jobs is much greater in the US.
Even at within the same firm, for the same job, it seems like UK engineers are usually paid much less than US ones.
For now. I know someone who was "doing waaay better in the US", took 3 weeks of leave and came back to a huge series of lay offs, market saturation, unemployment with no healthcare then his visa renewal was declined. So he had to spend his last wedge of cash getting back to the UK...
Took a position with 2/3 of the US salary but actual tangible security.
Conversely one of my children has a complex medical condition which would have bankrupted me several times over in the US. And the service has been second to none.
Re: food- Fresh produce in the PNW is incomparable imo. Never had anything like it in the world. In the UK I was largely limited to Sainsbury's etc., which have pretty poor quality food and produce.
Here in the PNW the variety (and quality) far exceeds what was available to me in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Greater London (not sure about other parts of the country).
It's a very pleasant luxury to not be limited to supermarkets.