[TimPC]

Getting SF type pay in a place with rural US type cost of living makes it quite easy to afford decent health insurance and your own personal retirement savings. Not everyone can be a contractor, and there is a lot more planning and responsibility with managing the larger pool of money yourself and getting the key things you need, but saying it's very unattractive is extreme. In fact, I'd be more comfortable with funding my own retirement by setting aside money out of higher pay than hoping the government is in a financial position to make good on it. I've seen a lot of aggressive reductions of pensions in the past 10 years and for people taking lower pay to get those pensions over a lifetime of work it's been grossly unfair and life altering. At the same time they are nearly powerless to do anything about it, if it's your money it's a little more stable (assuming you don't have it in the bank of an unstable country that could seize it).

[jfaucett]

From my perspective "living in germany" it would be very unattractive unless I were to earn substantially large sums. I would never be eligible for german retirement, would have to purchase the more expensive private ensurance, and would lose a lot of what I've paid in until now. So that is what I would stand to lose.

I definately see how looking at from within the US this could be completely different, and there you make many valid points.

[walshemj]

So self employed people in Germany cannot set up their own company and pay the social security tax that way and build up an entitlement to benefits?

Would take me less than a week to do that in the UK for a PLC.

[jfaucett]

I think this would be possible, but then again it would also mean you the employee would have to setup your own company to be able to work remotely for another one, and although the UG cost only 1 euro to start, you need to set aside 25% of yearly earnings until obtaining the base 25k for ensuring your newly founded company (GmbH). So this means a lot of hastle for what? The remote companies would need to offer serious perks to get people to jump through all these loops.

[walshemj]

Move to the UK and set up a PLC here would be one solution - I did not realise that self employment was so hedged around with red tape in Germany.