[ceejayoz]

They are, but my health insurance premiums (which don't cover everything) went up to $3,600/month this year, and I've got two kids going to college soon.

I'll happily take substantially lower salaries for publicly funded healthcare and undergrad education.

[jm20]

The math simply never works out in favor of lower salaries/publicly funded healthcare for high paying US roles like software engineering. Even taking your (high, assuming family of 4) premiums and 0% employer contribution (very uncommon), that’s an additional $43k a year, pretax. US SWE salaries are double, sometimes triple international with absolute numbers at $50k+.

This doesn’t even factor in general higher tax brackets abroad

[fragmede]

The problem is you can't put a price on intangible things like being scared of a medical bill.

The premiums don't cover everything and if you (heaven forbid) get a curable form of cancer you're gonna be paying quite a bit out of pocket past the quoted $43k, and it's not just about the money, but dealing with the whole system as well. Getting claims denied and having to contest it, having a mystery bill hanging over your head. If you break an ankle, it might just be less hassle to buy the things you need off Amazon than deal with insurance.

Meanwhile you can complain about eg long wait times in, say, Sweden, but the total deductible per year there is approximately $100 and then you don't pay more than that. Getting a curable cancer just doesn't have the same implication there.

There's also other intangibles. Things like time off, infrastructure, social safety net, dating pool, culture, human rights, cost of living. inequality (good or bad). What's it worth in dollars to you for your daughter to be able to afford to buy a house someday when it also turns out she wants to be a painter when she grows up?

I'm not making any argument for or against a particular county. What I'm saying is, live where you want to live. Money isn't everything so make sure to read past the numbers on a spreadsheet.