[prottog]

I've lived in a few different countries and settled in the US. You're right about the pay in America, and it's at a scale beyond what most people (whether inside or outside of America) realize; take for example the state of Mississippi, who many Americans deride as being a "literal third world country", which actually turns out to have a comparable median disposable household income to an economic powerhouse like Germany.

> much of American life is getting much much worse

This sentiment is real and shared by many people, but keep in mind that many of the things that may be getting worse off in this country are becoming even worse in other countries. In fact, the easiest way to feel better about life here may be just to stop reading the news, in the same way that you're not plugged into the news cycle of, say, Denmark.

There's a lot to see in California and Texas outside of whichever cities you may have lived in, and a lot more to see in the rest of the US outside of those states. I invite you to explore more of it before writing it off.